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Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Bread and Muffins

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Muffins

Last year I hinted at a future incarnation of my Pumpkin Cinnamon Chip Cheesecake Bread and I am nothing if not a keeper of promises. Though, this is probably not a promise you all remembered from one little post in November 2014, but just in case one of you did remember and has spent the last 12 months anxiously awaiting that new, equally delicious version of that loaf cake I have now kept my promise!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Muffins

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Muffins

That previous pumpkin bread recipe was so perfect that it would’ve been borderline sacrilegious to alter it too much. With a thick, rich pumpkin flavor countered by creamy, tangy cheesecake layer, this bread was an instant favorite for the fall holiday season. And what is the one additional flavor that makes everything better? Yep. Chocolate!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Scones

What do you mean you’ve already had your fill of pumpkin?! It’s only been a month and a half of the annual pumpkin spice takeover! We are only halfway done! Trust me, in a few weeks when all the pumpkin yumminess is gone and replaced with gingerbread and eggnog everything, you’ll be glad you took as full advantage of pumpkin season as possible. (Unless you are like me and never get tired of pumpkin/pumpkin spice everything; if that is you I’m going to let you know that pumpkin baked goodies freeze very very well 😉 .)

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Scones

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Scones

Pumpkin White Chocolate Chip Scones

FINALLY! It’s FINALLY October so it’s FINALLY acceptable for me to post something pumpkin. Now, here in Southern California we are amazingly pumpkin spice anything obsessed despite it never really being cold enough to justify the warming, spicy taste of anything pumpkin spice flavored. Maybe it’s a case of wishful thinking, or hope that it’ll turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy (we act like it’s cold maybe it will become cold). But who can blame us when pumpkin is the best thing about this season?!

Pumpkin White Chocolate Scones

Pumpkin White Chocolate Scones

The other week I binge-baked pumpkin scones. I couldn’t help myself. I like variety and I love chocolate and I love love pumpkin, so it only made sense to make multiple batches of pumpkin scones.

Hidden Pumpkin Spice Kiss Cookies

It’s almost Christmas cookie season! Obviously I looooooove baking so the frenzy of cookie baking in the month before Christmas is basically my favorite time of the year. I have no idea how many batches of cookies my mom and I make each holiday season; maybe this year I’ll keep track but I’d almost be afraid at the answer. It has to be upwards of 50? So it’s a good thing all my friends love getting Christmas cookies for presents!

Ughhhh the anticipation is killing me. But I can’t justify starting Christmas cookie baking when it isn’t even Thanksgiving yet! I won’t even play holiday music until Friday. So what’s a girl to do when she wants to bake Christmas cookies but morally can’t yet? She turns her Christmas cookies into Thanksgiving cookies!

hidden pumpkin spice kiss cookies

hidden pumpkin spice kiss cookies

And so we have the birth of Hidden Pumpkin Spice Kiss Cookies.

Pumpkin Spice Shortbread

Scottish shortbread is one of my favorite cookies, which is super bizarre because I am a card-carrying member of the Soft Cookie Club.  But for some reason, Scottish shortbread makes me forget all soft cookies in favor of shortbread’s buttery sweetness. Top it with strawberry jam or lemon curd and I may just choose shortbread over scones (shocking, I know, but it’s a distinct possibility).

Pumpkin Spice Shortbread

Pumpkin Spice Shortbread

The problem best part about this British cookie is the tradition behind it. Quick history lesson? Scottish shortbread is believed to have come from the medieval “biscuit bread”. Leftover bread dough was left out in a low oven to be twice-baked and covered in sugar and spices. Eventually the biscuit bread’s yeast was replaced by butter and supposedly Scottish shortbread is born. 

Pumpkin Cinnamon Chip Cheesecake Bread and Muffins

I couldn’t help myself. Normally I try to post my recipes in order of when I make/photograph them–as long as they are seasonally appropriate–but today all that is going out the window. I got some awesome personal news this morning so we should all celebrate with cake!…ish desserts. That are seasonally appropriate.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Chip Cheesecake Bread

Pumpkin Cinnamon Chip Cheesecake Bread

The name is a mouthful, and not just because you are probably saying it through a mouthful of this delicious quick bread. But it combines three amazing dessert components into one super duper amazing package. I mean, pumpkin? Cinnamon chips?! CHEESECAKE?! When will the incredibleness that is this bread end? Exactly. It won’t.