I adapted this recipe for Cinnamon Apple Bread from a recipe that I read last year for a pull apart apple pie bread. I made it a couple of times as a pull apart bread but I kind of like my bread in slices. Big, thick slices, toasted with butter …. and you can’t do that with pull apart bread. So by rejigging the way that I lined the tin with bread dough, I now have a sliceable non-pull apart cinnamon apple pull apart bread – result!
Cinnamon and apple go well together, with pie recipes appearing as early as the 18 century pairing these two ingredients. Adding apples to bread isn’t a new thing either with recipes for apple bread featuring in cookery books in the 1860s. It is suggested that in France, pureed apples were used in bread to keep the amount of expensive flour to a minimum. Pureed apples were added to a basic unleavened dough and left for 12 hours before cooking. As well as bulking up the bread, it is suggested that the apple’s fermentation helped the bread to rise.
For this recipe, I used a mix of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger, but you could use shop bought apple pie spice, if you prefer. I used an unknown variety of apple (from a friend’s apple tree) that have quite a sharp taste. They worked really well, balancing out the sweetness of the cream cheese glaze that tops this delicious bread!
Cinnamon Apple Loaf
- Prep Time: 30m
- Cook Time: 45m
- Total Time: 2h 45m
- Serves: 10
- Category: Breads
Ingredients
For the bread
- 3/4 cup warm milk
- 7 grams active dry yeast
- 1/2 cup melted butter
- 1 egg
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 cups flour
For the filling
- 1/4 cup finely diced apples
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ginger powder
- 3/4 cup soft brown sugar
- 1/3 cup melted butter
For the icing
- 4 tablespoons cream cheese
- 1 cup powdered/icing sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla paste
- 2 tablespoons milk
Instructions
For the bread
- Pour luke warm milk into a large bowl and sprinkle over the yeast. Stir to dissolve and then let it sit for 5 minutes.
- In a bowl mix the melted butter, egg, sugar and salt to combine and then add this to the yeast/milk mixture.
- Add half of the flour to this mixture and beat until combined (approx 4 minutes). Beat in the remaining flour to make a rough dough.
- Place the dough into a greased bowl and cover with cling film and a tea towel and leave in a warm place until the dough has risen to double its size (approx 45 minutes).
- Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll out to a rectangle approx 20 x 10 inch
For the filling/putting it together
- In a bowl mix the melted butter, diced apple, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger until the apple is well coated with sugar and spice.
- Spread the apple mixture on to the dough and press down gently so that the apple pieces stick to the dough.
- Cut the dough into two pieces length-ways (you will have two strips of dough 20 x 5 inches). Cut each of these strips into 6 pieces (this will give you 12 pieces of dough measuring 4 x 5 inches). Carefully place 4 pieces on dough on top of each other (you should now have 4 piles of dough). Cut these piles into two. Now you have 8 piles of dough.
- Carefully place each pile of dough into a greased loaf pan (9 x 5 inch) cut side up. Pack them into the pan side by side. It doesn't really matter how you place these dough stacks - I wanted a bread that you could cut and toast (rather than a pull apart bread) so I placed some dough stacks length-ways and some width-ways in the pan. For pull apart bread you would be better placing them all width ways
- Cover and allow to rise in a warm place for 45 minutes
- Uncover the dough and place in a preheated oven at 350°F and bake for 45 until golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Remove from pan after 15 minutes and place on a cooling rack.
- Whilst the bread is cooling, place the cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla into a bowl. Mix, using a mixer until the glaze is smooth. Add the milk bit by bit until you get the consistency that you require.
- Top the still warm bread with glaze and serve.
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