Two posts back, I shared my late summer favorite galettes and also said I’m so not ready for fall. Well, as the weather cools down and Seattle is now back to its grey rainy days, I started to crave all the warm spices and pumpkin stuff.
The other day I was at a new coffee shop and spotted they had a harvest bread that’s like a pumpkin bread with some pumpkin seeds on top and looked seriously good. Usually I don’t like to buy sweets from a coffee shop, unless they have a trustworthy vendor. I have wasted way too much money on overly sweet & oily desserts and stale pasties from disappointed coffee shops that I made a rule to myself – if the thing I want to buy is not too complicated to make and I have the time, I’ll just bake it myself.
So after 10 seconds of internal struggling, I decided it’s time for me to bake with pumpkin this year. That day I happened to received my Bake From Scratch Magazine subscription fall issue, and of course they have a whole chapter about pumpkin. As I was glancing through the recipes, the Pumpkin Spice Bread with Cream Cheese Swirl caught my eyes.
In case you don’t know, cream cheese and pumpkin flavored cake is a match made in heaven. And I don’t know why you westerns called what-basically-is-a-loaf-cake bread. Banana bread and pumpkin bread really are just cakes. Maybe we can feel better eating cakes for breakfast?
Anyways, I decided to give Pumpkin Spice Bread with Cream Cheese Swirl a try. And I don’t regret making this as my first pumpkin dessert this year at all. I don’t have a lot to say about the recipe because it’s so easy that it’s hard to mess it up. I love the fact it used only 1/4 cup of oil but 140g greek yogurt (Read: less guilt and more acceptable to eat it as breakfast!). But the bread is wonderfully soft, tender and moist. Thanks to pumpkin and greek yogurt. The cream cheese filling is of course delicious, but I happily munched the two end pieces without the filling. That’s how good it is.
I think this Pumpkin Spice Bread with Cream Cheese Swirl makes fall off to a great start. In two weeks I’ll be back to China for almost 2 months with little croissant. I’m excited but also sad that I have to leave my ovens for so long. When I come back, it’s right before Thanksgiving. Hopefully that means more pumpkin desserts before 2019 ends. Happy pumpkin baking my loves!🧡
Pumpkin Spice Bread With Cream Cheese Swirl Recipe Report
Yield: 1 Loaf
Author: HerBakingLab
Recipe from Bake From Scratch Magazine
MATERIALS:
1. 1 1/3 cups (167g) all-purpose flour
2. 1 tbsp (6g) pumpkin spice
3. 2 tsp (10g) baking powder
4. 3/4 tsp (2g) kosher salt
5. 1/2 tsp (3g) baking soda
6. 1 cup (244g) canned pumpkin
7. 3/4 cup (165g) firmly packed dark brown sugar
8. 1/2 cup (120g) plain Greek yogurt
9. 2 large eggs
10. 1/4 cup (56g) vegetable oil
11. 2 tsp (8g) vanilla extract
Cream Cheese Swirl
1. 3 ounces (86g) cream cheese, softened
2. 3 tbsp (36g) granulated sugar
3. 1 large egg yolk
4. 1 tbsp (8g) all-purpose flour
5. 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
PROCEDURE:
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a loaf pan.
2. To make the cream cheese swirl – in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat cream cheese and sugar at medium speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add egg yolk and flour and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes. Beat in vanilla.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, pumpkin spice, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. In a medium bowl, whisk together pumpkin, brown sugar, yogurt, eggs, oil and vanilla. Add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture, and fold until well combined.
4. Pour half of batter into prepared pan; create a well with the back of a spoon. Add cream cheese swirl, leaving a 1/4 inch border around edges of pan. Top with remaining batter, smoothing top.
5. Bake until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 1 hour 5 minutes to 1 hour 10 minutes. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool completely on a wire rack.
OBSERVATIONS & NOTES:
1. The original recipe also comes with a pumpkin spice glaze (1 cup powdered sugar + 5 tbsp heavy cream + 1/4 tsp pumpkin spice), but I personally don’t like glaze sit on top of my sweet loaf so I omitted it.
2. I put 85g dark brown sugar into the loaf and found it’s the perfect sweetness for me, but if you are okay with the sweetness of a regular chocolate chip cookie, I think you’ll have no problem with the original sugar amount.
3. It is a really simple recipe and you’ll have to try hard to mess it up. Maybe be careful not to over mix the batter. Don’t stress out about getting the perfect swirl inside. Nonetheless you’ll have a pumpkin bread with yummy filling.
Is the flour measurement correct? It seems off.
I double-checked and it is correct!