Pumpkin Spice Bread with Cream Cheese Filling

Since it is officially fall, I thought I'd share a recipe with y'all!  I'm so incredibly proud of this one because I made it up ALL BY MYSELF!

I love the Pumpkin Cream Cheese muffins at Starbucks that pop up around this time of the year, but they are SO BAD for you, 420 calories per muffin!!!  Add 210 for a tall, soy, no whip Pumpkin Spice Latte (can you tell I've ordered that a bit?) and you are looking at TOO MANY CALORIES for breakfast!

So, I made up my own version.  However, instead of a muffin, I made a loaf because I like those better and you can get a few more servings out of it.

Pumpkin Spice Bread with Cream Cheese Filling

yield: 1 loaf (about 15 slices)

calories: 150 per slice

For the filling:

4 oz. reduced fat cream cheese (the block kind)

1/4 cup powdered sugar
big pinch of cinnamon 

big pinch of nutmeg

For the bread:

¾ cup honey

1/3 cup apple sauce 

2 eggs 

½ can pumpkin puree 

1 cup whole wheat flour

¾ cup AP flour 

1 tsp baking soda 

1 tsp salt 

½ tsp baking powder 

¾ tsp nutmeg 

¾ tsp cinnamon

For the topping:

¼ cup pumpkin seeds

1 tsp honey 

big pinch of cinnamon 

big pinch of nutmeg

Mix the cream cheese, powdered sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg together until it is smooth.  Put it in a bowl and cover it with saran wrap.  Put the bowl in the freezer for a couple of hours.


**Just wanted to note that for my batch I used pumpkin spice cream cheese because I found it at Aldi.  That's why mine is orange.  Your's should be white-ish, unless you can score the pumpkin spice stuff too! Delish!**

Preheat the oven to 325.  In a medium sized bowl, mix together your honey, apple sauce, eggs, and pumpkin puree.  Add your dry ingredients to in sifter and sift into your wet ingredients.  Stir until its well combined  and there are no lumps (no one likes lumps).

In a small bowl, toss the pumpkin seeds with honey, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Spray a bread pan with some non-stick cooking spray.  Add half of your batter to the pan.  Break the filling out of the freezer and spoon dollops of the cream cheese along the center of your pan making sure to leave room on either end.  The cream cheese shouldn't touch the pan.  Then cover it with the rest of the batter.  Sprinkle your pumpkin seeds evenly on top.  Bake for 45 minutes.  Then, using aluminum foil, tent the loaf and bake for an additional 15 minutes. 

I haven't tried this, but if you wanted to make these in muffin form as opposed to loaf form, here is what I would suggest.  Line your muffin tin with cupcake liners and spray them with non-stick cooking spray.  Fill each cup 1/2 way full with the batter.  Spoon a dollop of the cream cheese mixture in the center of each pushing it into the batter.  Then cover it with batter the remaining batter.  Sprinkle the seeds on top and bake for 20-25 min (I'm not 100% on the time since I haven't tried them..).  If you make 12 muffins, they will be about 190 calories each.  

Happy Baking!!