Apple Fritter Bread

I was going to blog this amazing apple fritter bread last week, but figured it was much more fitting to share some Valentine's Day recipes with you.  We had an entire bowl full of nice, crisp organic apples sitting in the kitchen, and I knew that there was no way that just Trey and I could eat them all before they went bad.  What to do.......That's when I remembered this apple fritter bread I had mentioned in one of my Friday Links posts.

This is a yeast bread that (oddly enough) does not have to sit and rise.  It's a somewhat time consuming process still, though, because the dough must be cut into squares and stacked.  But oh my dear is it worth it!  Dare I say this is one of my favorite things I've ever made?  I think so.

Sitting there in all it's glory with glaze still 

dripping off of it...sigh

I'm sure you could also substitute other fruits for the apples depending on what you have on hand.  Next time I might try peaches.

Apple Fritter Bread adapted from Flour Me with Love
Dough
3 C flour
1 package instant yeast (it also might say "bread machine yeast")
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 C brown sugar
1/4 C water
1 egg, beaten
3/4 C milk
1/4 C butter

Filling
6 apples, peeled and diced
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 C brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp cornstarch

Glaze
1 Tbsp butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 C powdered sugar
3 tsp half and half (or milk)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease 9x5 bread pan.  In skillet, cook all "filling" ingredients until mixture is thickened.  Set aside to cool.

Apples peeled and ready for dicing 

Thickening the mixture...

Heat milk (from "dough" portion of recipe) in a small saucepan until it bubbles.  Remove from heat and add butter.  Stir until melted and combined.  Set aside to cool.  

Put flour, yeast, brown sugar, and salt into bowl of a stand mixer and mix well by hand.  *Note: I was very confused by the orignal recipe, because normally you have to let yeast bread rise.  Not the case with this bread.  Just follow the rest of the recipe as stated and then you can immediately stick the prepared bread in the oven.  No rising time required!*

Add water, egg and milk/butter mixture to flour mixture.  Make sure that the milk/butter mixture has cooled enough so that it doesn't cook the egg!

With the hook attachment in place on your stand mixer, mix dough until it forms a ball.  Knead in stand mixer for an additional 5 minutes.

On well floured surface roll dough out into rectangle shape.  The dough should be fairly thin after being rolled out.  Evenly spread apple mixture over dough, making sure to spread mixture evenly.

Well, it's sort of a rectangle.

Cut dough into even squares (I got twenty).  To make this easier I used a pizza slicer.

Carefully stack dough squares onto each other, forming 5 piles.  Using a spatula makes this SO much easier!

Place piles of dough into prepared pan.

Ready to bake!

Bake 45-50 minutes or until golden brown.  The only tricky part is making sure the middle is done without getting the edges of the bread overly done.

I'd like to also note that you need to make sure you don't leave an additional oven rack too close above your bread like I did....

Oops!

Delicious.  Check out that cinnamon and brown

sugar bubbling over the sides...

Immediately remove bread from pan.

Mix butter, powdered sugar and vanilla in a bowl (*make sure your butter is soft enough or it won't combine well).  Gradually add in half and half until you reach creamy consistency.

Pour on glaze and allow to set for a few minutes.

Drip, drip, drip....

Enjoy!  This stuff is DIVINE when eaten warm :)

Pulling it apart....

or just taking a fork and digging in!

If you want to store the bread simply wrap in plastic wrap and then place in a zip loc bag.

Dreamy Apple Pie

I had a hard time deciding what recipes to begin posting so I thought I would start with a few things I have cooked in the past.  For those of you who have seen these first few recipes on my facebook:  no worries, there will be new foods posted very soon.

I'd always wanted to bake an apple pie.  It's such a classic staple and it fits seamlessly into all 4 seasons.  I'm quite obsessed with The Pioneer Woman and her delicious recipes, so I thought that one of her apple pie recipes would be the best place to start.  This is not your typical apple pie though....it's creamier and has a brown sugar crumb topping instead of your classic pie crust.  I fixed this pie for Thanksgiving this past year and it was a hit.  I'm not a big fan of apple pie (I know, you're thinking: "Then why the heck would you even make one?"), but I loved this recipe!  

Dreamy Apple Pie courtesy of The Pioneer Woman
1 whole unbaked pie crust (recipe below)
3 whole large (4 or 5 small) Granny Smith Apples, peeled, cored and sliced thin
1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 C sugar
1 Tbsp all purpose flour
1 C heavy cream
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp cinnamon

7 Tbsp butter
3/4 C all purpose flour
1/2 C brown sugar
1/4 C pecans (more to taste)
dash of salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Roll out pie dough and place it in a pie pan. Decorate edges as desired (I like to crinkle mine).

Add apple slices to large bowl. In separate bowl, mix together cream, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon flour, vanilla, and cinnamon. Pour over apples and stir to coat. Pour apple mixture into pie shell.

Ready for the crumb coat topping!

In bowl of a food processor (or you can cut everything together by hand using a pastry cutter) combine butter, flour, sugar, pecans (chop if you’re not using a food processor), and salt. Mix until everything comes together and resembles a coarse cornmeal. Disperse topping over apple mixture in pie crust.

Attach foil to edges of pie and lay a piece of flat foil loosely over the top of pie. Place pie pan on top of a rimmed cookie sheet (to catch any overflow) and bake for one hour. Near the end of the baking period, remove foil and allow to finish baking.  This will allow the pie to brown. Can bake for up to 15 or 20 minutes more if necessary.

Remove from oven when pie is bubbly and golden brown.

Serve warm..... preferably with ice cream!

Perfect Pie Crust courtesy of The Pioneer Woman
1 1/2 C crisco
3 C all purpose flour
1 whole egg
5 Tbsp ice cold water
1 Tbsp white vinegar
1 tsp salt

The team all ready to go!

In large bowl, use pastry cutter to cut crisco into flour.  This will take a little under 5 minutes and the mixture choose resemble coarse meal.  In separate small bowl, beat egg.  Pour into flour mixture.  Add cold water, vinegar and salt.  Stir until gently combined.

Separate dough into three even groups.  Form separate dough into three balls.  Place each ball of dough into zip loc bag and flatten with rolling pin to about 1/2 inch thickness.  

Dough can be frozen until you need it.  If you want to make your pie right away I would still suggest letting your dough chill in the freezer for at least 20 minutes so that it is firmer and easier to work with.

To prepare the dough for a pie, remove from freezer and allow to sit at room temp for 15 minutes.  Roll dough out onto floured work surface.  *Its much easier if you start in the middle and then work your way out.

Roll dough out until it's approximately 1 inch larger than the diameter of your pie pan.  If the dough is too sticky, add a bit of extra flour on top of the dough.  

Carefully lift your dough into pie pan.  I use a spatular to make it easier.  You can also drape it over your rolling pin if that's easier.  

Press dough into pie pan, eliminating any bubbles.  Style edges of dough as desired.