I didn't bother with the crusts. Crust in the middle of a cupcake feels like a waste to me.
I also made pumpkin muffins with cream cheese filling. I messed with the recipe and came up with this:
(Ingredients are listed in the order used. I pretty much just mixed them in the mixer)
8 oz pumpkin puree
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup barley malt
(This was my contribution, the original recipe called for boiled cider or dark corn syrup. Any dark thick sweet syrupy substance would probably work, like molasses)
1/3 cup skim milk
3 eggs
2 teaspoons (to 1 tablespoon to taste) of pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 cups flour
preheat oven to 350.
You'll notice that there's no added fat in the recipe. That's fine. The pumpkin is plenty moist, the barley malt is moist, and the eggs have fat in them.
Mix the pumpkin with the sugar. Add the barley malt and mix. Add the milk, mix. Add the eggs one at a time. Add the spice, salt, and powders, mix.
Mix the flour in carefully, so as not to make a mess, I did it in 3 batches.
Cream cheese filling (optional)
1/2 package cream cheese, microwaved for 30 seconds or so
1/4 cup sugar
Grease a muffin pan, or use cupcake papers, or both, I guess. Drop a heaping tablespoonful of batter into the well/paper. Drop a scant teaspoon of filling carefully on top. Cover with more batter (skip the fussy measuring if you're skipping the filling). Bake for 18-20 minutes, until they look good and solid on the top.
These are fantastic warm. I made mine in my fancy new pumpkin muffin pan. Here they are, posing in front of my pan of tiny pumpkin pie fillings:
