Bread/ Breakfast/ Desserts & Sweets

Whole Wheat Apple Cinnamon Bread

October brings the smell of apples and a hint of winter; all the reason I need to bake a whole wheat apple cinnamon bread. Just like banana bread, this one has apples – little cubes of juicy fruit, not applesauce, not grated apples and not dried apple either. This bread is a little rustic, not the prettiest to look at and I admit, a little challenging to slice when it’s warm but it is healthy, all cinnamon and apple and smells so festive. This whole wheat apple cinnamon bread heralds the season of celebrations and hearty cooking.

Whole Wheat Apple Cinnamon Bread / www.quichentell.com

The markets are abundant with Gala, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Fuji, McIntosh and many more varieties of apples. Crisp, fresh and still orchard-fragrant, they are hard to resist despite high early season prices. One look at them and I can taste cinnamon, on my brain and on my tongue. Whoever thought of apples and cinnamon was a genius. The urge to bake was so strong that all I wanted to do was rush home and get to it. And I knew that whatever I baked had to be loaded, no, bursting with apples. An apple bread sounded appealing and a whole wheat apple cinnamon bread ticked all the boxes on my sensory list.

Whole Wheat Apple Cinnamon Bread / www.quichentell.com

So, this apple bread recipe has all the regular pantry staples such as whole wheat flour (cake not bread flour), brown sugar, vanilla extract etc. I do use the best, most aromatic cinnamon that I can get. In India, grown on the Malabar coast in Kerala, Ceylon cinnamon is by far the most superior variety in terms of aroma and concentration of essential oil and nutrients. It is also very thin unlike the thick cassia bark. The sweetness of the apples need the rounded, fullness and flavour of good cinnamon.  

Whole Wheat Apple Cinnamon Bread / www.quichentell.com

The whole wheat apple cinnamon bread gets its rich colour of molasses from soft brown sugar and to some extent from the flour itself. I’m too lazy to peel the apples – it adds bite and some fibre to the bread. Walnuts are always great in banana bread and work beautifully here as well, bringing some crunch to the fruit-filled downy bread. I adapted this recipe from the Whole Grain Banana Bread by King Arthur Flour but only broadly so. I changed the quantities of flour, fruit, sugar and even oil. Since I was going the whole wheat route, I added rolled oats to amp up the texture and add heft to the bread. 

Whole Wheat Apple Cinnamon Bread / www.quichentell.com

The batter is shaggy and full of chunks. But don’t worry, the whole thing binds and comes together when baked low and slow for 50-60 minutes. The advantage of slow baking is that your home is infused with warm, cinnamon aromas that is sure to even reach your neighbours’. There’s a lot going on in my whole wheat apple cinnamon bread. So as tempting as it may be to slice it  as soon as it comes out of the oven, hold on till it cools. Because it is loaded with fruit, it may crumble a little when warm. Use a serrated knife to cut generous thick slices once cooled. It keeps well for 2-3 days wrapped in cling film in an airtight box at room temperature but since it has fresh fruit, wrap it in cling film and refrigerate to store for longer. This recipe yields one 5”x 9” loaf or 15 regular muffins. Muffins must be baked for 20 minutes. 

Whole Wheat Apple Cinnamon Bread / www.quichentell.com

Whole Wheat Apple Cinnamon Bread

Quiche 'n' Tell
A moist, whole wheat bread bursting with cinnamon scented apples.
Prep Time 20 minutes
Course Breakfast, Dessert, Snack
Cuisine American
Servings 8

Ingredients
  

  • 190 g whole wheat flour
  • 50 g rolled oats
  • 160 g soft brown sugar
  • 250 g sweet apples such as Golden Delicious, roughly diced with their peel on
  • 50 g vegetable oil
  • 55 g natural full fat or regular yoghurt
  • 2 large eggs
  • 60 g walnuts, roughly chopped
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp powdered cinnamon
  • 1 tsp soda bicarbonate (baking soda)
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 3/4 tsp salt

For the topping:

  • 1 tbsp white or brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp powdered cinnamon
  • 50 g apples, roughly diced

Instructions
 

  • Preheat your oven to 176℃ and line and lightly grease a 9” x 5” loaf pan with parchment leaving some overhanging parchment (to help lift the bread out).



  • Whisk the flour (keeping 2 tsp flour aside to toss the apples and walnuts in), oats, salt, cinnamon powder, baking powder and baking soda together in a bowl. 



  • In another bowl, whisk together eggs, oil, yoghurt, brown sugar and vanilla extract.
    Separately, toss the apples and and walnuts in 2 tsp flour. This will prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the bread.



  • Gently, and in a few strokes, fold the flour mixture into the wet mixture and again, quickly stir in the apples and walnuts till. The batter will be shaggy.  Do not overmix, it will deflate the baking soda.



  • Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and gently smoothen the top and edges.
    Mix the ingredients for the topping in a bowl and sprinkle on top of the batter, pressing ever so lightly.



  • Bake for 50-60 minutes (tenting the bread for the last 20-25 minutes of baking if it browns too quickly) or until a toothpick inserted into the bread comes out clean. The internal temperature of the cooked bread must be 96℃.



  • Cool the bread in the pan for 20 minutes, cool further on a wire rack before slicing.



Keyword whole wheat apple cinnamon bread

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4 Comments

  • Reply
    angiesrecipes
    October 10, 2019 at 7:14 pm

    That’s a beautiful quick bread..I haven’t baked anything with apples yet..and this seems like a perfect recipe to start!

    • Reply
      quichentell
      October 14, 2019 at 12:44 pm

      Yeah, it’s super easy and really chunky and delicious. If you try it, do let me know how it turns out.

  • Reply
    sanjana
    May 4, 2020 at 2:30 pm

    Hey tried this recipe it turned out beautiful and delicious.

    • Reply
      quichentell
      May 10, 2020 at 11:30 am

      Great to know 😀

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