Berry Cream Cheese Muffins with Sweet Berry Drizzle

I found this recipe on the Picky Palate food blog, and since I love berry muffins I bookmarked this recipe. Her recipe was adapted from Better Homes and Gardens, November 1997 recipe, and I changed the recipe up a bit for the ingredients I had on hand. This is so YUMMY! I’m not a batter licker, but I confess, I licked the bowl. I used a good quality frozen berry in lieu of fresh, and you couldn’t tell the difference. -s, who doesn’t really like berry muffins, really liked these, and of course it was kid friendly.
Ingredients:

Berries:

• 10 oz fresh or frozen berries (if using frozen, make sure they are good quality whole berries and not the kind that has sugar syrup). I used frozen blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries
• 2 Tablespoons sugar

Batter:

• 1 stick softened butter
• 8 oz softened cream cheese
• 1 Cup sugar
• 1 Tablespoon lemon zest
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 3/4 Cup all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 Cup heavy cream

Berry Drizzle:

• Heaping ¼ Cup powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon milk

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place berries and sugar in a large bowl. Stir to combine so that berries are coated in sugar. Set aside.
2. In a stand or electric mixer cream the butter, cream cheese, sugar and lemon zest until well combined. Slowly beat in the eggs and vanilla until combined.
3. Place the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a large bowl. With mixer on low, add half the flour, then half cream, then remaining flour, then remaining cream until just combined.
4. Fill 6 extra large muffins tins or 24 regular size tins with muffin batter (I actually got 14 muffins from a regular muffin tin, although they were very good sized ones), about ¾ full, that has been greased or sprayed with cooking spray. Press 4-6 (or more depending on your berry size) berries into tops of each unbaked muffin. Bake for 23-28 minutes or until golden brown on top and cooked through. Remove and let cool.
5. In the same bowl as berries were in, place powdered sugar and milk. Whisk until smooth and drizzling consistency; should be a light pink color from the berry juice. Drizzle over top muffins and enjoy!

Berry Cream Cheese Muffins with Sweet Berry Drizzle: