This recipe is sponsored by Chiquita.

If there’s something I love, it’s a good challenge! Especially when it comes to cooking and being in the kitchen. I really enjoy creating my own recipes whether it’s for a simple dinner using what I have in the fridge/pantry or something more involved to share publicly that involves testing, photography and actually writing down the recipe I create (that my friends is the hardest part!).

That’s why I eagerly accepted an invitation from Chiquita to participate in their “Cooking Lab” Recipe Contest. It’s an ongoing program where Chiquita gives you three ingredients that must be used in your recipe and then you create and submit your unique recipe for a chance to win $2,000! Fun, right?

This week’s challenge ingredients are Chiquita bananas, chocolate chips and cream cheese. I got to work creating my recipe (which took multiple tests) and I’m super excited to share it with you today!

May I present Pumpkin Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips and Cream Cheese Swirl. That’s a mouthful that sounds like it could find a happy home on Pinterest, right?

I made a pumpkin banana bread batter and a cheesecake like filling for the swirl.

And baked them together to produce a delicious combination of sweet pumpkin banana bread with a tangy cream cheese filling that’s studded throughout with chocolate chips.

Here’s where I went wrong the first time…I didn’t bake it long enough. With the extra cream cheese layer, this bread needs a little extra time in the oven to “set.” I have major kitchen disasters sometimes and inverting this bad boy when it wasn’t cooked all the way through resulted in it slowly bursting at the sides and running all over the counter top right in front of my eyes. It was tragic.

The trick in the final test was tenting the bread with foil so it didn’t overly brown for the last 30 minutes or so of cooking. This bread needed a good 75 minutes in the oven for me and I made sure to give it extra time to cool in the pan before inverting to a rack to cool completely.

I’m going to share my recipe with you and I encourage you to get creative in the kitchen too and enter Chiquita’s challenge (and stay tuned for future challenges!). Winning $2,000 for creating a recipe kind of sounds wonderful to me!

Click here to get details. This week’s challenge closes on Sunday, November 1 at midnight so this would be a fun weekend project!

Pumpkin Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips and Cream Cheese Swirl
(Recipe developed by Jen Eddins)

This recipe is sponsored by Chiquita. Enjoy and so much thanks for your support.