Description
This pumpkin cream cheese bread is incredibly moist with a tangy cream cheese swirl throughout. The perfect balance of warm fall spices and creamy richness makes this loaf irresistible for breakfast or dessert.
Ingredients
For the pumpkin bread:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup vegetable or avocado oil
2 large eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the cream cheese swirl:
8 oz cream cheese, cold
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan and line with parchment paper.
2. Make cream cheese filling. Cut cold cream cheese into small cubes. In a bowl, mash together cream cheese cubes, sugar, egg yolk, and vanilla until mostly smooth but still chunky. Set aside.
3. Mix dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and all spices.
4. Combine wet ingredients. In another bowl, whisk together pumpkin puree, both sugars, oil, eggs, milk, and vanilla until smooth.
5. Make the batter. Pour wet ingredients into dry and fold together gently until just combined. Don’t overmix.
6. Layer in the pan. Pour half the pumpkin batter into prepared loaf pan. Spoon cream cheese mixture over the batter in dollops. Top with remaining pumpkin batter.
7. Create the swirl. Use a knife to gently swirl the top layer, creating a marbled pattern. Don’t go too deep or you’ll mix everything together.
8. Bake. Bake for 55-65 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the pumpkin part comes out with just a few moist crumbs.
9. Cool completely. Let cool in pan for 15 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack. Cool completely before slicing.
Notes
Keep cream cheese cold until you’re ready to use it—this prevents it from melting into the batter.
Don’t overmix the pumpkin batter or you’ll get tough, dense bread.
Store in refrigerator up to 5 days due to cream cheese content.
Freezes well for up to 3 months wrapped tightly.
Use pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling which has added spices and sugar.
The cream cheese layer might look slightly underdone when you test with a toothpick—that’s normal.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 55 minutes
- Category: Dessert, Breakfast
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 285
- Sugar: 20g
- Sodium: 220mg
- Fat: 12g
- Saturated Fat: 6g
- Unsaturated Fat: 5g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 38g
- Fiber: 2g
- Protein: 6g
- Cholesterol: 65mg