Pumpkin Cheese Bread

It's been one of those days. So instead of a picture of beautiful pumpkin bread, you get an out of focus picture of lumpy batter.

This was the thickest quick bread batter I've ever seen. I'm sure that was due in part to the cream cheese. This recipe is from one of the first cook books I bought, right out of college. It's a tiny paperback "Philadelphia Cream Cheese" cookbook from Kraft. I think I got it as a set because I wanted the Jell-o cookbook that came with it. I can't remember ever using the Jell-o book, but if it's got cream cheese in it, sign me up! I use this book way more than I should. The Pecan Tassies rock my world.

Another blurry picture. Sigh. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups sugar

1 8-oz. pkg. Cream Cheese, softened

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

4 eggs

1 16-oz can pumpkin

3 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. ground cloves

1 cup chopped nuts

Directions:

Combine sugar, cream cheese and butter, mixing at medium speed with electric mixer until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Blend in pumpkin. Add combined dry ingredients, mixing just until moistened. Fold in nuts. Pour into two greased and floured 9 x 5 inch loaf pans. Bake at 350* for 1 hour or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes, remove from pans.

A few things I'd like to say about this recipe:

1. As I'm sure you can tell, not a low fat recipe in any way. If you're looking for healthy, run away from my blog. Away with thee!

2. I. Love. My. KitchenAid! Thank you wonderful family for gifting me with it. It took about 30 seconds to cream the butter, sugar and cheese. So easy!

3. Why is there no degree symbol on my keyboard? You know the little circle thing in the air? I would use that way more than the dumb asterisk I had to use instead.

4. I actually greased and floured my pans. Aren't you proud? Usually that's the deal breaker. I see "grease and flour" and head for the hills. But I did it just for you all. Yes, all 3 of you.

5. Before I started I didn't realized it made 2 loaves. But if I halved it, what am I going to do with half a can of pumpkin? How would you even store that? Bread usually freezes well, so I guess I'll stick a loaf in the freezer until we have a power outage and I have to eat everything before it goes bad.

This is what I hope my pumpkin bread will look like when it's done. I'll post finished product pictures tomorrow. Good night!