Spiced Pear & Pistachio Bread

For the pear and pistachio bread:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 F. Line a standard sized 9×5-inch loaf pan with parchment paper, leaving a paper overhang on both sides so you can easily lift the loaf out of the pan once it has baked.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together all of the dry ingredients other than the sugar (flour through salt).

3. In a large bowl, beat together the cooled melted butter, egg, sugar, and vanilla extract.

4. Add half of the dry mixture into the wet mixture and whisk to combine. Stir in the whole milk and heavy cream, then add the rest of the dry mixture and whisk well. Fold in the pears and pistachios.

5. Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf pan and bake 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean. Remove pan from oven and set it on a rack. Let bread cool for 15 minutes in the pan, then use the parchment paper to lift the loaf out of the pan to cool directly on the rack until completely cool. Just keep the paper on the bread because you’ll use it in a little bit. And you don’t need to clean the pan yet because you’ll use it again later as well.

For the maple cream cheese drizzle:

1. Combine the cream cheese, maple syrup and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whip attachment. Mix until combined, about 2 minutes.

2. Once the loaf has cooled, use the parchment paper to lift the loaf back into the loaf pan. Pour the maple cream cheese drizzle over the top of the loaf. Refrigerate until set (thirty minutes or so). Or … if you can’t wait for all of the cooling, serve individual pieces of pear bread and drizzle the maple cream cheese mixture over the top.