Sweet Pumpkin Ribbon Bread

This is a simple, delicious, and beautiful pumpkin bread that is sure to be a hit at any holiday celebration or just for a quick snack.

Ingredients:

Filling

6 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/3 cup sugar

1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour

1 egg

2 teaspoons grated orange peel (optional, but highly recommended)

Pumpkin Batter

1 cup canned pumpkin

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

1 and 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 and 2/3 cups of all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup chopped pecans(optional, I did not put them into the bread I made for this project)

Before you mix anything together begin by preheating your oven to 325.

Beat together cream cheese, sugar and flour in a medium bowl. Add egg and mix well. Stir in orange peel if desired. Set the filling aside for later.

For the pumpkin batter, combine pumpkin, oil, and eggs in a large bowl. Stir in sugar, salt, cloves, and cinnamon, mix well. Stir in the flour and baking soda. Blend in pecans(optional).

Grease and flour a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan. Pour in half of batter into pan. Carefully spread filling over batter. Add remaining batter and spread to cover the filling.

Put the bread into the oven and cook it for an hour and a half. You will know the bread is done if you can stick a toothpick in the center of the bread and it comes out completely clean. Move the bread onto a wire rack. Let the bread cool in the pan for around 10-15 minutes. Take the bread out of the pan and you've made yourself a delicious pumpkin ribbon bread!

Cut the bread into slices to serve. This recipe makes 12 to 15 servings. When I made this bread I ended up getting some really beautiful patterns from the filling. Enjoy!