‘Tis the season for pumpkin!

I’ve been searching for the “perfect” pumpkin bread recipe, and this recipe was the winner. I got the recipe from allrecipess.com but made a few changes because I was missing a couple ingredients.   This recipe is a must try, it turned out amazing!!! Delicious, delicious, delicious.

I have to admit while I was putting it all together, I was a little nervous. The recipe asks you to place half the pumpkin batter in the loaf pan, followed by a layer of cream cheese filling, and then the remainder of the pumpkin batter.  The batter was so heavy that it fell in to the cream cheese filling…but somehow, some magic must have happened in the oven and it turned out perfectly.  Did I mention that it was delicious?

Let me know how it goes if you try it! I hope you enjoy as much as we did.

Ingredients:

Cream cheese filling: 

– 1 (8 ounce) package reduced fat cream cheese
– 1/2 cup white sugar
– 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
– 1 egg
– 1/2 teaspoon vanilla (original recipe called for  1 tbsp orange zest)

Pumpkin batter: 

– 1 2/3 cups all purpose flour
– 1 teaspoon baking soda
– 1/2 teaspoon salt
– 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (original recipe called for 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 tsp ground gloves)
– 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
– 1 cup pumpkin puree
– 1/2 cup vegetable oil
– 2 eggs
– 1/2 cup brown sugar
– 1  cups white sugar (original recipe called for 1 1/2 cup white sugar and no brown sugar)

Instructions: 

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly grease (with PAM) two 8×4 inch loaf pans. ( I apparently can’t read and only used 1 loaf pan…oops! I just made one GIANT loaf instead of two)
2. In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon flour, 1 egg and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla; beat until smooth. Set aside.
   
3.  Sift together 1 2/3 cup flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves and pumpkin pie spice; set aside
4. Place pumpkin, vegetable oil, 2 eggs and 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 cup sugar in a large bowl; beat well.
   
5. Stir the flour mixture in to the pumpkin mixture, just until well combined.
   
6. Pour 1/2 of the pumpkin batter into the loaf pans. Spoon cream cheese mixture on top of this layer and then pour the remaining pumpkin batter on top.
7. Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 70 minutes (mine took about 80 minutes since I made one giant one), or until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Cool bread in pans for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.