🫐🍞 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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I love this! I think I actually like baked blueberries better than fresh, the flavors get so much more intense and lovely when baked.
I agree with you – I just usually can’t stop gobbling them fresh, but something about them baked…is just so good I need to remember to stop eating them fresh and just bake with them! ha!
Hahaha, this reminds me of the Seinfeld episode when Elaine opens up “Top of the Muffin” and throws out the stumps. It’s true, though — the muffin top IS the very best part! This break looks SO moist and buttery, and I love the crust on top and the cream cheese swirl. Drooling.
Thanks, Hayley! I never saw that episode but stump throwing sounds about right…ha!
Muffin tops are The best! Thank you for making a loaf-size version. (I prefer denser cakes too- I didn’t realize that melted butter would help take me there.) :D I always learn something new from you.
Yes the creaming/aerating/whipping process produces lightness whereas melted produces denser cakes/cookies etc. I mean there are exceptions by in general, that’s what I’ve both read and found to be true! Thanks for the pin as always!
All of it. I want the whole loaf. OK? Ok.
That crispy, golden top of a muffin really is the best part, isn’t it? I love that you covered an entire loaf of bread in the stuff – and cream cheese and blueberries IN the bread? I’m making this immediately.
Well please LMK how it goes! :)
I do certainly not live in the land of muffin. So all that muffintop talk confuses me a bit. But those pictures do not confuse me at all. The snow is falling without break for 24 hours now, and I’m in Narnia. I do really love the magic, but Averie I AM SO SICK OF WINTER VEGETABLES!! All I eat is carrots, every single relative to the cauli&beet family, onions, and apples. I want berries too!! Maybe I will stop this eating-local and seasonal issue and buy frozen blueberries tomorrow. Frozen doesn’t count, right?! I’ll buy organic! And I have an invitation for lunch on wednesday, so I have an excuse to make it too! I will try to swirl it on purpose, that’s the way I like it!! Blueberries are my favourite. I even named my cat blueberry! Wish me luck for my spin on it!!
If you have a cat named Blueberry, it’s only destiny you make this! Please LMK how it goes! And yes, frozen foods are your friend in the dead of winter in most!! parts of the world!
Ok. You’re probably sick of me changing your beatiful reciepes, but I can’t help it, I have to make it all Wholewheat and sugarless. Now I probably did a cookingblog-blasfemy, by crossing this reciepe of yours with Sally’s “skinny chocolate banana bread muffins” (over at Sally’s baking addiction). But I love the result! I took her reciepe as a base, omitted everything chocolate by substituing the cocoa powder with coconut flakes, and here is where your reciepe comes in: I used buttermilk in the mixture and blueberries, and a cream cheese swirl in the middle! I hope I don’t disappoint you to much as a reader, I still really really like your posts, even if I am rubbish at sticking to recepies! I promise! :)
Not sick of you at all! I am glad you’re able to make things sugarfree or whole wheat as necessary! Sally is a good friend of mine and it’s nice that you can combine our two recipes into something that works well for you! Thanks for the field report, as always! :)
Oh this looks so incredibly moist, and delicious….and that muffin top thing….to die for. Buttermilk, cream cheese, and blueberries? I’ve got to make it. You have too many mouth-watering recipes. I’m going to go crazy trying to decide which one to make first!
Well whatever you try, please come back and LMK!
A whole loaf of bread that tastes like a muffin top… I think I just died and went to heaven! I can’t WAIT to try this one!!!
How did you know I was a muffin top girl? My husband always gets mad because I only eat the top and throw the rest away. You just saved a future argument with this amazing sounding bread! The cream cheese swirl sounds like heaven!
You’re a stump thrower. My husband only GETS the stumps. After I’m done with the tops :)
Averie this is like the bread of my dreams. Ohmygoodness!!
Averie this has to be the most beautiful bread I’ve ever seen on your site! Or ever, for that matter. That cream cheese swirl outline looks irresistible. I can just *see* how moist this is. It looks like it would melt in my mouth! The muffin top-ness of this reminds me of your strawberry banana bread from last year. When I’m eating a muffin, it’s mostly just for the sticky moist top anyway. And this reminds me of banana bread in the sense that it only get better as days pass, just like the cornstarch cookies we’ve both made before as well. This is a wonderful bread to bake one night and enjoy for brunch the next morning. Oh and did I mention it’s beautiful?
Oh wow, I did not like these pics that much. Thanks for saying that you like them! I honestly just wanted to get this recipe posted and forget I ever took these images. Seriously wasn’t too happy with them. It was a super overcast day the day I took them and it was both too bright and too dark all at the same time and then the white bread, dark berries, dark wood (which I didn’t like when I saw the images)…the contrasts were so stark. But anyway…the recipe works :) Really well! It’s super moist and wonderful and it’s rare that any baked good gets better with time, but this one actually did!
wow these look absolutely awesome. I recently made a blueberry banana bread which this kinda reminds me of. The colors of the blueberries look beautiful in yours though! Thanks for sharing!
I love banana bread and have about 10 different recipes for it! Yours sounds great!
There is only one kind of muffin top I like, and this definitely qualifies.
I am home sick today and this looks like just the thing to spark my appetite again – I am dying for a piece!
Feel better!!
blueberries + cream cheese = perfect.
these are going straight to my muffin top.
After a weekend of two loaves of this stuff, I need extra cardio to prevent the ole muffin top :)
The top of the muffin is the best–and I’ve definitely decided not to try a muffin top pan because everyone seems disappointed in the results. Those close up photos–wow–they look like muffin tops! Thanks for the tip about adding some flour to the blueberries. I have had that problem when adding berries to batter and always wondered how to fix it. You’ve come up with another wonderful quick bread!
And it’s hardly a ‘quickbread’ in the traditional sense. It’s a cake-muffin-something. So much more than bread…I didn’t even want to call it bread! There wasn’t a name for it but that was the best I could do. I loved this stuff. It was sooooo good. It’s gone. We polished it off in RECORD time, inhaling it all! And yes on the flour trick – that will help you tons! You can also do it to chocolate chips that you want to suspend in say a Bundt cake.