.apple streusel spice bread.

In 2005, around the fall holidays, I was trying to think of ways to make a little side cash. I had been teaching piano and voice for years, but having moved here to Georgia, I was looking for some change. I thought about what I could do and remembered when I was growing up, we would make pies and breads to sell to neighbors and friends. I had a lightbulb moment and said to myself, "Hey I could do that!"

So I started working on my baking menu and one of the breads I created was an apple streusel spice bread. My first baking holiday (Thanksgiving) I sold $300.00 worth of bread and pie. I quadrupled that for the month of December. I was baking almost non-stop!

This bread was made daily at the bakery and was loved by many. I have even had some calls since closing the bakery asking if I could make them a loaf. It's that good. I'm sure you'll enjoy it too!


In a large bowl, put 2 cups flour, 2/3 cup sugar, 2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp cinnamon, and 1 tsp allspice. Mix.


In another bowl, put 1/2 cup applesauce, 1/3 cup melted butter (do not omit this), 2 Tbsp milk, and 2 eggs. Whisk.


Peel, core, and chop 1 granny smith apple. You can use 2 if you want more apple. I think this is a good balance though.


Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry.


Mix with a fork until the wet are incorporated. Don't overwork. If the batter seems a little too runny, add a little more flour. If the batter seems too thick, add a little more milk.



Add the apple and fold in.


Pour the batter into a greased bread pan.


In a small bowl, put 1/2 cup flour, and 3 Tbsp brown sugar. Mix together.


Cut in 3-4 Tbsp butter. You want the topping nice and crumbly. If you want to add some chopped nuts, do so at this time.


Dump the streusel topping on top of the bread.

Put in a 425* preheated oven.

After 10 minutes, lower the temperature of the oven to 350*. The heat of the oven will force hot air through the batter, giving it lift, and then lowering it will ensure it's baked all the way through.

Continue to bake for another 50 or so minutes. The bread is done when a toothpick inserted comes out clean.


Pull from the oven. It will be nice and golden on top.


Carefully tip the bread out of the pan and onto a cooling rack. You will lose some of the streusel topping -- sorry. :)

Serve warm with or without butter.

Enjoy!


Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_113fj4pn3g6

.apple streusel muffins.

When I was 17, I worked during the summer at my Dad's bank (not his bank..but the bank he worked for) doing odd jobs to earn money. There was a bakery around the corner that sold every kind of muffin you could ever think of. They had chocolate chip muffins, blueberry, zucchini, carrot cake, YOU NAME IT, they had it. My absolute favorite was their Apple Streusel muffin. When I opened my bakery, I wanted to have a ton of varieties for my patrons just like this place.



Muffins at the bakery were very popular. People would walk in and glance into the display case and gasp at the size of these massive treats. I don't use the traditional muffin pans. I use Texas sized muffin pans for honkin huge Texas sized muffins!

This recipe calls for zero transfat and with apple pieces baked into each muffin? Yummy wholesome-y goodness. The *only* fat is the 1/4 cup butter in the streusel topping. Can't beat that!



In a bowl, mix together:
4 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup powdered milk

This is my standard muffin mix. When making various flavor muffins, however, I jazz it up.



For these muffins, we're going to add 1 Tbsp cinnamon.










Peel, core, and dice two granny smith apples. You don't want the pieces too big or else they won't bake enough and you'll have hard pieces in your moist muffins.

In a measuring cup, put 1 cup applesauce. This replaces the oil!

Leave the apple sauce in the cup and then fill it to the 2 cup line with cold water.

Add 2 eggs to the measuring cup. Mix together to blend the wet ingredients together.

Pour it all into the dry ingredients.

Mix only until the dry ingredients are wet. You WANT your batter to be thick and lumpy. If it's *too* thick, add a little more apple sauce. You don't want it soupy though because then they won't rise and you won't have the nice muffin top we're going for.

Add the apple pieces and mix together. Remember. Don't overwork it!
















Spoon into a sprayed muffin pan about 3/4 of the way up.

Now let's make the streusel topping.

In a bowl put 3/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup butter, cut up.

Cut the butter in with a pastry blender until it's nice and crumbly. I love adding walnuts to the topping. I'm out of them right now, but if you have some, add them at this stage (about 1/2 cup).

Put some of the streusel topping on top of each muffin.

Put in a preheated 425* oven.

Bake for 10-15 minutes at this temp. When they are nice and domed, reduce the heat immediately to 350* and bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

The key to nice lifted muffin tops is to not have too wet a batter, and start the baking off with a high temp. It forces the hot air through the muffin giving it that peak.

Pull from the oven when done and dump onto cooling racks. Let them cool on their tops before standing upright. The heavy muffin tops will sometimes make the bottoms collapse in on themselves. We don't want flat muffins!

Serve with fresh fruit or with butter. ;) Enjoy!

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_42hjzk2bqt