Weekly Recipe: Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread

Hello Pumpkin, I love you!  I adapted this recipe to incorporate some leftover cream cheese icing I had.  I mean, anything with cream cheese is always better, right?!  This was moist, perfectly pumpkin-y, and delicious!  Go make a loaf, or 12 today.

Here is the original recipe with my alterations added in red.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread
 adapted from Allrecipes

• 1 (8oz) package cream cheese (I used 6oz reduced-fat)
• 1/2 cup white sugar  (I used 1 cup powdered sugar)
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 egg
• 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon orange zest (I omitted)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I increased to 1 tsp and added another 1/2 tsp nutmeg)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves (I used allspice)
• 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (I omitted)
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar (I decreased this to 1 1/4 cups because of my cream cheese filling.)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Lightly grease two 8x4 inch loaf pans.
2. In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar (1 cup powdered sugar in my case), 1 tablespoon flour, 1 egg and orange zest (cinnamon and maple syrup); beat until smooth. Set aside. Sift together 1 2/3 cup flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and allspice, cloves and pumpkin pie spice; set aside
3. Place pumpkin, vegetable oil, 2 eggs and 1 1/2 1 1/4 cup sugar in a large bowl; beat well. Stir the pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture just until combined. Fold in the pecans if desired. Pour 1/2 of the pumpkin batter into the loaf pans. Spoon cream cheese mixture on top of this layer and then pour on the remaining batter.  I'm not sure if my pans were bigger than 8x4 or what, but it was all I could do to spread the batter thin enough for both loaves.  After the cream cheese layer, it's tricky to spread the pumpkin layer on top.  I found putting it on in small blobs worked best.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 70 minutes (again, maybe because of my pans, my cooking time was less than 1 hour - maybe 45 minutes), or until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Cool bread in pans for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.