Cream Cheese Nut Bread

 

It seems that, lately, I have had no time for baking or cooking. Today I had a hankering (I tend to hanker a lot) for a comforting quick bread for tomorrow’s breakfast.  I pulled out a recipe for an old favorite, warming and deliciously scenting the kitchen in the going. This is an easy recipe to make, and you probably have all of the ingredients on hand.  It does take up a number of bowls, but the end result is well worth it.

This moist, dense, nutty loaf is made all the better with an almond-flavored ribbon of cream cheese running right through the center. This cream cheese filling can be used with almost any of your favorite quick bread recipes, by the way, but do give this one a try, and then experiment by adding it to other favorites.  It makes an already delicious quick loaf all the better.  As an added note, this bread gets better every day. Cream Cheese Nutbread

 To make filling:

 8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

1/3 c. sugar

½ t. almond extract

1 large egg, room temperature

 Beat the above ingredients together in a medium mixing bowl on high speed until smooth and creamy. Set aside.

To make bread:

 2 large eggs, room temperature

½ c. canola oil

½ c. whole milk

1 t. freshly grated lemon peel

2¼ c. flour

1/3 c. sugar

1/3 c. firmly packed light brown sugar

1 t. baking soda

1 t. kosher salt

1 c. chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Spray a 9” x 5” loaf pan with PAM and dust thoroughly with granulated sugar (or, a cinnamon-sugar mixture, if you prefer).  Set aside.

Beat eggs until frothy and lemon colored.  Slowly add oil, milk, and lemon rind, mixing until well blended.

 In separate bowl, stir together flour, sugars, soda, salt, and nuts.  Add this dry mixture, all at once, to the wet mixture and mix until just moistened.  Do not over mix.  Spoon half of bread batter into loaf pan, smoothing as you go.  Top with all of the cream cheese mixture, then spoon the remaining half of the dough on top, spreading to cover as well as you can.  Bake for 1 hour.  Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan for 15 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely.

 As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.