Three Berry Muffins

This recipe comes from my friend Kelly who made these for a pre-school coffee hour (and brought them in still warm!) She tells me that she's adapted this from a recipe that was called something like "Huckleberry Coffee Cake". She's added a combination of berries and muffinized the batter. I bet this would be superb baked in a Bundt pan, too. Oh, and to give credit where credit is due (legally!) the original recipe came from the Cooking Light Five Star Recipe Book.

These are very tasty and remind me of the giant Three Berry Muffins I used to get from the University Food Market up by Columbia. Ah, that just brings me back to those halcyon days of college where staying up late, drinking beer from pitchers and sleeping until noon were de rigeur. And giant muffins were seen as health food! But I digress . . .

Three-Berry Muffins

Ingredients:
1 8 ounce package non-fat cream cheese, softened *
1 stick butter, softened
1 ½ cups sugar
2 eggs
¼ cup milk (optional – I add this when I’m using frozen berries so that the batter is not too stiff)
1 1/2 cups white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsps. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
2 tsps. vanilla extract
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 cups frozen (or fresh) berries – any combination of blueberries, raspberries & blackberries.

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 350* and put paper cups in your muffin tins.
2. Beat cream cheese and butter until creamy; add sugar and eggs. Add ¼ cup or so of milk if using frozen berries so that batter is not too stiff.
3. Combine flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon; stir into cream cheese mixture. Add vanilla, and fold in berries.
4. Top with a mixture of wheat germ mixed with equal amount of brown sugar.
5. Pour into about 24 lined muffin tins, and bake for about 25 - 30 minutes.

* I used the non-fat variety of cream cheese even though I think it's akin to putting a brick of toxic waste in your food. (What exactly ARE Sodium Tripolyphosphate, Potassium Sorbate, Calcium Propionate and Sodium Phosphate (ingredients not found in regular cream cheese) and can they possibly be good for you in any way, shape or form?)

UPDATE, 6/15/2008:  Not having cream cheese handy this morning, I substituted 5 oz. of thick, non-fat yogurt ("Fage" brand, FYI).  While it doesn't lend quite the same richness to the batter that cream cheese does, there isn't much difference in flavor at all.  It seemed a completely acceptable substitute.