Rejoicing in Recipes: Double Apple Walnut Bread

I had 5 golden delicious and 6 braeburn apples that needed to be used up, so I found two ways to use up the majority of them: applesauce and apple bread. YUM!

For the applesauce, I just peeled and cut up the 5 golden delicious, put them in a pot with just enough water to almost reach the top of them and then boiled them for 5-10 minutes. Then, I added a sprinkling of brown sugar (I don't like my homemade applesauce very sugary) and lots of cinnamon! :) Then, I let them boil some more, stirring and mashing with a fork here and there until they were all mushy and most of the water had cooked out. The result? DELICIOUS cinnamon applesauce that is amazing while still warm and even better once it's cooled overnight! We had some for breakfast and I used some in the following recipe:

Double Apple Walnut Bread

1 cup smooth unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup sugar, plus 1 tablespoon for sprinkling
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil
1/4 cup plain yogurt (I always just use vanilla!)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup peeled, cored, and finely diced apple (I use 1 medium sized apple- Pink lady is awesome, but any full flavored, tart apple is good!)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts 

 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 1-9x5 loaf pan or 3 mini loaf pans (I did mini ones today. I hear this bread freezes well...this isn't my recipe by the way, just one I found on a blog).

2. Mix applesauce, sugars, eggs, oil, yogurt and vanilla. Whisk well.

3. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Make a well in the center.

4. Add wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir until combined. Fold in apple and nuts. Pour into prepared pan(s) and make even. Sprinkle extra sugar on top (optional; I opted out of this one today...mostly because I forgot to!).

5. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire rack for 15 minutes, then remove from pans and cool completely on wire rack. 

I do not plan to let them cool completely before cutting into them! I never can just leave them alone for that long. LOL.

So, I ended up with about 4 cups of applesauce. After eating some for breakfast and using a cup of it in the bread recipe, I have about 2 cups left. I froze 1 1/2 cups, since the girls are going to Grandma's tomorrow night, and homemade applesauce doesn't last very long just in the fridge. I left the last 1/2 cup out to eat with lunch or tomorrow's breakfast. 

I now have just 4 braeburn apples left, and Arthur likes to eat those so I'll leave them be. 

Thank God for the creativity He's given me when it comes to using up fruit! I feel like we would waste so much if He didn't give me the sense to make something with the almost-bad fruit! And with bananas - I end up freezing 1 almost every week (though not the past few weeks, because we've been little monkeys eating them all up!) because we don't get them all used or eaten by the time their overripe. If you peel the banana and throw it in a freezer bag, you can use them at a later time for a smoothie or bread or in other recipes! Good way to keep from having to throw out uneaten fruit!