Sweet Tooth Sunday-Apple Bread

Yummy smells filled the air of our apartment today. In keeping with the fall apple theme, I made apple bread. It's a take on banana bread, but filled with delicious, in-season apples and some apple pie spice.

Before I made the bread, I created a homemade apple pie spice. You won't use the whole amount in the apple bread, so there's lots of extras for future apple pies.

Apple Pie Spice, from My Baking Addiction
2 tbsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground allspice
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
3/4 tsp. ground cardamom

Combine all the ingredients and put in a air tight jar or ziploc.



Apple Bread, from My Baking Addiction

For the batter:
1/2 c. unsalted butter, softened
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. light brown sugar
1/4 c. buttermilk
2 tsp. baking powder
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 c. flour
2 tsp. homemade apple pie spice
1/2 tsp. salt
2 c. peeled and shredded apples (2 or 3 apples)
3/4 c. pecans, chopped (see my tip below)
1/2 c. dried cranberries

For the streusel topping:
1/4 c. light brown sugar
3 tbsp. flour
1/4 tsp. apple pie spice
3 tbsp. unsalted butter
1/3 c. pecans, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x5 loaf pan with nonstick baking spray. Set aside.

In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, or using a hand blender and a bowl, beat the butter on high for about 30 seconds until it's creamy. Add the sugar and brown sugar and mix until combined. Add the buttermilk and baking powder and beat until combined. Add the eggs and vanilla until combined.

In a separate medium bowl, combine the flour, apple pie spice, and salt. Gradually combine, on slow-medium speed, the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Once it's combined, fold in the shredded apples, pecans and cranberries. Add the batter to the loaf pan.

In a separate bowl, combine the sugar, flour and apple pie spice for the streusel topping. The original recipe said to use a pastry blender to add the butter. But since I didn't have one, I just mushed the butter into it with my hands until it balled up. Add the pecans to the mix and crumble the topping on top of the batter.

Bake for 60-65 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool the pan for 10 minutes on a wire rack. After 10 minutes, removed the bread from the pan and cool on a wire rack completely.

**Tip for chopping pecans: Put the pecans in a ziploc bag and close. On a cutting board, take a dull, non-serated knife and chop at the bag. Having the pecans in a bag keeps them from flying across the room as you chop.