Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread
Why I Love This Recipe
I found this recipe on Nancy Creative!
It's not Autumn if it doesn't include pumpkin! I'm proud of myself making this bread because it turned out great and I'm not a very good baker! I made this for my friend, Sherry (gratefulservant) Autumn contest and I'm sure glad I did! Nice and creamy on the inside with the cream cheese mixture swirled thru the pumpkin and little chopped pecans throughout! The top was nice with a little crunch and drizzled glaze topped with pecans! I could of eaten this without the glaze, that is how good it was! Next time I may just sprinkle the top with some plain sugar as it bakes and I bet it would be perfect!
I couldn't find a can of pumpkin that said "pumpkin puree" so I texted a friend and asked her and she said to get the can that said, 100% pumpkin and that is what I got!
Ingredients You'll Need
CREAM CHEESE FILLING
1 package (8 ounce) cream cheese, softened
1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar, for a sweeter filling, use 3/4 cup (I used 3/4 cup)
1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
BREAD
1 & 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves (I used pumpkin pie spice because I don't like cloves)
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
1 to 1¼ cup pumpkin puree, canned or homemade (using a little more pumpkin puree will make the bread extra moist)
½ cup canola oil or olive oil
2 large eggs
1½ cups sugar
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
CINNAMON GLAZE
1 cup powdered sugar
2 to 2½ Tablespoons half & half
½ to 1 teaspoon cinnamon (start with ½ teaspoon, that may be enough for you)
½ cup chopped pecans or walnuts for garnish
Directions
Preheat oven to 325°. Grease and flour two 8 x 4 x 3-inch loaf pans. I sprayed my pans and coated it with sugar and not flour.
In a medium mixing bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar, flour, egg, and vanilla; beat until smooth and creamy. Set aside.
In a large bowl, blend 1&2/3 cups flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg; set aside.
In another medium bowl, combine the pumpkin puree, canola oil, eggs and sugar; beat well. Stir the pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture just until combined. Fold in the chopped pecans or walnuts.
Pour half of the pumpkin bread batter evenly into the two prepared loaf pans. Spoon cream cheese mixture on top of the pumpkin batter layers in each loaf pan and then spoon or pour on the remaining pumpkin batter (if you don’t have enough pumpkin batter to cover the cream cheese layer entirely, that’s okay, because you’ll be swirling them together anyway). Take a knife and stick straight down into the top pumpkin batter layer and middle cream cheese layer; swirl the knife around in these two layers, creating a marble effect; this will give the cream cheese filling a nice swirly shape as it bakes.
Bake in a preheated 325° oven for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center of the loaf comes out clean.
Cool bread in pans for 10 minutes; remove to a rack to cool completely.
While waiting for the bread to cool, mix your cinnamon glaze: combine powdered sugar and half & half, blending well; then add cinnamon and mix until smooth and creamy. Note: the cinnamon makes this glaze darker in color, so if you want a lighter, creamy color glaze, just add a dash of cinnamon to the mixture. Drizzle over completely cooled bread loaves and then sprinkle on nuts for garnish.
