Pumpkin Spice Bread with Maple Cheesecake Layer

Allright, so once again I bow to a blog that just blows me away..... Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

Her recipes are fantastic in my opinion, presentation and photography amongst the best out there..... One thing I really appreciate is, although I'm a new blogger, she keeps in touch and is always willing to let my try her recipes on my own. Plus, she's a Hockey Player!!! I mean what could be better????

A class act, I must say.

Allright, lol, enough about her...... (ahem!)

I made her recipe for Pumpkin Spice Bread with Maple Cheesecake Layer....I mean, how could I NOT? Three of my favorite tastes in one recipe...... I did modify it a bit, because I didn't want nuts in it..... But I have made Pumpkin Bread for years.....and always smeared it with cream cheese, and the thought of flavored cream cheese baked into the bread hooked me....

Here we go....

Maple Cheesecake Layer:

8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
¼ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
6 TBSP real maple syrup
1 tsp maple extract
1 TBSP all-purpose flour
1 large egg

Pumpkin Spice Bread:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp fresh ground nutmeg
1 cup pumpkin puree (plain, not the already made pumpkin pie kind)
½ cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1 ½ cups granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 350F.

Lightly grease and flour three mini loaf pans. (Or two medium pans like I did) In a medium mixing bowl, combine all the maple cheesecake ingredients; beat until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Set aside.

In another bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, salt, and spices; set aside.

Place pumpkin puree, vegetable oil, eggs and sugar in a mixing bowl of an electric stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment, beat for about 1 minute, until fully combined
Add flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture and mix just until combined.
Pour half of the pumpkin bread batter evenly into the three prepared loaf pans. Spoon cream cheese mixture on top of pumpkin batter layer and then pour on the remaining pumpkin batter.

Now here I departed a bit, I swirled the batters.....just to see, and the outcome was surprising....

Bake in preheated 350° oven for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean.

Cool bread in pans for 10 minutes.
Remove bread from pans and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Serve at room temperature or cool.

Now, if you look at MY photos you see that obviously I didn't save enough pumpkin batter to cover the cream cheese layer, but here's what interesting...... The cream cheese layer 'sank' during baking, so it didn't matter.....

Now admittedly, Peabodys looked better, but having eaten my share, and taken it to work and spread it around, I bet mine tasted just as good!

Thanks Peabody, you rock, as usual.