🫐🍞 My Blueberry Cream Cheese Loaf Bread tastes like one big blueberry muffin top and is more like a dense cake-meets-muffin top than bread. It’s fall-apart tender, soft, and super moist while staying springy, bouncy, and oozing with blueberries!
Quick & Easy Blueberry Cream Cheese Loaf
I love blueberry muffins like my skinny blueberry muffins and classic blueberry muffins, but my favorite part is by far the muffin tops. Those sweet, super-moist crowns that adorn muffins but are gone in about three bites.
So I decided to bake a whole loaf of bread that tastes like one big muffin top, making it even better with a cream cheese layer inspired by my reader-favorite cream cheese-filled banana bread and cream cheese-filled pumpkin bread.
- Perfect for breakfast, brunch, or dessert, the bread tastes more like a dense cake. It’s super springy, bouncy, and soft, never dry.
- The recipe makes two loaves, one 9-by-5-inch and one 8-by-4-inch, just like my Carrot Cake Loaf recipe. It’s perfect for sharing!
- The blueberries soften as they bake, releasing their juices and infusing each bite with incredible fruity flavor.
This is amazing! So easy to make and delicious. We used fresh blueberries, and wouldn’t change a thing about the recipe. It was nice to have an extra smaller loaf to share.
Melissa
Ingredients You’ll Need
This blueberry bread recipe comes together with pretty much the same ingredients used for muffins. Here’s a list of everything you’ll need:
- Cream Cheese: Use full-fat, brick-style cream cheese for the best results. Let it sit out of the refrigerator to soften. The softer the cream cheese is, the easier it will be to mix. If yours isn’t quite soft enough, heat in the microwave for 5 seconds
- Sugar: I use granulated sugar to sweeten the cream cheese mixture and bread. I also include light brown sugar in the bread batter for extra sweetness, moisture, and a subtle molasses taste
- Blueberries: Fresh or frozen berries both work well. No need to thaw them first
- Flour: All-purpose flour forms the base of the quick bread
- Unsalted Butter, Buttermilk, and Oil: These add moisture and richness to the bread. Use a neutral oil like canola oil or vegetable oil for the best results
- Eggs
- Leaveners: Both baking powder and baking soda help the bread rise as it bakes
- Salt: This is optional. I omitted it, because the buttermilk is already salted
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make a Blueberry Cream Cheese Loaf
- Prepare the wet ingredients. Combine cream cheese and granulated sugar in a bowl. Then, toss the blueberries with flour in a second mixing bowl. Combine melted butter, buttermilk, oil, eggs, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla in a third bowl.
- Add the dry ingrdients. Once the butter mixture is smooth, whisk in flour, leaveners, and salt just until combined. Be careful not to overmix! Gently fold in the blueberries.
- Layer. Portion the batter evenly between two prepared pans. Distribute the cream cheese mixture evenly, and pour the remaining blueberry batter on top.
- Bake the loaves until the top is set, and the center is golden brown. A toothpick inserted into the center may not come out clean because of the cream cheese filling. If the bread is browning fast on top before the center is cooked through, tent with foil in the last 15 minutes of cooking.
- Cool the bread in the pan slightly. Then, transfer the loaves to a wire rack to cool completely, and enjoy!
Blueberry Cream Cheese Loaf
Ingredients
- 8 ounces cream cheese, well softened (whipped or light are okay, I use Trader Joe’s Whipped Light)
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- ½ cup unsalted butter, melted
- ¾ cup buttermilk
- ¼ cup to 1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil, see below
- 2 large eggs
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- ¼ cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- pinch salt, optional (buttermilk is already a salted milk and I omitted adding salt)
- 1 ½ teaspoons lemon zest, optional for lemon-flavored bread (I omitted)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F; spray loaf pans with floured cooking spray; set aside. I used one 9-by-5-inch loaf pan and one 8-by-4-inch loaf pan. Or try two 9×5 inch pans, a 10- to 12-cup Bundt or tube cake pan, 9-inch springform pan and bake as a coffee cake, or muffin pans. Do not use two 8×4 pans; batter will not all fit.
- In a medium bowl, combine the cream cheese, 1/2 cup granulated sugar, and whisk vigorously to combine. The softer the cream cheese is, the easier this will be. If yours isn’t quite soft enough, heat in the microwave for 5 seconds. Set bowl aside.
- In another medium bowl, combine blueberries, 1 tablespoon flour, and toss gently to coat. This helps prevent blueberries from sinking to the bottom of the pan while baking. If using frozen berries, keep them frozen or very cold rather than thawing them in advance because they stay intact better and bleed less when still frozen or very cold.
- In a large microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter, about 1 minute on high power. Add the buttermilk, oil (I use 1/2 cup canola oil and the second day and beyond it’s perfect. The first day it’s a bit oily, but I don’t mind it and it dries out on the second day and longterm results are great. If you prefer drier bread, use 1/4 to 1/3 cup noting bread will dry out more as it ages), eggs, 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, and whisk vigorously until combined.
- Add 2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder, optional salt, and stir to incorporate; don’t overmix. Gently fold in the blueberries. Eyeball it and pour about one-quarter of the batter into each of the two prepared pans, with the 9×5 getting slightly more than the 8×4; batter should come up about one-third of the way up the side of each pan.
- Distribute the cream cheese mixture between the two pans, with the larger pan getting slightly more. Smooth it lightly with a spatula. Distribute remaining blueberry batter roughly evenly between the two pans, with the larger pan getting slightly more. Smooth it lightly with a spatula.
