Pumpkin Spiced Pecan Bread

Pumpkin Spiced Pecan Bread is the perfect breakfast bread, full of fall flavor!

When I created Pumpkin Spiced Napoleons a bit ago, I ended up with lots of filling and knew that I wanted to use it up but not eating the same dessert over and over. As the wheels turned I began to think of incorporating that filling and adding in ingredients you would use for a dessert-style bread. Hence this recipe was born.
It took a couple of days to conceptualize this and I had to go back to some other dessert recipes to determine the right amount of flour and leavening. This was really easy to put together and bakes fairly quickly. The recipe is written as if you are starting from scratch and hadn't made the filling for napoleons.

• 4 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 tbsp. sour cream
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 pkg. pumpkin spiced flavor Jello-O instant pudding
• 1 cup of milk (for the pudding)
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans (walnuts would also work)
• cooking spray

1. Make the Jell-O instant pudding and set aside. Cover with plastic wrap.
2. In another bowl mix the sour cream, egg yolk, cream cheese, sugar and vanilla and beat with a hand held mixer, or do it in your stand mixer.
3. Next, fold in the instant pudding to the cream cheese mix. Blend until fully incorporated.
4. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in another bowl. Use a whisk to combine it all.
5. With the stand mixer set on low or using your hand mixer on low, slowly add the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and combine until incorporated.
6. Last fold in your chopped pecans.
7. Spray your loaf pan liberally and add in the bread mixture and smooth the mixture as evenly as you can.
8. Baked in a preheated 350° oven for about 45-55 minutes. Check at 45 minutes to see if it needs a little more time.
9. Let it cool on a rack for 30 minutes, then unmold your loaf.

Grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea and enjoy a slice or two of this wonderful dessert bread. Oh, and an afterthought after photos were complete - some nice soft cream cheese lathered over this would of course make it more fattening satisfying. But in all sincerity, it's great on its own.