Pumpkin Cheesecake Bread

Yup. That's right. Pumpkin. Cheesecake. Bread. It has the best of all worlds.

I mixed this recipe up a little bit. This is my favorite pumpkin bread recipe. I love it! I found this recipe years ago. It's called "Pumpkin Pie Bread." This bread tastes like pumpkin pie, people. Pumpkin pie. In bread form.

Also, I'm kind of obsessed with cheesecake swirls, so I added one of those. Delish.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Bread

Yields: 2 loaves (either 8x4 or 9x5-- I did one of each!)

Pumpkin Bread Batter

3 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup veggie oil (or canola oil)
4 eggs
1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin purée
1/2 cup water

Cheesecake Swirl

1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp flour
2 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Grease two loaf pans (8x4 or 9x5 will work perfectly).

2. Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice. Set aside.

3. Beat together in a large bowl (a stand mixer works well) the sugar with the veggie oil. Add the eggs one at a time, beating between each egg. Add the pumpkin.

4. Add the dry ingredients slowly alternating with the water. Mix until combined.

5. Beat together the cheesecake swirl ingredients until smooth.

6. Pour a little more than half the batter between the two pans. Spread all of the cheesecake swirl batter in the two pans. Try to spread it out evenly, extending almost to the edges. Pour the remaining pumpkin batter on top and completely cover up the cheesecake swirl.

7. Bake for 55-70 minutes, or until a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean.

8. Let the bread cool in the pans for 15 minutes, then remove them and let them finish cooling on a cooling rack. Store in plastic wrap.

Happy autumn! 

Interested in more pumpkin recipes? Click the pictures!

 

Caramel Cupcakes

I recently took a dialect quiz. The point of the quiz was to demonstrate how differently people across the United States speak the English language. The quiz was scarily accurate... it identified my hometown and my parents' hometown as the places I'm most likely from. You should check out the quiz at this link. One of the questions was how I pronounced "caramel." Am I the only one who completely ignores the middle "a"? I say "CAR-ml."

Anyway, these cupcakes were a fun experiment for my husband's work luncheon. It was Harry Potter themed, so I wanted to go with something along the lines of butterbeer cupcakes. I adapted the cupcake recipe from Natasha's Kitchen, and I invented the frosting recipe.

Caramel Cupcakes 

Yields: 15 cupcakes

1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp cornstarch
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup canola or veggie oil
1/2 cup buttermilk (I always use milk with 1/2 tsp white vinegar)

1/3 cup caramel sauce (the ice cream topping kind is what I used)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Line cupcake pans with 15 cupcake papers. Whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Whisk for about 1 minute. You want to get everything really well incorporated.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the eggs with the sugar for about 30 seconds. Add the vanilla and oil, then beat for 15 seconds.

3. Add the flour mixture and buttermilk slowly, alternating between the two. Use a cookie scoop to divide the batter evenly among the 15 cupcake papers. I filled my cupcake paper halfway up the paper.

4. Bake 12-14 minutes, or until a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean.

Frosting

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
2 tbsp caramel sauce
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
milk for thinning

1. Beat the slightly softened butter for about 1 minute in the stand mixer. Add the caramel sauce.

2. Slowly add the powdered sugar, then add the vanilla. You may need a few teaspoons of milk or cream to thin the frosting out enough to pipe it.

To assemble the cupcakes:

Let the cupcakes cool. Use a very small round piping tip to fill cupcakes with the caramel sauce. Pipe frosting onto the cupcakes using a closed star tip. Drizzle with leftover caramel sauce. Enjoy!

My wonderful husband got me a fancy frosting piping bag and giant cupcake coupler for my birthday. Most useful present ever!