- Bake the two loaves (9×5 and 8×4) for 45 to 65 minutes, or until top is set in the center and golden; a toothpick may or may not come out clean because it could hit a patch of cream cheese. Baking times will vary greatly by pan sizes used. I baked the 8×4 loaf for 48 minutes and the 9×5 for 60 minutes. Muffins or mini loaves could bake in as short as 20 minutes, a big Bundt cake may need 60 to 65 minutes. Allow bread to cool in pans for at least 15 minutes before removing and transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. If bread is browning fast on top before center is cooking through, tent with foil in last 15 minutes of cooking.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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This looks so delicious!!! love the cream cheese addition.
This bread looks delightfully scrumptious! Blueberries are one of my favorite berries, right after raspberries.
What a great alternative to regular blueberry muffins. Sounds like a perfect snack for any time of day!
You had me at muffin top! Made blueberry coffee cake over the weekend myself. My craving for summer fruits has returned!
I almost baked this as a coffee cake right off the bat – and listed it in the recipe section as a pan option. And honestly it would be amazing as a coffee cake. Your cake sounds fab!
I have never baked with cream cheese, but I might have to now! And I’ve been in a huge blueberry mood lately, so this is probably going to be added to my list!
And although I love a juicy muffin top, I’m definitely have to remember the one around my waistline before eating the whole loaf!
By the way, I’m posting about your carrot cake with cream cheese frosting later today!
https://vintagezest.blogspot.com/
Never baked with cream cheese? You need to change that asap! :)
Feel free to leave a comment on my carrot cake post with a link to yours once it’s up! Thanks, Diane!
Such a beautiful bread and I know it tastes amazing, Averie! YUM!
That looks so good. Love blueberries. Love all of your hints and tips too with baking. As always…thank you for sharing!
Thanks, Heather :)
This bread… I just can’t… it is so amazing. Looooooooooove it.
Knowing what I know about you after opening up like 30 of your recipes last week on your site! I bet you’d love this, Heather!
You can definitely tell this is a moist bread, not a dry one! I’m fine with drier bread if it’s just for a sandwich where my main interest are sandwich fillings, but dry sweet breads are not my thing! Good tip on coating the berries before adding them to the batter – no one wants blueberry-bottom bread.
And the strategy also works with choc chips if you want to suspend them in say a bundt cake. And yes, who would EVER want to eat a dry sweet cake? What a total caloric waste!
I would much rather eat a muffin top than a muffin bottom! And a whole loaf of muffin top…fabulous. Love that cream cheese swirl!
Mmmmm . . . blueberries in a breakfast bread or muffin is my favorite. This looks incredibly moist and flavorful–wow!
Speaking of muffin-tops…I think I’ve gained one just by looking at these pictures. Wow! I’m definitely the girl who picks the tops of the muffins off and then…yes, I sneak them back. (Only at home, though!) This bread looks like a perfect compromise; I really can’t wait to try it once I buy blueberries!
I don’t think my husband even knows what muffin tops taste like; I pick them all off before he can even get to them. We have containers of muffintop-less ‘bald’ muffins. Lol
Muffin top bread – what a glorious idea! I love your tip about coating the blueberries in flour to prevent sinking. I also rather have my ‘add-in’ dispersed throughout. I assume it would work with just any berries or maybe even chocolate chips?
Yes it does work with chocolate chips! They aren’t quite as heavy and prone to sinking but it does work with them. Another tip for those is to use mini chips. Sometimes I don’t always want mini chips and want full size, but mini chips can correct the problem too!
The tops are my favorite part of the muffin and I really wish bakeries would just sell them like that. Blueberry and cream cheese is such a great combo!!! Wonderful recipe!!!
I wish they would just bake muffins and whack off the tops and sell those. As I mentioned in the last line of the post, those muffin top pans really don’t work so hot. You pretty much have to bake the whole muffin I find. No shortcuts…boo!
I lurrrrrrrve me some muffin tops! I used to get really mad at ones made in muffin top pans because while they were shaped like muffin tops, they didn’t have the same texture/moisture that real ones had. I can see how this bread may resemble the muffin top all the way to the bottom though! Nice:) And I like the artistic cream cheese swirl.
Exactly what you just said about the muffin top pans is what I wrote in the parting thoughts of the post. The pans don’t work well for a variety of reasons; mostly baking chemistry. You can’t expect to bake something in a flat little pan and get the same results as you do on a full size muffin that’s baked as usual. It’s a good thought though :) But yeah I concur!
Whoops, my bad on that. I read the article but when I got to your questions I got so excited in my answer I skipped the part right after and went to comment. Color me embarrassed.
I’m glad we agree on the pan issue though:)
No apologies necessary! It’s funny when I read your comment I thought great minds think alike, not knowing if for sure you saw my little bit or not. My posts are long and I know that – don’t feel bad! I’m just glad you read :) Most people I’ve determined just look at the pics!
That sounds stupendous! The cream cheese swirl, OMG. I’ve been wanting to makes blueberry muffins for weeks, but I keep eating the fresh blueberries every time I buy a pint, LOL. I might need to frost my muffins with cream cheese YUM!
And the loaf that I didn’t have to invert at the last second from an 8×4 into a 9×5 pan, that was baked intact so to speak; the cream cheese is floating in this perfect layer. Like a layered cake with cream cheese frosting. It was so pretty…and so good :) I had to purposely forget about the blueberries I bought for these and went through a couple pints/trips to the store before I said enough…must.bake.with.them.