Cheesecake Swirl Pumpkin Bread

Oh. Em. Gee.

I will never make plain old boring pumpkin bread again.

Today, I reached a new level of deliciousness in making pumpkin bread.  I used my normal pumpkin pie spiced pumpkin bread recipe, but I turned it up a notch by swirling a delicious cream cheese swirl throughout the middle before I baked it.  It was like a pumpkin bar in bread form.  It was like… dangerously yummy.

One of the best tips I can offer for making this, or any kind of sweet bread for that matter, is not to use a loaf pan.  Instead, I almost always use an angel food cake pan.  Loaf pans can have a tendency to make batter hard to cook evenly throughout, often burnt or very dark on the top, and underdone in the middle.  I have never had this issue with an angel food cake pan, and always use them when I make any kind of sweet bread or pound cake.

It’s prettier too.

Ingredients

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 egg
1/3 cup water

Directions

Blend cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar, and 1 beaten egg. Set aside.

Combine flour, 1 1/2 cups white sugar, baking soda, salt, and spices. Set aside.

Combine pumpkin, butter or margarine, egg, and water. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture, mixing just until moistened. Reserve 2 cups of the pumpkin batter. Pour the remaining batter into a greased and floured angel food cake pan. Pour cream cheese mixture over pumpkin batter, and top with reserved pumpkin batter. Cut through batter several times with a knife for a swirl effect.

4.Bake at 350 degrees F for 60 minutes or until tester comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, and then remove from pan to cool completely.