Not-Yo-Momma's Apple Bread (Or Is It?)

Husband, via text, Friday at 4 pm: Want to make a coffee cake tonight for me to bring to work?
Wife: U know it
Husband: Yup. Best wife ever

I tell you that not so you can puke on your keyboard at our newlywedness. I tell you that so you know why I had to bake after work yesterday. You heard him. The husband really twisted my arm.

All the way home I debated as to whether I should make the boys at the quarry another coffee cake or if I should switch things up a little and make a cinnamon Bundt cake. Decisions, decisions.

Then I walked in the door and saw the husband had brought home a bag full of apples.

"Can you make apple bread?" He asked a bit tentatively. 

I just looked at him.



I've never made apple bread. Why, you ask? His momma makes it. His Aunt G makes it. And they make it goooood. The husband knew I wouldn't be hopping all over this idea.

But he asked so sweetly, and he had just been asked to work a sixth day this week. 

We looked at a couple of recipes together; I asked him if I needed to call his mother.

"She isn't home," he said. "Make that one," pointing to a zucchini bread recipe in my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook with directions to substitute apples. (For the record, Momma S, I don't know if your son was lying about whether you were home last night. I just took his word for it and forged on.)

About 55 minutes later, the kitchen smelled like a perfect cinnamon-y autumn evening, and all I could do was hope that the bread cooling on my kitchen rack was going to cut and taste just as good as the batter on my red spatula did.

And as the brown doggies napped in the living room this morning, and I walked around the kitchen thinking about what I was going to make myself for breakfast, I got a text.

Husband: Just like Momma makes it

Apple Bread
From Better Homes and Gardens
Makes 1 loaf (16 slices)

1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
a few sprinkles of apple pie spice
1 beaten egg
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cooking oil
1 1/2 cups shredded peeled apples

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, and spray a metal loaf pan with cooking spray. Coat the bottom and sides of the pan well so your bread will slide out easily when it's done.

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour and cinnamon. Sift in the soda, salt and baking powder. Sprinkle in the apple pie spice.

Peel the apples and shred them in a food processor. (I wish I could count and could tell you how many apples it takes to make 1 1/2 cups shredded, but I can't. And I'm too lazy to walk over to the compost and try to figure it out. Next time I will count the apples as I go, I promise!)

Stir the egg, sugar, oil and apples together in a medium bowl. 

Dump the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until just moistened. Don't worry if your batter is lumpy.

Pour the batter into your prepared pan and bake for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Let the bread rest in the pan for 5-10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack and let it cool completely.

Enjoy!

According to BH&G, this has 147 calories, 6 g fat, 21 g carbs, 1 g fiber and 2 g protein per serving. You know me: I'm already wondering how I can lower the calories and carbs next time.