Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread — 🙌🍂 This is without a doubt the BEST pumpkin bread recipe! This pumpkin cream cheese bread tastes like it has cheesecake baked into the middle. You’ll definitely want a second slice!
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The BEST Pumpkin Bread with Cream Cheese Filling
Ever since I made my Cream Cheese-Filled Banana Bread I wanted to try it with pumpkin. I adapted the recipe by swapping pumpkin puree for bananas, added warming spices, and it worked beautifully.
The bread is soft, moist, springy, dense yet still fluffy, and it’s nicely spiced. Like all of my pumpkin, carrot, and sweet potato desserts, using enough spices to ensure the final result is full-flavored and satisfying is key.
The cream cheese layer that runs through the bread is like having a layer of cheesecake baked into pumpkin bread. It really makes the bread out of this world good.
It’s an easy, no mixer recipe that goes from bowl to oven in minutes. I used melted coconut oil so there’s no butter to cream and no mixer to dirty. Oil keeps bread softer and springier than butter, and I prefer the taste.
A little sour cream (or Greek yogurt) is extra insurance for a soft, springy, bouncy, fluffy loaf. Using sour cream, Greek yogurt, or buttermilk in quick bread and muffin recipes ensures more tender results. Anything baked with pumpkin has the natural advantage of being moister because of how moist pumpkin is.
Between the cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, tangy cream cheese, and the moist, soft bread with rich pumpkin flavor, this is my idea of comfort food!
Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread Ingredients
You’ll need mostly pantry staples to make the pumpkin bread with cream cheese filling. Gather the following:
For the pumpkin bread:
- Egg
- Pumpkin puree
- Light brown sugar
- Granulated sugar
- Melted coconut oil
- Sour cream
- Vanilla extract
- Cinnamon
- Pumpkin pie spice
- Ground nutmeg
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
For the cream cheese filling:
- Egg
- Cream cheese
- Granulated sugar
- All-purpose flour
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread
Don’t let that cream cheese filling scare you off, it takes just a couple extra minutes to prepare and adds SO much flavor and texture!
Here’s an overview of how the pumpkin cheesecake bread is made:
- Whisk together the quick bread batter.
- Spread roughly two-thirds of it into a greased 9×5-inch loaf pan.
- Whisk together the cream cheese filling and spread it carefully over the batter.
- Pour the remaining pumpkin batter over the cream cheese layer.
- Bake the pumpkin bread until the top is golden and domed and the center is set.
A Note About Bake Times
Normally I’d say to insert a toothpick into the middle to see if it comes out clean to test the doneness of the pumpkin cream cheese loaf, but that’s tough to do here since the cheesecake filling never fully sets while the bread is baking.
You may want to tent the pan with a sheet of foil draped over it at the 35-minute mark if you feel the tops and sides will become too browned before center cooks through.
Baking times will vary based on moisture content of pumpkin, cream cheese, climate, and oven variances. Bake until done; watch your bread, not the clock.
Recipe FAQs
I’m not sure why you’d want to miss out on the cheesecake-y filling, but you’re welcome to omit it if desired.
Coconut oil adds a nearly imperceptible undertone that’s sweeter and more fragrant than canola or vegetable oil, but substitute with them if you’d like.
Mix-ins like chocolate chips, chopped nuts, and raisins would taste great in this cream cheese-swirled pumpkin bread. However, these kinds of mix-ins are quite heavy, so they may sink into the cream cheese layer and your bread wouldn’t turn out looking perfectly polished. If that doesn’t bother you, try adding in the mix-ins and see what happens.
No! You need to use brick-style cream cheese and not the kind that comes in a tub. Cream cheese in a tub is often moister than brick-style cream cheese, which can turn the cream cheese filling into a runny mess.
Feel free to add more or less spices to this pumpkin bread. I like my pumpkin breads to be well flavored, but I know not everyone likes as much cinnamon as I do.
No, make sure you’re using pumpkin puree and NOT pumpkin pie filling for this pumpkin cream cheese bread recipe. Pumpkin pie filling is sweetened and spiced and will mess up the flavor and texture of this bread.
Storage
At room temp: Bread will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week. Let cool completely before sealing in an airtight container.
In the freezer: Let the bread cool completely, then wrap it in plastic wrap and freeze. When you’re ready to eat the frozen bread, set it on your counter overnight to thaw.
Recipe Video Tutorial
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Cream Cheese-Filled Pumpkin Bread
Ingredients
Bread
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- ½ cup light brown sugar, packed
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup liquid-state coconut oil, canola or vegetable may be substituted
- ¼ cup cup sour cream, lite is okay; or Greek yogurt may be substituted
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- pinch salt, optional and to tast
Cream Cheese Filling
- 1 large egg
- 4 ounces softened brick-style cream cheese, lite is okay
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Spray one 9×5-inch loaf pan with floured cooking spray, or grease and flour the pan; set aside.
- Make the Bread Batter
- In a large bowl, add the the first ten ingredients, through ground nutmeg, and whisk to combine.
- Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, optional salt, and fold with spatula or stir gently with a spoon until just combined; don’t overmix; set aside.
- Turn about two-thirds of the batter out into the prepared pan, smoothing the top lightly with a spatula and pushing it into corners and sides as necessary; set aside.
