Skinny pumpkin bread (with dark choc chips, making it not so skinny)

This "Skinny Pumpkin Bread" (or at least that's what I called it since that's how I searched for it on pinterest), is a very popular pin. Even during the non-fall months, this pin has been going around. The original post is from Sunday Baker and her official name for this bread is Pumpkin and Cream bread (low calorie). And this is her delicious looking bread: 

Looks sooo good

 And here is how my bread turned out: 

Not as pretty....

Were there changes that I made? Yes. I added dark chocolate chips (sooo good) and added a bit more sugar since I could only find cinnamon sugar at target and I was too lazy to go to another store. But besides that, I followed the recipe. Shrug, it was still good and really filling! 

On to the comments:

• Sunday Baker made a pretty big error when she first wrote the post. She stated that the calorie count was under 600 for the whole loaf. Many many comments were on her error and stating the correct amount of calories (1120 calories). Since I added a half a bag of dark chocolate chips to my bread...I added about 800 more calories. But they were dark chocolate, so they're good for you, right??? 
• A few people noted that it took longer than 40 minutes to bake and it was still very dense and thick, like bread pudding vs bread. 
• One commenter suggested using more flour. 
• Also to whip the egg white separately and folding them into the wet mixture. 
• Wait a bit before eating and it sets a bit more
• A lot of people were confused if this recipe made two loaves or one. It's two loaves. 
• Someone made this with all Spenda (Spenda brown for the Stevia) and found it to be 1600 cals for both loaves (she made it into one large loaf). 
• A few people made these as muffins instead with success: link
• Someone made a gluten free/lower carb version: link I probably should have made this instead. 
• A couple of people made this into a roll instead. 
• People have used greek yogurt instead of cream cheese and it came out well
• People have used Stevia/Splenda in the cream cheese portion and it turned out well

MY TRIAL!

Ok, so I went to Target to get what I needed. Applesauce, pumpkin can, stevia, chocolate chips, etc. They did not have cinnamon so I had to use their cinnamon sugar spice (what?) and they only had 1/3 less fat cream cheese. Oh well, I figured it should be OK. I initially wanted to half this recipe since we barely eat one dessert a week but how do you half one egg? So I decided to make the full recipe but only cook one loaf. Wish me luck on what my second loaf looks like when I defrost the batters a month from now...

A bajillion ingredients...

First, the batter. So all the wet ingredients go in first. I'm against using a mixer unless I MUST use it. I have been splattered on enough times to learn my lesson. So I used a wooden spoon for the batter. 

This never looks pretty 

I'm also confused about baking the dry ingredients. I was taught to sift all the dry ingredients together, but it appears that most recipes don't call on that anymore. I added extra nutmeg and cinnamon sugar to it. 

Dry ingredients

All mixed up

I was taught to add dry ingredients in thirds. Is this correct? 

Batter done! 

Cream cheese filling. I tried my best to mix it with a spoon but ultimately failed. I used the mixer in the end and very carefully. I did not get splattered! 

Gross failure 

Finally busted out the mixer. So pretty. 

So, putting it into the baking pan. This should be the easiest part, right? Well, there really isn't much batter to put what you would think was enough for the "bread". But quartered it and put it on the bottom of the bread pan and it barely covered it. So I added a bit more. Then I put in the cream cheese filling and topped it with as much batter that I had left. 

See, half the batter gone 

and this is all that I could get into the pan

So, I baked it as it was. 40 minutes go by, I do the toothpick test. Tons of wet batter. Back in for five minutes, and another five minutes, and another five minutes. I added another 35 minutes to the baking time before I just took it out and let it rest. Since it seemed my bread would be a wet, bread pudding like one, I let it sit for a good ten minutes before even attempting to slice. 

Baked goodness

Resting for what seemed like forever

Bread...ish! 

I do not consider this a fail. The bread was delicious, though I think a lot had to do with the chocolate chips (I added it to the batter while in the bread pan so it would only affect half the batter and not the second loaf). Obviously there is no pretty cream cheese filling like in the original post. I honestly believe she used this recipe to make a full loaf and didn't want to admit it. There is no way that little amount of filling and batter could make a full loaf like her picture. Also, the only person that made a loaf that looked like the image was a person that used the full recipe for one loaf. 

Also, how the hell do you cut this dense bread into 14 slices? I did eight slices to get it even somewhat as thick as the image. I think it's about 300 calories a slice. Blah. 

But either way, our bread pudding bread is delicious! Try it and tell me how your experience goes! 

Recipe from Sunday Baker: 

{Pumpkin and Cream Bread}

Yield: 2 loaves (14 slices each)

Batter:

1-1/2 c. pureed pumpkin

1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce

1 whole egg

3 egg whites

1 c. all-purpose flour

2/3 c. whole wheat flour

1/2 c. Stevia Cup For Cup sweetener

1/2 c. granulated sugar

1 t. baking soda

1/2 t. ground cinnamon

1/2 t. ground nutmeg

Cream filling

8 oz. reduced fat cream cheese

1/4 c. granulated sugar

1 T. all-purpose flour

2 egg whites

1 t. vanilla extract

METHOD:

1. For the Batter: With an electric mixer, beat the pumpkin, applesauce, egg, and egg whites on medium speed until smooth. In a separate bowl, combine the flours, Stevia, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg. Slowly mix the flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture.

2. For the cream cheese filling: Beat the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, egg whites and flour until creamy and smooth.

3. Grease 2 8x4x2" loaf pans. Divide half of the batter between the two pans. Pour half of the filling in one pan and the other half in the second pan and smooth with the back of a spoon. Top with the remaining batter.

4. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Don't overbake or your bread will be dry on the edges. Cool and remove from pans. Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container.