Healthy Eating
Apple Bread
Description
Cinnamon, spice, and all the fall feels are baked up together in this moist, healthy Apple Bread made with fresh apples and applesauce.
Ingredients
- ½ cup walnut halves raw
- 2 cups tart apples cored, peeled, and ¼-inch diced, such as Cortland or Granny Smith (about 2 medium)
- 1 ½ cups whole wheat white flour or whole wheat pastry flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup unsweetened applesauce
- 2 tablespoons canola oil or light olive oil or melted, cooled coconut oil
- 2 tablespoons milk any kind you like (I used skim)
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- For Topping (Optional)
- 1 tablespoon sparkling sugar or turbinado (coarse, raw) sugar
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Directions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and lightly coat an 8×4-inch loaf pan with baking spray. Set aside.
- Spread the walnuts in a single layer on an ungreased baking sheet. Place in the oven and bake until toasted and fragrant, about 8 to 12 minutes, stirring once throughout. DO NOT WALK AWAY during the last few minutes and set a timer. Nuts love to burn the very moment you stop watching. Transfer to a cutting board. Once cool enough to handle, roughly chop and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the white whole wheat flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the applesauce, canola oil, milk, sugar, egg, and vanilla until smooth.
- Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, then add the wet ingredient all at once. Mix in by hand just until combined. The batter will look very thick and stiff.
- Fold in the apples and walnuts. It will be hard to do because the batter is so thick. Use a rubber spatula and smush and push it around gently but firmly as needed. Distribute the apples and walnuts as evenly as you can.
- Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. With the back of a rubber spatula, press and smooth the top so it is mostly flat. For the cinnamon sugar topping, stir the cinnamon and coarse sugar together in a small bowl. Sprinkle evenly over the top of the batter.
- Bake for 25 minutes, loosely tent with foil, then bake for 20 additional minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean without any wet batter clinging to it.* Place on a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy warm or at room temperature.
