Moist Apple Spice Bread

This apple bread is perfect for someone who doesn't like an overpowering sweet taste in their quick breads. I enjoyed this wonderfully moist bread with my morning coffee during Christmas. I used Gala apples, but you can use whatever brand is on sale in your store. This recipe comes from the Bakingbites.com blog. 

The batter will fill up the bread pan (see picture above), but don't worry, this bread doesn't rise much so you don't have to worry about it overflowing. To be safe, I placed the bread pan onto a cookie sheet just in case. Also, the original recipe called for a spice called Cardamom but I omitted it since it was so pricey. If you have Cardamom in your pantry already or if you don't mind the price, go ahead and add 1/2 teaspoon. While we're on the topic of spices, you can play with the spices to fit your pallet and make this delicious bread your own.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/3 cup butter, melted and cooled
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups shredded apples (about 2 apples)
• 3/4 cup toasted pecans, chopped

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Stir flour, salt, sugar, baking powder and all spices in a large bowl.
3. Whisk together butter, eggs, milk and vanilla in a separate bowl.
4. Once combined, pour butter mixture into flour and stir until partially combined.
5. Stir in shredded apples and pecans until the batter is well combined.
6. Pour batter into a a greased and floured loaf pan and bake for about an 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a knife inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean.
7. Allow the pan to cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes and then turn bread out of pan and allow to cool completely on the wire rack.

This recipe makes 1 delicious loaf.