Pumpkin Bread with Cream Cheese Ribbon

There are Bad Days. We've all been there. Bad work days. Bad hair days (bad bang days for me, these days).  Bad hangnail days. Bad travel days. Bad TV days (Dear Kim Kardashian: I want those three hours I spent watching your wedding back. And also that entire Sunday I spent glued to E! catching up on your life's happenings in advance of your wedding extravaganza - oh no, have I revealed too much about my single girl behavior? - please and thank you.)

There are Bad Days.

And then there are Bad Baking Days.

The onset of fall was filled with such promise. Leaves turning absolutely gorgeous shades of orange, yellow, and red. Crisp, cool air and peacoats and scarves and tights. Grocery stores stocked with apples, gourds, and canned pumpkin.

I should have known better. I made this recipe at around this time last year. And what happened last year? I put too much batter in the bread pan and my pumpkin bread overflowed in the oven. Like, major. What I failed to do last year was write myself a note on my recipe, reminding me DON'T FILL THE BATTER TOO HIGH, ALEXIS! WOULDN'T WANT ANOTHER EPISODE LIKE THE PUMPKIN BREAD DISASTER OF 2010, NOW WOULD WE?!

Lots of things come into and go out of my brain in a year. Important things like the lyrics to every single Spring Awakening song, the entire Hunger Games series, and Kim's Fairytale Wedding. So when I opened a new can of pumpkin last week, it's completely 100% understandable that I forgot my previous flub.

The parts of this bread that were edible were absolutely delicious. And I think you should go make it. Right after you delete anything Kardashian-related from your DVR. Like, immediately.

 

Pumpkin Bread with Cream Cheese Ribbon

For the Bread

2 c. all-purpose flour

1 tbsp. pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1. c. semisweet chocolate chips, optional

1/2 c. chopped nuts, optional

1 c. unsalted butter, softened

1 15-oz. can pumpkin

1 + 1/2 c. sugar

2 eggs

1/4 c. sour cream

1 tbsp. pure vanilla extract

For the Cream Cheese Ribbon (optional)

1 8-oz. package cream cheese, softened

1/4 c. sugar

1 egg yolk

1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350. Line one 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan with parchment paper, greased.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, pumpkin pie spice, powder, soda, and salt. Add the chocolate chips and nuts, if desired.

Next, in a mixing bowl fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter, pumpkin, sugar, eggs, sour cream and vanilla. Beat at a medium speed until smooth, about a minute. Slowly add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture, 1 cup at a time, beating on low until smooth. Do not overmix.

If incorporating the cream cheese ribbon (and this is where I ran into trouble!), beat all cream cheese ribbon ingredients in a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on medium speed, until fluffy. Make sure you mix well.

If you are not incorporating the cream cheese mixture, pour all of the pumpkin mixture into the prepared pan. Make sure to only fill your pan about 3/4 full, otherwise you are getting dangerously close to disaster-territory.

If incorporating the cream cheese ribbon, pour the pumpkin batter into the prepared pan until it is about 1/3 full. Then, carefully spread the cream cheese over the pumpkin (I used a rubber spatula).

Then, cover the cream cheese layer with more pumpkin batter. If using a 9x3x5" pan, you will not be able to use all of the batter. Fill the pan until it is 3/4 full. Then leave the excess batter alone! (For now.) 

In other words, don't let your filled pan look like this. Bad.

Bake for 65-70 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes.  

I wound up with a little extra batter (even after filling my pan way too high) so I made mini cakes in silicon molds. This would also work nicely in cupcake tins. I baked mine for about 20 minutes, but depending on the size of your mold/tin, bake time will vary.

 After a mild freak out and ruing the day I didn't leave myself a note warning DO NOT FILL on my recipe, my pumpkin bread came out looking like this.

You know what they say....

Third time's a charm.