- Make the Cream Cheese Filling
- In a large bowl, add all the filling ingredients and whisk to combine. Alternatively, mix with a hand mixer.
- Evenly pour filling mixture over the bread, smoothing the top lightly with a spatula and pushing it into corners and sides as necessary.
- Top filling with remaining pumpkin bread batter, smoothing the top very lightly with a spatula as to not disturb cream cheese layer and pushing batter into corners and sides as necessary.
- Bake for about 48 minutes or until the top is domed, golden, and the center is set, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, or with a few moist crumbs, but no batter. Note this is tricky because the cream cheese never gets totally solid so the toothpick test isn’t the most accurate. *
- Allow bread to cool in pan for about 15 minutes before turning out on a wire rack to cool completely before slicing and serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Pumpkin Cream Cheese Recipes:
Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars — Classic cheesecake bars get an autumnal makeover in this recipe! Sweet, pumpkin spiced, CREAMY bars with a graham cracker crust for fabulous texture!
Easy Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting — Moist pumpkin cake is topped with a creamy homemade cream cheese frosting. This easy fall dessert is perfect for Thanksgiving, Halloween, and more!
Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting — These super soft and moist pumpkin bars are the perfect EASY fall dessert!! Tangy cream cheese frosting is a wonderful complement to these perfectly pumpkin-spiced bars!!
Cream Cheese Pumpkin Roll — No dish towel required to roll up my classic pumpkin roll cake that’s full of rich pumpkin spice flavor and tangy cream cheese frosting!
Pumpkin Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting — A marriage of pumpkin cake and carrot cake into one soft, moist, tender, and amazing cake!! The tangy cream cheese frosting is truly the icing on this easy cake!!
The Best Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls — Super soft, fluffy pumpkin spice cinnamon rolls topped with a cream cheese glaze! Move over, Cinnabon, these are better!!
Copycat Starbucks Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins — Super soft, moist, brimming with pumpkin spice flavor, and filled with tangy-sweet cream cheese filling!
Cooking With Pumpkin: Recipes That Go Beyond the Pie – My second cookbook with over 50 pumpkin recipes including sweets, savory, drinks, and a photo for nearly every recipe. I’d be super grateful if you headed over to Amazon.
Originally posted August 2014 and republished October 23, 2019 and August 13, 2021 with updated text.
That’s not a ribbon of cream cheese — that’s a thick hunk and I am in looooove. This bread looks fantastic and is inspiring me (along with your cookbook announcement!) to break out that pumpkin and start baking!!
You know how much I love pumpkin! I’m excited for your cookbook! :)
This looks amazing! Can’t wait for fall :)
I baked with pumpkin over the weekend. :) Cannot get enough and I’m SO excited for Cooking with Pumpkin because you have the most creative pumpkin recipes! I would love a thick slice of this bread hit my pumpkin side coffee (yep, I drink it year round).
I knew you drank pumpkin coffee for a ‘long season’ but I didn’t know it was actually year-round (love that!) :) I start in August and end in January or so :)
Thank you for the compliments on my creativity and I appreciate that you’re happy to see my cookbook! That means a lot, Sally, thank you xoxo
What a beautiful and festive recipe! Love the gorgeous twist of the cream cheese through the middle – yummo!
This is NOT helping my resolve to wait … at all :) I think pumpkin officially runs in my blood and I’m so excited to bake with it for the blog! Gorgeous loaf, Averie, that ribbon is utter perfection! It contrasts the deep color of the bread beautifully.
Break out the pumpkin, asap :)
That stripe of cream cheese is perfection!! This post makes me think of fall, cardigans and apple picking :)
Oh my… One bite and I would be hooked! Two of my favorite things, pumpkin bread and cream cheese!!! Love fall recipes!
It’s never too early for a pumpkin recipe, in fact, I’ve been baking with pumpkin already and can’t stop thinking about. This bread is only going to add to that — it looks delicious!
Holy mother of pumpkiiiiin!!! LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!
looks amazing as always! Excited about your new book!
I’m ready for this! Just can the temps please stay hot?
The cream cheese middle is too tempting. And I love how moist the bread is!
Hi! I have your peanut butter cookbook and i absolutely love/adore it! It’s really really awesome to put it mildly! lol ; )
When is your new pumpkin book coming out?? I want! I need!! LOL!! I think I might love pumpkin more than I do peanut butter!!! And that’s saying a lot; so I am very excited about this new pumpkin book you have coming out!
Congrats!! ; )
I did a big blog post about it a couple days ago https://www.averiecooks.com/2014/08/cooking-with-pumpkin-cookbook-announcement.html
There’s links within it to Amazon and all the details but it comes out Oct 6 and is on pre-sale right now.
Thanks for buying my other cookbook and for all your support! Glad your a fan of both PB and pumpkin!
Perfect!! Thank you!!! Buying ASAP! ; )
Thank YOU for your support!! Totally appreciated :)
I’m totally ready for pumpkin! I love that cream cheese filling!
I might love this even more than the original banana version!
Thank you :)
Looks so yummy, thanks! How do you think it would work with a substitution of sweet potato for the pumpkin?
Probably just fine, although I haven’t tried it (but most commercially-canned pumpkin puree is a mix of squashes and sweet potato in addition to the pumpkin)