‘Tis the season for all things apple! Although Fall isn’t my favorite time of year, I do look forward to the change of seasonal ingredients.
Apples, pears, pumpkins, and squash come into markets and we gradually make the change from salads and cool beverages to soups, stews, and steaming cups of cocoa.
We’re fortunate here in north Georgia to have many very productive apple growers. In a week or two the leaves will be golden and the roads literally clogged with sightseers.
By that time, we will have already visited our favorite market, brought home loads of apples, and be in the process of making applesauce, apple pie filling, and everything I can think of to enjoy those delicious red, green, and yellow fruits while the season is at its height.
This Apple Bread with Praline Topping is one of my favorite ways to use fresh Fall apples. I made it this month as my first participation recipe in #TwelveLoaves, a group of bloggers who join together in a monthly online bread baking party. I’m excited to be a part of the group and hope that my first effort is worthy of membership.
This is a delicious, moist, quick bread full of fresh apples, prunes and pecans. If you don’t think you want to include the prunes, you can increase the volume of apples but I encourage you to give them a go.
Prunes get a bad rap for causing gastric upset but that’s really only if you overindulge. They’re just dried plums after all and if you eat them in moderation, you shouldn’t have any problems at all. They add a nice moistness to the bread and just a bit of a variation in flavor.
There’s also a good measure of toasted pecans and then, just for good measure, I topped the whole thing with a sweet, buttery, caramel-y praline topping. Yum.
How to Make Apple Bread with Praline Topping:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Generously, grease and flour a 9×5 inch loaf pan and set aside.
Prep the apples and prunes. I don’t bother with peeling the apples, but suit yourself on that account. You’ll have about 1 1/2 cups of chopped apples and about a 1/3 to 1/2 cup of prunes.
Place 1/2 cup of the chopped pecans in a shallow baking pan and bake at 350 degrees for 6-7 minutes or until toasted. Stir once halfway through baking. Set the pecans aside to cool.
Beat together the sour cream, sugar, eggs, and vanilla on low speed until well combined.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture beating on low speed until just blended.
In a small bowl, toss the apples, prunes, and toasted pecans with one tablespoon flour. Tossing the fruit and nuts in flour will help keep them suspended in the wet batter. Otherwise, they could all sink to the bottom and that’s not what you want.
Stir the floured apples, prunes, and pecans into the batter.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared loaf pan.
Sprinkle the top with the remaining pecans very lightly pressing them onto the batter. I almost forgot to snap a photo of the pecan-topped batter before it started baking so I stuck my camera in the oven and grabbed a quick shot. Hope you can see what it should look like.
Bake for 1 hour or until a tester inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean. Check after about 40-45 minutes and if the top is beginning to brown too much, lightly cover with aluminum foil to prevent over cooking.
Cool the loaf in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from the pan and replace on the cooling rack.
In a heavy saucepan, bring the butter and brown sugar to a boil over medium heat. Cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Do not overcook (the topping will harden too much if overcooked). Remove from heat and immediately spoon the topping over the top of the loaf. I place a sheet of foil under the rack before pouring over the icing. I say it ‘s for easy cleanup. It’s really to catch the drips for the “cook’s treat.” :-)
Let cool completely.
Enjoy!
Apple Bread with Praline Topping
Ingredients
For the bread:
- 1 1/2 cups pecans, chopped, divided
- 8 oz. sour cream
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tblsp. vanilla
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus 1 tablespoon
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1 1/2 cups finely chopped apples (used Honeycrisp)
- 8 large prunes, coarsely chopped (optional)
For the topping:
- 1 stick (8 tblsp.) butter
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Generously, grease and flour a 9x5 inch loaf pan and set aside.
- Place 1/2 cup of the chopped pecans in a shallow baking pan and bake at 350 degrees for 6-7 minutes or until toasted. Stir once halfway through baking. Set the pecans aside to cool.
- Beat together the sour cream, sugar, eggs, and vanilla on low speed until well combined.
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture beating on low speed until just blended.
- In a small bowl, toss the apples, prunes, and toasted pecans with one tablespoon flour. Stir the apples, prunes, and pecans into the batter. Spoon the mixture into the prepared loaf pan and sprinkle the top with the remaining pecans very lightly pressing them onto the batter.
- Bake for 1 hour or until a tester inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean. Check after about 45 minutes and if the top is beginning to brown too much, lightly cover with aluminum foil to prevent over cooking.
- Cool the loaf in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from the pan and replace on the cooling rack.
- In a heavy saucepan, bring the butter and brown sugar to a boil over medium heat. Cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Do not overcook (the topping will harden too much if overcooked).
- Remove from heat and immediately spoon the topping over the top of the loaf. Let cool completely.
Notes
-- Recipe slightly modified from an original recipe on myrecipes.com Praline-Apple Bread
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More apple bread recipes you might enjoy from around the internet:
- Apple Pie Bread from My Baking Addiction
- Spiral Apple Bread with Caramel Apple Glaze from Inspired by Charm
- Apple Cinnamon Pull Apart Bread from Half Baked
- Pumpkin Apple Bread from Baked by Rachel
- Apple Strudel Bread from Bread in 5
- Apple Cheddar Bread from Gimme Some Oven
#TwelveLoaves is a monthly bread baking party created by Lora from Cake Duchess and run with the help of Heather of girlichef, which runs smoothly with the help of our bakers.
Our host this month is Heather from girlichef, and our theme is Apples. For more bread recipes, visit the #TwelveLoaves Pinterest board, or check out last month’s mouthwatering selection of #TwelveLoaves Pear Breads!
#TwelveLoaves: Apples
- Apple and Ham Pizza from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
- Apple Braid Bread from Basic N Delicious
- Apple Cider Levain Bread from A Shaggy Dough Story
- Apple Cinnamon Bagels from Kudos Kitchen by Renee
- Apple Cinnamon Rolls from That Skinny Chick Can Bake
- Apple Cranberry Bread from Try Anything Once Culinary
- Apple Harvest Bread from Cake Duchess
- Fresh Apple Bread with Praline Topping from Never Enough Thyme
- Praline-Apple Bread from A Baker’s House
- Savory Apple-Brie Pull-Apart with Curried Apple Butter from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
- Triple Apple Bread from girlichef
- Vegan Apple Biscoff Cinnamon Rolls from NinjaBaking
If you’d like to add your bread to this month’s #TwelveLoaves collection, here’s what you need to do:
- Post your Twelve Loaves bread on your blog, making sure to mention the Twelve Loaves challenge in your blog post (this helps us to get more members as well as share everyone’s posts).
- Please link your post to the linky tool at the bottom of this blog. The bread MUST meet the Twelve Loaves theme (October = Apples).
- Share your Twelve Loaves bread (must be baked and posted this month) on your blog by October 31, 2014.
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