Caramel Apple Bread
When I think fall, I think apples. Applesauce, apple pie, and even apple bread and what is the easiest and quickest way to satisfy my need for a fall apple baking project? I say a quickbread recipe of course and while I’m at it, make sure it includes another of my favorite toppings, caramel sauce. There you have it. The perfect fall, quick and easy recipe, apple bread with caramel topping. If that doesn’t put you in the fall mood, nothing will.
Adapted from and inspired by a recipe on www.thedomesticrebel.com
Click here for recipe
Bread
1 C unsalted butter, room temperature
½ C (98 g) granulated sugar
1 t (4 g) baking soda
1 T (15 ml) lemon juice
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 t (10 ml) vanilla extract
2 C (10 oz/283 g) all-purpose flour
¼ t salt
2-3 t (4 – 6 g) ground cinnamon
¼ t ground nutmeg
⅛ t ground cloves
2 C (8 ¾ oz/250 g) peeled, coarsely chopped apples
½ C (224 g/120 ml) caramel sauce
Streusel
1 t (2 g) ground cinnamon
4 T (48 g) brown sugar
4 T (36 g) all-purpose flour
4 T cold butter, cut into cubes
Position oven rack in middle position and heat to 375° F (190° C). Spray a 5 x 9-inch loaf pan with nonstick baking spray with flour. Set aside.
In bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment on medium speed, cream butter and sugar together until lighter in color and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Meanwhile, in small bowl, dissolve baking soda into lemon juice. Don’t be surprised when it fizzles and bubbles up. Whisk in eggs and vanilla until combined and pour egg mixture into butter mixture, beating well.
Add in flour, salt, and spices until just barely combined. Do not over mix. There should be flour spots still throughout batter. Fold in apples and mix until just barely combined. Over-mixing will lead to a tough and dense bread.
In another medium bowl, whisk together dry streusel ingredients. Using pastry cutter, cut cold butter into streusel mixture until you achieve coarse crumbs. Spread half of apple bread mixture into prepared pan. Top with half of streusel and drizzle with caramel sauce (about ¼ cup). Repeat layers.
Bake approximately 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean or with moist – not wet – crumbs attached. Rotate pan midway through baking. Cool completely before serving. Drizzle with more caramel sauce before serving.
Makes: 1 loaf
Click here for Baker's Notes
9 Sep 18 – Made 2 loaves, for the Cobbs and us using their apples. Made the streusel before making the batter which is more logical to me so it is ready when you begin assembly things. Using the streusel ingredient quantities created 135 g of streusel. The recipe suggested you could use either 8 or 9-inch loaf pans. I chose my smaller 8-in Williams-Sonoma gold but as it turns out, the larger pan definitely as the better choice. The butter temp before creaming was 65 which was slightly cooler but it and the sugar creamed up nicely after 2 ½ minutes. The recipe alerts you that combining the baking soda and lemon juice you’ll get a foamy reaction. I definitely did and when you added the lemon/egg mixture to the creamed butter/sugar it broke but corrected itself when I added the flour mixture. The recipe suggested a 4 to 6 g range on cinnamon. I used 5 g. It took 4 to 5 small apples to generate 4 cups or 250 g. I used the Danish whisk to incorporate the apples into the batter. The recipe warns twice not to overmix. Assembly was straight forward if not a little tedious due to layering which was my first serious consideration that the large pan would have been better. Each batter layer weighed approx 495 g and when added the streusel and caramel layers, the pan was full. As for caramel, I used to varieties I had on hand, including one jar of Alba. The bread was baked in the island ovens on 360° F convention heat. Within the first 30 mins, the bread in both pans crested ¾-in above the lip and juices were seeping out. Luckily, I place both pans on a cookie sheet just in case. I checked for doness at 57 mins and the skewer came out clean but the edge felt more firm than the center. I bake for an additional 7 mins (65 total). The tops only fell slightly upon cooling and the bread remove from pans surprisingly well with only slight encouragement from me as well as running a straight edge around top before flipping pans. Unfortunately, bread did NOT crown as expected in small pan. Top was flat. Very moist but not overly so with good texture. I liked the crunchy streusel top both for its texture and taste. The bread was flavorful with noticeable apple taste. It could have been a bit sweet. The next time I would use brown sugar in lieu of the granulated sugar in the bread. After 3 days, shelf life is still good.