Recipe: $11.37 | Per Serving: $1.14 | Yield: 10 slices
Pumpkin bread with cheesecake filling is everything you need this fall! The bread is perfectly spiced and lightly sweetened, the cheesecake filling is creamy, a little sweet, a little tart, and the perfect complement to fall spices. This pumpkin bread is balanced enough for breakfast, and delicious enough for dessert! 😍
I tested this recipe three times to make sure it was absolutely perfect and it has quickly become my current obsession. My nana always snacked on ginger snaps and cream cheese when I was growing up, so I’ve always been a huge fan of combining fall flavors with cream cheese. This bread hits the spot!
How to Make Cheesecake Filling for Pumpkin Bread
Cheesecake filling is super easy! You just whip together some softened cream cheese with maple syrup, vanilla, and one egg yolk.
The egg yolk provides some structure to the filling, which helps prevent the moisture from seeping into the bread and preventing it from cooking all the way through. If you add a whole egg it will make it an unpleasant, cakey texture.
If you don’t use any egg at all in the filling, the bread may take another 5-10 minutes to bake all the way through.
I tested this with both vegan cream cheese and dairy cream cheese and here are the differences:
- The vegan cream cheese is a little less sweet and a little more tart. (I used Miyokos.) It’s also a bit more firm and holds together better.
- The dairy cream cheese is definitely gooey-er, sweeter, and not as tart.
- Both are delicious!
What is Pumpkin Bread?
Pumpkin bread is the fall response to banana bread. Instead of bananas and chocolate, we use pumpkin puree and lots and lots of pumpkin pie spice.
Pumpkin has a much milder flavor than banana, and it has almost no sweetness by comparison. To compensate, make sure you use a little sweetener (maple syrup is perfect for fall), and a lot more spices. I’m using pumpkin pie spice, but with additional cinnamon and nutmeg and it’s perfect. Don’t skip the nutmeg if you have it!
This recipe is a cinch to pull together – made with almond flour, just a touch of maple syrup, and a really simple cheesecake filling!
Key Ingredients You Will Need for This Pumpkin Bread
Almond flour – personally, I try to buy a huge bag of almond flour online since I love baking with it, but you can find more reasonably sized bags at Sprout’s or from Bob’s Red Mill. I haven’t tried this with almond meal, though I imagine it would still work, but the texture might be a bit more dense and ‘craggy.’ (What does that even mean, GBBO?)
Pumpkin puree – I like to stock up when I see it on sale for $0.99, but otherwise I find the best price at Trader Joe’s. We’re using the whole can here, which means you don’t have to worry about what to do with half a can of pumpkin puree.
Maple syrup – the real deal! None of the Log Cabin maple flavored stuff. Go for real ‘grade A’ dark maple syrup if you can find it. I snagged some when we were on vacation in upstate New York, but the rest of the year I buy it on Thrive Market (affiliate link). It’s got a richer flavor, and happens to be more nutrient-dense as well. Win-win-win!
Cream cheese – this one is dealer’s choice! I LOVE cream cheese, but as a person with medium grade lactose intolerance, it doesn’t love me back. I was sure to test this with regular dairy cream cheese and vegan Miyokos cream cheese. See above for differences, but you can’t go wrong! (I haven’t tried it with Kite Hill or Treeline or any other vegan cream cheese brands.)
Fresh Spices (Pumpkin Pie Spice, Nutmeg, Cinnamon) – I can’t stress this enough – check the dates on your spices! As soon as you crack them open, they slowly start to lose potency. It’s a personal point of pride that I can go through an entire jar of pumpkin pie spice in a season, and I don’t buy it again until fall rolls around to make sure it’s always fresh!
The typical recommendation is to toss your spices after 12 months (and who actually does that? not me!), but if you know you can’t get through a jar in a reasonable amount of time, I recommend looking for bulk spices at places like Sprouts so you can get juuuust the amount you need.
Lining the Loaf Pan
This is how I usually line my loaf pans! I like this method because it doesn’t use a ton of parchment paper ($$), and it provides wings (aka ‘handles’) to help me remove the bread while still hot!
You can double-line it, where you would make another piece of paper to go across perpendicular and up the short sides, but usually I don’t find that necessary. You can grease the short sides a bit, or just loosen/scrape it with a knife or metal spatula before removing the bread.
What Else to Make with Pumpkin Puree:
- Obviously this delicious gluten-free pumpkin bread tops my list, but here are a few more!
