I mentioned on monday that my goal this week has been to make more of our own bread, and I’m happy to say that I’ve been accomplishing that so far! Not only have I managed to make raisin bread and whole wheat bread in the breadmaker for this week, but my son and I also tried our hand(s) at making apple sauce bread. As someone who’s constantly looking for healthy treats for my little guy, I’ve hit the jackpot.
Last night we made some apple sauce. Not a difficult process, but necessary because we had a bag of apples sitting in the fridge that weren’t going to get eaten before they went bad (I had a brain fart at the grocery store and bought a new bag before we’d finished the old one. The process of making the apple sauce was relatively painless, I peeled, cored, and cut 8 apples into chunks (you could also shread it if you want it to cook faster), put it in a large pot on the stove with 1/4 cup of water (about enough to cover the bottom of the pot) and a tablespoon of cinnamon, I put the heat on low and let it simmer there for a few hours. You can also do this in your crockpot (which I would have, but mine’s broken).
My son loves apples, so by the time the pot made it to the stove there was probably only 7 of them, but I digress.
Once the apples had cooked until they were mushy (probably about 2.5 hours) I squished them with a spoon and put it all into 2 years. It probably made about 3 cups all together.
Today my son and I made this apple sauce bread. Here’s the recipe for link-phobes:
Applesauce Bread:
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cup rapadura or 1/2 cup honey
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. sea salt
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. nutmeg
3/4 cup applesauce
2 eggs
1/4 cup butter, melted
Mix dry ingredients. Make a well in the center and add applesauce, eggs and butter. Stir well. Pour into a buttered bread pan or stone. Bake for 45-55 minutes at 350 degrees, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the loaf comes out clean.
First off: this stuff smells AMAZING. My son kept begging me to let him eat some as a snack before bed. Normally we don’t do bedtime snacks, but it smelled so good I felt horrible saying no. He gobbled down a piece and asked for more- but I opted to save the rest for breakfast for the two of us.
Best of all, this stuff is pretty healthy: not much sugar, salt, and the flour is whole wheat- what more could you ask for?