Pumpkin Bread with Cream Cheese Filling

Pumpkin, just like potato,sweet potato, or banana in a cake making stage. It makes the cake more dense, soft and moist. That is one of the reason why I love baking with potato, banana and pumpkin. I mean who doesn't like moist cake?

And when it comes to cream cheese.....maybe not everyone enjoy creamcheese. But luckily , I do! I am a cheese-a-holic :D. My mom told me that when I was little and cute (ehm), I love to eat rice and grated cheese. And that's it. So whenever I do the GTM (Gerakan Tutup Mulut), my mom offer me a bowl of warm rice and grate lotsa cheddar cheese as the topping. Something I couldn't resist, my mom said.

When I first look at the recipe, mmmhh.... pumpkin collaborate with creamcheese, I really really think I must bake it! Especially the recipe calls for spekkoek, it is a special mix herbs with a blissful scents of cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and nutmeg. To make it practical and simple, I use ready to use bumbu spekkoek. Actually we can make it ourself at home, but It takes time :D 

The result is super yummmmm, even when it is still inside the oven, the spekkoek scents is all over the house. You can barely taste the pumpkin puree on the bread, but it has a big contribution to the soft and moist texture. 

PUMPKIN BREAD WITH CREAM CHEESE FILLING

Source : Joy of Baking via Hesti's Kitchen

INGREDIENTS :

Cream Cheese Filling:

115 gr cream cheese, room temperature

35 gr granulated white sugar

half egg or 1 small egg

Pumpkin Bread:

225 gr all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

I tablespoon ground spekkoek

2 large eggs

200 gr granulated sugar

115 gr unsalted butter

210 gr pumpkin puree

60 ml water

1 tsp vanilla paste

DIRECTIONS :

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and place rack in the center of the oven. Butter and lightly flour 23 x 13 x 8 cm loaf pans. 

Cream Cheese Filling: With a hand mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the sugar and egg and process just until smooth and creamy. Do not over process. Set aside.

Pumpkin Bread:

1. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and ground spekkoek

2. In another bowl, whisk the eggs until lightly beaten. Add the sugar and melted butter and whisk to combine.  Whisk or stir in the pumpkin, water, and vanilla extract.

3. Add the pumpkin mixture to the flour mixture and stir just until the ingredients are combined. Do not over mix as it will make the bread tough.

4.Take half of the batter and pour it to the loaf pan. Then Spread the cream cheese evenly.  Top with the remaining half of batter

5. Bake the breads for about 55  65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean (a few moist crumbs is okay). 

6. Place pans on a wire rack and let cool for about 10 minutes before removing breads from pans.