My parents came for dinner this past week. It was our last visit before they migrated South for the winter. They brought a bag full of groceries they could not use before leaving. In it was a big bag of assorted apples. This morning I peeled and chopped and folded them into my mom's apple bread recipe. I made a few tweaks here and there but essentially it is the recipe my mom made when we were growing up.
Mom never had buttermilk in the house so she always used sour milk - a splash of lemon juice mixed with milk. The recipe calls for walnuts and I used pecans. The spices used are cinnamon, nutmeg and clove - I used pumpkin pie spice. And I'm not sure mom knew whole wheat flour was an option back in the day.
Like any recipe it's really just a flavor profile. Take it and make it your own. And here is what I made this morning.
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup organic cane sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
2 Tbsp buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 cups apples, peeled and chopped (really more like 3 cups)
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
2 Tbsp cane sugar
2 Tbsp flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
Blend butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and mix until combined. Add baking soda, buttermilk and vanilla and mix some more. Add flour and mix until combined. Stir in nuts and apples. (Here I laugh because it says to pour the batter into a loaf pan. This is a thick sticky batter and pouring is out of the question.) Spoon into a loaf pan and pat down until even.
Combine melted butter, sugar, flour and cinnamon. Spread on top of the batter evenly.
Bake at 350 degrees until toothpick comes out clean 30 to 60 minutes.
