Apple Cinnamon Bread

Bernice Baran
Nov 1, 2017
5 min read

I told you I was obsessed with baking in the fall and winter sooooo... here's another way to rack on the pounds ! :) I also told you that I'm still learning how to use this 'not for dummies' camera so as you can tell my lighting is different in the finished product pictures because the sun set as my deliciousness was baking in the oven.

Soooo I bought a bag of apples at the grocery store last week thinking I'm going to make an apple pie this week but then I got lazy and I really didn't feel like making an apple pie. We ate apples like everyday so they wouldn't go bad but I still had like eight apples so I decided to try and make something a little easier than an apple pie. I only ended up using three of these apples for this so I might just need to make this again lol.

I added a little cinnamon on top... for no reason lol

Definitely wait until it cools to cut it, I gave it only a few minutes because I had to leave and I was taking these with me so I just cut real careful and placed them on a tray and lightly wrapped them with plastic. The crumbs were really crispy so the heat trapped in the plastic could've made them soggy but I left the plastic open on one end to let some heat out.

Every apple cinnamon recipe I've ever seen calls for that powdered sugar and butter icing that I HATE! I don't know why but every time I try to make it, I try a different ratio of ingredients and it's never good. Either it's too buttery, too much vanilla, too little vanilla, or I can taste the flavor of powdered sugar. I just can't get it right so I've come to the conclusion that I just don't like it no matter how perfectly it's made. So I made my own cream cheese icing, which I'm obsessed with, it's similar to the one from the Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffin recipe (the crumbs are also the same) but I melted it and drizzled it on top. It has an egg yolk in it which I know some people don't feel comfortable eating it raw but honestly with one egg yolk it made a good amount and you only drizzle a tiny bit. I also didn't drizzle it on the whole thing at once because I didn't want it to get soggy so I let everyone drizzle as much as they wanted on their slice.

APPLE CINNAMON BREAD

YIELD: 1 bread | PREP TIME: 15 minutes | COOK TIME: 55 minutes | TOTAL TIME: 70 minutes

INGREDIENTS:

Crumb:

1/3 cup brown sugar (light or dark)

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 ½ tsp.ground cinnamon

1/3 cup unsalted melted butter

Batter:

1/2 cup softened butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1-2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. ginger

1 tsp. baking powder

2 cups diced apples (I used gala apples)

Cream Cheese:

4 oz cream cheese

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg yolk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray bread pan with non-stick baking spray, I used a generous amount of PAM and it didn't stick at all. Set aside.
Combine brown sugar, flour and cinnamon in a small bowl, then add melted butter and mix until separated into crumbs. Add more flour if it isn't crumbling. Set aside.
Dice your apples to your liking (I used three medium apples and diced them pretty tiny, which made up 2 cups) and set aside.
In a medium bowl, cream butter and sugar until well combined. Add eggs, milk and vanilla and beat with hand mixer until well combined.
Add in all dry ingredient and beat until combined. Dough may be a little sticky before adding in apples so go ahead and fold in the apples.
*Some of you may chose to add in walnuts/pecans, I personally hate all kinds of nuts sooo I won't be doing that!*
Pour dough into pan and spread evenly. Pour crumbs on top; I used my hand to make the crumbs more crumbly as I laid them generously on top of the dough. Press them in a little because as you can see the crumbs fall off when you slice the bread.
Bake for 55-60 minutes. At 45 minutes mine was still very soft so I was afraid it wasn't going to bake in the center but at 50-55 minutes it was perfect! My crumbs were crispy, not burnt, and my center was baked but very soft/moist.
In a small bowl, soften cream cheese and beat until smooth. Add in sugar, egg yolk and vanilla extract and beat until well combined.
I covered with plastic overnight and it was still very good in the morning but I would suggest putting in an airtight container for best overnight results.

LOVE NOTES

First of all, I forgot to peel my apples lol. It wasn't a big deal because I diced my apples really tiny since my family is picky with textures but if you leave them a little bigger, I would suggest peeling the skin off.
Make sure you whisk together the butter and sugar BEFORE adding the eggs and milk. This can result in a doughy, not fully baked bread.
When adding the crumb topping, be generous because the bread will grow and topping will spread out and they also tend to fall off when you slice the bread.
Let the bread cool before slicing it or it will probably be very soft and fall apart a little. I sliced mine when it was warm because I wanted to take a few photos before I took them to a friends house. They still came out great but it's better to give it a few minutes.
I chose not to pour my glaze over the whole bread as I've seen other bakers do (it looks nicer when you use the glaze they use) because my family is really picky with taste and texture. We love crispy edges so I didn't want the glaze to make the bread too mushy on top. I set the glaze in a cute little bowl with a spoon and everyone put how much they wanted.

As always I hope you guys enjoy this recipe as much as I did! I haven't tried it yet but I feel like this recipe would make a good coffee cake. It was a pretty cake-y texture so if ya'll wanna try it, let me know how it works out. f you have any questions, comments, suggestions let me know down below, I'd love to hear what you guys think!