Baking season is here! And this time in early fall means all things apple and pumpkin. Is there anything better than home-baked pumpkin bread on a chilly fall morning? Um, yes. And it’s this Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread.
Think warmly spiced pumpkin bread with an added creamy, tangy topping, finished with toasted pumpkin seeds. So freaking good.
What’s in this Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread
This bread has all the deliciously seasonal spices of fall, with just a few extra touches to make it really special. Here is what you’ll need:
- Canned pumpkin
- All-purpose or gluten-free flour
- Sugar
- Eggs
- Unsalted butter
- Cream cheese
- Pepitas
- Ground cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves
What are pepitas?
Pepitas are a type of pumpkin seed that does not have to be roasted before eating. You can find them in most supermarkets, usually lightly salted. They have a light, crunchy texture that’s a nice change from nuts.
If you can’t locate pepitas, try grabbing sprouted pumpkin seeds. They’re light and crunchy too. Just make sure they’re salted.
For variation in texture, try crushing some pepitas and leaving others whole before you sprinkle them on top of this Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread.
How to make Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread
Making this bread is super simple. Just combine all of the wet ingredients in one bowl and all of the dry ingredients in the other. Then combine the two bowls.
To make the cream cheese swirl, dot the cream cheese on the top of half of the bread batter once it’s in the loaf pan. Then, swirl it through the bread. Layer the other half of bread batter on top, and give it another swirl just for good measure.
So let’s get baking season started! When you make this Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread, I’d love to hear about it. Drop a rating or leave a comment below. Enjoy!
For more fall baking recipes, try these:
- Apple Butter Cranberry Muffins with Streusel Topping
- Double Cinnamon Scones with Maple Glaze
- Apple Cinnamon Swirl Coffee Cake
For more pumpkin recipes, try these:
- Bakery Style Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Pumpkin Pecan Ice Cream Pie
- Quick Pumpkin Spice Bread Recipe
Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 stick unsalted butter room temperature
- 2 eggs
- 1 14 oz. can pumpkin puree
- 8 oz. cream cheese
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp. ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1 cup pepitas half crushed, half left whole
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the eggs and pumpkin puree.
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda and spices.
- Beat the flour mixture into the wet ingredients. Pour half of the batter into a prepared loaf pan (coated with nonstick cooking spray or lined with parchment paper).
- Microwave the cream cheese in 20 second intervals until smooth and looser in consistency. Dot spoonfuls of cream cheese over the batter. Use a knife to swirl the cream cheese through the batter. Top with the remaining batter and swirl again.
- Sprinkle the top of the bread evenly with pepitas. Bake 1 hour 10 minutes. Cool completely before turning out of the pan.
How many eggs???
2 🙂
Absolutely incredible- the toppings made this bread. I call it fall bread! Amazing