Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese Bread (adapted from Your Cup of Cake)
Makes 2 Loaves or 24 muffins
1 15 oz can pumpkin puree (about 1 3/4 cups)
4 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup applesauce (you can just use more oil, but the applesauce makes it lighter, and slightly healthier!)
2/3 cup milk
3 tsp vanilla
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cup flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp salt
4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp cloves
2 cups mini chocolate chips.
Cream Cheese Filling:
2 8 oz. pkgs cream cheese, room temperature
4 Tb sugar
1 egg, room temperature (if halving this recipe for one loaf, just use the yolk)
1 tsp vanilla
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease/line 2 loaf pans, 2 12-cup muffin pans, or one of each.
In a large bowl, stir together the pumpkin, eggs, vegetable oil, applesauce, milk, vanilla and sugar.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until combined. A few lumps are fine! Stir in 1 1/2 cups of the chocolate chips, reserve the remaining chips for sprinkling on top.
Beat the cream cheese filling ingredients together until smooth.
For Pumpkin Loaves: Divide your batter and filling in half. Remember, you're making two loaves, so apply these directions to each loaf. Starting with one half, pour about a third of the pumpkin batter into the first loaf pan and gently spread to cover the bottom. Spoon half of the cream cheese filling and gently spread it over the pumpkin. Repeat with the second third of batter, last half of filling, and top with dollops of the last third of batter. Gently swirl together a few times with a knife, chopstick, or skewer. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup of mini chocolate chips, repeat this process with the second loaf, and bake for 60-80 minutes, rotating halfway through, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (No batter; you'll probably have some melted chocolate on there!) Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for about 20 minutes before slicing.
For Muffins: Fill each muffin cup 1/3 full, spoon a generous tablespoon of filling into the cup, then top with another spoonful of pumpkin batter. Give it a figure-eight swirl with a toothpick, top with mini chocolate chips, and bake for 14-18 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack before serving.