However, I signed up for the Secret Recipe Club this month, so that I at least had one exciting dish to look forward to. I was assigned IlonasKitchen. I found out that she is from New Jersey too and I had a blast looking through all the recipes finding delicious ones like Pork Carnitas, Creamy Goat Cheese Pasta with Lemon and Spinach, and for dessert Strawberry Cake Batter Blondies. Every recipe sounded delicious, but I settled for Apple Pie Bread. I love quickbreads and am going through a Honeycrisp apple phase, so it sounded like the perfect pairing.
Apple Pie Bread
slightly adapted from IlonasKitchen
Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups chopped, peeled apple (about 4 medium)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon all spice
1/4 teaspoon ginger
Topping
2 tablespoons brown sugar
pecans
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease the bottom and 1/2 inch up the sides of an 9x5x3-inch loaf pan; set aside.
2. In a large bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Beat in both sugars until combined. Add buttermilk and baking powder; beat until combined. Add eggs and vanilla; beat until combined. Add flour and salt; beat until combined. Stir in apple and spices.
3. Spoon batter into prepared pan; spread evenly. Sprinkle brown sugar and nuts over the batter. Bake for 60 to 65 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
4. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.
The second you bite into this bread you just want to say yum. It has all the comfort qualities of apple pie in a quick bread. I just eyeballed my apples and I think I had more apples than batter, but it paid off in the long run. Each bite was bursting with apples and flavor. The only thing that the original recipe called for that I wish I would have done was add the pecans to the batter. I loved the crunch that they added to the top layer, but I think it would have been better if they were throughout the batter as well. I guess it just depends if the people that you're feeding it to like nuts. I can't wait to use this quick bread for get togethers in the future.
