Whole Wheat Pumpkin Bread with Maple Cream Cheese

I am going to start this post off by letting everyone know how proud I am of my husband. Toby is seriously the most amazing man I have ever met, and I am always amazed by the drive that he has for life. This whole Live Beyond Boundaries idea has really taken off, and has now turned into something real, and something big. Toby is a man of his word, and if he says he is going to do something, he most certainly will. Because of his passion and determination, he has found himself surrounded by some great opportunities this past month. He has met with all of the Rotary Clubs in our surrounding area, and had breakfast with all of the Club Presidents. He has got them on board for sponsorship, and they really want to support his dreams. He also spoke to some team members (who are going to run a marathon in honor of someone with Crohn's or Colitis) of the CCFA Team Challenge this past weekend, and told them his story and encouraged the to keep spreading the word on these diseases, and of course to Live Beyond Boundaries.

This is such an encouragement to me, and hopefully one day to Emory. It all started with a simple dream, and has turned into a huge event! He has meeting after meeting set up with some important people here in Phoenix, and is getting a lot of community support. People are inspired by Toby, and are encouraged to live their dreams. It seems like a simple concept, but I know a lot of people who do not live their dreams. Anywho, on Saturday he spoke to the CCFA Team Challenge at a park here in Phoenix. The team members all went for a long run, and then followed it with a picnic breakfast. I didn't get to tag along on the run, but I wanted to make them something to eat anyways. I wanted to make some pumpkin bread, but also wanted it to be healthy (they did just go running after all).

 I did some researching and creating, and came up with a pretty delicious pumpkin bread recipe. It was actually insanely good. It is made entirely with whole wheat flour, and sweetened mostly with honey. I used 1 cup dark brown sugar because I ran out of honey, but next time I am going to try it with all honey. The cream cheese swirl adds so much flavor, and is sweetened with pure maple syrup. You will not believe how good this bread tastes.  I think this is actually the first time I have made something entirely healthy, and liked the results a million times better than the un-healthy version. So with fall here, and the smell of pumpkins in the air, make some of this bread and enjoy the most beautiful time of year! (I did not mean for that to rhyme at all but it totally works!)

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Bread with Maple Cream Cheese

This recipe is really easy and quick to make. It is extremely moist, and tastes just like you would want fall to taste. 

Makes 1 loaf

For Bread:

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 cup honey 

1/2 cup plain greek yogurt (you could use sour cream)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1 (14 oz) can Pumpkin Puree (just the plain pumpkin)

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1/4 cup unrefined coconut oil (you could substitute reg veg oil if needed, but it will not have the same health benefits)

1/2 teaspoon good vanilla extract

For maple cream cheese swirl:

8 oz. Cream cheese, at room temp

2 heaping tablespoons maple syrup

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl sift all dry ingredients for bread together. In another bowl mix all (bread) wet ingredients. Fold the wet into the dry, and mix until combined. In another bowl stir the cream cheese together with the maple syrup. Grease a loaf pan, and pour half of the bread mixture in the loaf pan. By the spoonful drop half of the cream cheese on top of the (half) pumpkin batter. Using a knife, swirl the cream cheese around, and then top with more pumpkin batter, reserving a little bit of batter to top the last cream cheese off with. By the spoonful, drop the rest of the cream cheese on top of the batter, and repeat the swirl. Top with remaining batter, and bake in oven for 45 minutes to an hour until you insert a toothpick in center and it comes out clean.