There’s something about fall that just makes a girl want to bake.
It’s my first fall in Vancouver, and I’ve taken it on in full force, orange leaves, Aritzia sweaters, rain boots and pumpkin spice everywhere. I literally count down to pumpkin spice season and usually all of my fall baking revolves around cramming pumpkin into everything that I possibly could.
Buuuut, after discovering the apple crisp shaken espresso at Starbucks this year, I’ve been all about cramming apples into just about every recipe that I can. Enter, my apple cinnamon bread.
I guess you can’t really call it a tradition when it’s the first year that I’ve really mastered it. I mean I’ve baked apple breads before, but this is the first one where I’ve really taken a first bite and fallen in absolute love.
Honeycrisp apples, brown sugar, and all of that cinnamon goodness. I hope you fall in love with this berad as much as I have.
apple + cinnamon bread
The yummiest apple and cinnamon bread that just makes your kitchen smell like fall.
for the apple mixture
- 2 whole honeycrisp apples (peeled and chopped into 1/2 inch chunks)
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
for the batter
- 1 and 3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter (softened)
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs (at room temperature)
- 1/4 cup apple butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup skim milk
Adjust the oven rack to the lower third position and preheat to 350 °F (180 °C). Spray a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan with non stick spray and greaseproof baking parchment paper.
For the apples, stir the chopped apples, brown sugar and cinnaon together and set aside.
Make the batter. Whisk the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder and salt in a large bowl and set aside.
In a separate bowl, using either a handheld or stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until smooth – about 2 minutes. Add the eggs and beat on medium until combined and scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the apple butter and vanilla until combined. The mixture will look curdled and chunky – this is expected!
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and combine on a low speed and slowly pour the milk in. Beat until combined and do not overmix. There should be around 3 cups of batter.
Pour and spread 1/2 of the batter along the bottom of the loaf pan and spread the apple mixture ontop so its evenly dispersed. Add the remaining batter on top and swirl a pattern on top of the loaf using a knife.
Bake for 60 – 75 mins, checking on the loaf at the 30 minute mark and covering with foil to prevent burning. The loaf is done when a knife comes out clean.
Once cooled, slice and serve toasted with butter. Lasts for upto 1 week in the refrigerator.