- Pumpkin Chili – my most loved pumpkin recipe and SO SO SO good!
- Creamy Pumpkin Pasta Sauce (and use it to make this fall pizza, and the most delicious pumpkin lasagna)
- Easy Pumpkin Spice Muffins – this is a super easy blender recipe, and with no added sugar, it’s especially good for little ones!
- Vegan Pumpkin Soup (with Peanut butter!!) You have to try this recipe by Abra’s Kitchen – so so unique and delicious!
- Pumpkin Pancakes!! I actually use a recipe for these that isn’t posted online so I can’t share, but I highly recommend finding yourself a pumpkin pancake recipe because they’re so moist and delicious!
Vegetarian: Yes! This is not vegan because even though I use vegan cream cheese, there are eggs in this recipe.
Paleo: If you use a Paleo cream cheese, then yes!
PIN THIS RECIPE FOR LATER! (You’ll be so glad you did!)
Pumpkin Bread with Cheesecake Filling
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Yield: 10 1x
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
This perfectly spiced pumpkin bread is what fall dreams are made of! It’s lightly sweetened, with plenty of pumpkin spice flavor. Enjoy fresh from the oven any time of day!
Ingredients
For the Cheesecake Filling:
- 6 ounces softened cream cheese (I used Miyokos vegan cream cheese, but tested it with regular dairy cream cheese as well); to soften, leave at room temperature for about 30-60 minutes
- 2 Tablespoons maple syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 egg yolk (trust – it helps with texture!)
For the Bread:
- 2 cups almond flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (dried or fresh)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 eggs
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1 can pumpkin puree (not pie filling)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Optional: cinnamon sugar for dusting
Instructions
Before starting, I recommend preheating the oven to 350ºF and leaving the cream cheese out to soften a bit.
For the Cheesecake Filling:
- Add the cream cheese to a medium bowl. Using a fork, whisk, or electric mixer, whip the cream cheese until smooth. IF it is too cold and doesn’t get smooth, it’s okay, it will still work out, it’s just harder to mix and fill.
- Stir in the maple syrup, vanilla, and egg yolk until well combined. If the cream cheese is too cold, it will be clumpy and won’t mix well. However, when you bake it, it will even out and be okay. The cheesecake filling might have a looser consistency, but otherwise will still be great!
- Set mixture aside while you make the bread.
For the Bread:
- Preheat oven to 350ºF. Place a sheet of parchment paper in a glass loaf pan so it comes up the long sides with a decent bit hanging over so you can easily remove it later. You can grease the short ends of the pan if you want, but I haven’t had to.
- Combine dry ingredients (almond flour through salt) in a medium bowl. Stir well and set aside.
- In a large bowl or mixer, combine the wet ingredients (eggs, maple syrup, pumpkin puree, and vanilla). Whisk until the eggs are well scrambled.
- Combine wet & dry ingredients. I like to pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients to prevent pockets of dry mix getting stuck at the bottom of the bowl. Stir until well combined.
To Bake:
- Add about 1/2 of the bread mixture to the parchment-lined loaf pan.
- Using a spoon or spatula, drop in the cheesecake mixture, spreading it into an even layer.
- Top with the remaining pumpkin bread mixture, spreading with spatula to make an even layer.
- Total baking time will be about 1 hour and 15 minutes, but I recommend adding a foil tent at the 45 minute mark to prevent excessive browning on the top. This is especially important with almond flour recipes.
- Use a toothpick to test for doneness around 1 hour. When the toothpick comes out mostly clean (it may have some cheesecake on it), that’s when it’s ready!
- For best results, I recommend letting this cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then loosening the short sides with a knife or metal spatula and pulling the full loaf out by the parchment paper wings. Let cool for a bit on a wire rack.
- Optional: dust slices with cinnamon sugar before serving.
Notes
- I have used both vegan cream cheese and regular dairy cream cheese. Both are delicious, but the regular cream cheese is definitely sweeter and the vegan cream cheese is definitely more on the tart side.
- Nutrition label uses Miyokos vegan cream cheese.
- I have not used a metal loaf pan for this. I think it will work but you may have to reduce the baking time. More information on metal vs. glass here.
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 75 min
- Category: Bread
- Method: Oven
Keywords: pumpkin bread, pumpkin bread with cheesecake filling, pumpkin cream cheese bread, pumpkin cream cheese bread