The Bakers's Dozen: Caramel-Glazed Apple Bread

 

The Baker's Dozen: Caramel-Glazed Apple Bread

OMG this was a winner! Such a winner that I already froze half of it to give to my parents because I'm scared I'll scarf the entire thing this week if I didn't. For such a simple recipe, it was really delicious! Here is the recipe:

Caramel-Glazed Apple Bread (Source Unknown)

Bread:

1 1/2 cups shredded peeled baking apples (2 large)

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs, lightly beaten

3 cups flour

1/2 cup chopped pecans

2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. nutmeg

Glaze:

2 Tbsp. butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 Tbsp. milk

1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted

1.) Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottoms only of 2 loaf pans with cooking spray.

2.) In large bowl, stir together apples, 1 cup brown sugar, the buttermilk, oil, and eggs. Stir in remaining bread ingredients just until dry ingredients are moistened. Pour into pans.

3.) Bake 45-55 minutes or until toothpick tests clean. Cool 10 minutes on cooling rack. Loosen sides of loaves from pans; remove from pans and place top-sides-up on cooling rack. Cool completely, about 1 hour.

4.) In 1 qt. saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Stir in 1/4 cup brown sugar. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly; reduce heat to low. Boil and stir 2 minutes. Stir in milk. Heat to boiling; remove from heat. Cool to lukewarm, about 30 minutes.

5.) Gradually stir powdered sugar into glaze mixture. Place saucepan of glaze in bowl of cold water. Beat with a spoon until smooth and thin enough to drizzle. If glaze becomes too stiff, stir in additional milk, 1/2 tsp. at a time, or heat over low heat, stirring constantly. Drizzle glaze over loaves. Wrap tightly and store at room temperature up to 4 days, or refrigerate up to 10 days.

Makes 2 loaves, 12 slices each. 200 calories, 8 g. fat, 1 g. fiber per slice

I actually cut this recipe in half. All the ingredients can easily be cut in half, so don't feel you have to make 2 loaves if you don't need that much. And as usual, I made my own buttermilk with vinegar and milk.

This is the wet ingredients mixed. It looks like a lot of liquid, more than a typical quick bread, but don't worry.

It all mixes together perfectly with the dry ingredients, as you can see! This is the final product.

The batter only goes up about half way. Even though it says not to grease the sides of the pan, I had problems getting it out of the pan once it was baked, so you might go ahead and grease the sides as well. It'll help you in the long run. I ended up baking it for about 48 minutes before it was perfectly done. I don't know why I didn't take any pictures of the finished product, but I didn't. Just know that it looks pretty much like any other quick bread.

Here is the beginning of the caramel sauce.

And the finished caramel sauce. I didn't use the cold water bath it calls for, but I definitely had to add more milk. It's slightly drizzly, but not like a glaze. It's more like a frosting, but I liked it that way.

I drizzled it over at first but decided I wanted it even over the entire top and spread it out like frosting.

Because I thought it looked a little drab without anything on top, I sprinkled more chopped pecans over the top, and it just worked perfectly.

Here is a cut slice. OMG this thing is so friggin' delicious! The bread by itself is rather plain. There's not much sugar in the bread, so the real sweetness comes from the frosting. People who know me well, know I'm not a frosting person, but this is stupid good! Make sure each bite has some of the frosting, and of course, all quick breads are best with some butter on it!

This would be a hit at a gathering or a work potluck. It's super easy to make. The frosting is a game changer. It would be good on banana bread, zucchini bread, pumpkin bread...Definitely give this one a try!