Pumpkin Bread with Cream Cheese Swirl

I would just like to say: Happy Fall. It's finally here-my favorite time of the year! I love everything about it. Crisp weather, sweaters, the colors, holidays, and my (seriously) favorite part: pumpkin flavored EVERYTHING. Hopefully this will just be the first of many entries focusing on this most delightful flavor.

I have adapted this recipe from joyofbaking.com, which is a really great website: easy to navigate, clear directions and descriptions, no extra frou frou. I just tweaked it a little bit, since I've made this recipe 5 or 6 times and have figured out what I really like (ie, I don't like nuts getting in the way of my pumpkin, but I do like extra cinnamon). I also do a swirl of cream cheese instead of a middle layer. Also, I finally got to utilize this precious mini-loaf pans that my mom bought me. They're from Michael's and are in wonderful fall colors, perfect for (you guessed it) pumpkin!

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

For cream cheese swirl:

8 ounce package cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup granulated white sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 tablespoons all purpose flour

For pumpkin bread:

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

4 large eggs

2 cups sugar

1 cup/2 sticks unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 - 15 ounce can pure pumpkin

1/2 cup milk

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350. Melt butter and set aside. Lay out cream cheese so that it will reach room temperature.

2. (For the bread) Mix together first 6 (dry) ingredients in one large bowl. Set aside.

3. In a separate large bowl, lightly whisk eggs, add sugar and butter, and cream together. Add pumpkin, milk, and vanilla. Mix well.

4. Slowly add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, just until incorporated. Don't overmix.

5. (For the cream cheese swirl) In a food processor, cream the cream cheese (a little redundant, no?), add in sugar, then eggs one at a time. Add in flower and mix just until incorporated.

6. In 7 greased mini pans, or 2 greased large loaf pans, add in 1/2 of pumpkin mixture to the bottom of the pans. Pour cream cheese mixture over the bottom half. Take the second 1/2 of pumpkin mixture, and add to the top of the cream cheese mixture. With a fork, swirl slightly.

7. Bake for 30 minutes for mini loaf pans, or 50-60 minutes for large loaf pans. Remove when inserted toothpick comes out clean.