I never thought I’d care for anything like this since I mostly don’t care for cream cheese, but then one day I sampled a bite and it was pretty tasty. I later stumbled across this recipe and figured I’d give it a try. The girls, also initially turned off by the cream cheese, discovered they liked them too.

Ingredients for the loaves:

• 1 15 oz can of pumpkin
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted & cooled
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Ingredients for the filling:

• 8 oz. package of Neufchatel cheese, at room temperature
• 1 egg yolk
• 5 tbsps. sugar
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare the mini loaf pans using a non-stick spray or grease. Set aside.

Mix canned pumpkin, oil, and sugar together. Add in eggs, one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Add vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, & spices. Slowly add flour mixture to liquids, combining thoroughly and scraping the sides of the bowl to make sure it’s all incorporated.

Fill each mini loaf with a couple of spoonfuls of the pumpkin mixture into the prepared pans.

In a small bowl, beat together the Neufchatel cheese, egg yolk, sugar, and vanilla extract.

Add a smaller spoonful of filling into each loaf pan. Swirl with a skewer to incorporate into the pumpkin mixture.

Bake for 30 minutes. Allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

Adapted from: http://www.myfridgefood.com/recipes/dessert/pumpkin-cheesecake-muffins

NOTE: I didn’t use all of the filling mixture and I really swirled the filling into the pumpkin mixture. After cooling completely and a sampling was had by all, I bagged these up and placed them in the freezer.