Book: Book Club this month picked “Matched” by Ally Condie and is really good. If you like “The Giver” by Lois Lowry, then you will probably like this book. It is another Young Adult Literature Dystopia novel following a young girl named Cassia.
Recipe: If you need yet another apple recipe, this is it. A great fall breakfast, snack or dessert, this apple fritter bread is like eating a apple fritter donut without all the grease and frying. Nuts would be great with the recipe as well and a welcome crunch to contrast the smooth apples.
We agreed the recipe does taste better the day after it is made. The apple juices seep into the bread and flavor the rest of the loaf. I did not attempt to replace the oil with applesauce, but I suspect this would work because I make this substitution very often.
Don’t need a whole loaf? Make muffins!
Need a cute gift to give? Make a bunch of mini versions! Wrap in plastic wrap and tie with a ribbon.
Need a dessert? Try this recipe in a 9×9 pan and just skip splitting the batter. Add the entire batter to the 9×9 pan and press all of the apples slightly into the top.
Apple tips: We love tart apples here and the Granny Smiths are a favorite. Other great apples to use in this would be Gala or Fuji. I would avoid Red and Golden Delicious as they turn to mush in the oven.
- 1 and ½ cups all purpose flour or half all purpose and half white whole wheat
- 1 and ¾ tsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. salt
- ⅔ cup sugar
- ¼ cup vegetable oil or butter, softened
- ¼ cup plain Greek yogurt or vegetable oil or butter, softened
- 2 eggs
- 1 and ½ tsp. vanilla
- ½ cup milk or almond milk
- Brown Sugar Mixture:
- ⅓ cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- Apple Mixture:
- 2 apples, peeled and chopped
- 2 Tb. sugar
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- Optional icing:
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1-3 Tb. milk
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Spray a 9x5 pan with cooking spray.
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
- If using butter, beat the butter and sugar together until blended. If using oil, just mix the oil and sugar thoroughly in a large bowl with a fork.
- Add eggs. Mix until blended. Add vanilla.
- Alternate adding the flour and milk into the mixture - always begin and end with flour. So, ⅓ flour mixture, ½ milk, ⅓ flour, ½ milk and rest of flour. Do not overmix. Just combine together and quit stirring.
- Now that the flour bowl is empty, you can make mix the brown sugar and cinnamon together.
- The apple mixture should be blended as well.
- Pour half of the bread batter into your prepared loaf pan. Add half the apples and half the brown sugar mix. Press down slightly. Add the remaining bread batter. Add the rest of the apples and brown sugar mix. Press down slightly. For optional swirls, drag a butter knife slowly through the bread in a snake like motion without touching the bottom of the pan.
- Bake 50-70 minutes. After the first 40 minutes, I placed foil on top to keep the top from becoming too brown. Test with a toothpick in the center for doneness - it should come out cleanly. Cool in the pan for about 30 minutes and then cool on a wire rack.
- For the icing, simply add the powdered sugar to a bowl. Mix just enough milk to it in order to get the consistency you like. I like it the consistency of honey. Drizzle onto cooled bread.
Adapted from Lui in Cucina
