Apple & Applesauce Whole Wheat Bread

I can't tell you how many times I screwed up this recipe... ok, four times. FOUR different mistakes I made throughout and believe it or not, it still came out delicious. So if I can make error after error and still have this come out moist and delectable, then you certainly can too if you heed my advice! I found this recipe on HungryHealthyGirl and some of the mistakes I made were due to her lack of detail in the instructions so I'll try to go into more detail than she did.

So first, grab the following for your...

Apple mixture:

1 cup (1 large of 2 medium apples) - peeled, cored, and grated

1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon

1 Tablespoon of honey

1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice

Dry ingredients:

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg

Pinch of allspice

1/4 teaspoon of salt

Wet ingredients:

1/4 cup of honey

1 1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup of brown sugar (I know brown sugar isn't wet but you'll be adding this with your wet ingredients. I used my homemade brown sugar recipe)

2 Tablespoons of coconut oil

1 egg

2 teaspoons of vanilla (another homemade recipe)

First, preheat your oven to 350 and grease a 9x5 bread pan. So far, I didn't make any mistakes!

Next, prepare your apples. The original post recommends peeling, coring, and grating the apples. Well, don't use one of these machines and peels, cores, and slices. Why? Because then you're stuck trying to grate a bunch of sliced apples, you end up getting chunks instead, and you'll probably scrape the back of your fingers against the grater which hurts. A lot. So what I recommend is peeling your apples and then grating. Don't worry about coring because you'll know when to stop grating. Trust me, it'll be a lot easier!

Add your cinnamon, honey, and lemon juice to the apples in a small bowl and set aside.

Next, combine all of your dry ingredients (cinnamon, whole wheat flour, baking soda, nutmeg, allspice, and salt) in a medium bowl. I added the brown sugar to the dry ingredients instead of the wet but eh, what can ya do?

Finally, combine all of your wet ingredients (honey, applesauce, brown sugar, coconut oil, egg, and vanilla) in your stand mixer. I don't know what I was thinking but I forgot to add both the vanilla and the egg until it was already in the oven (at which point I immediately pulled it out = twice = and added them in!)

Add your dry ingredients slowly in with your wet ingredients and blend on low without over mixing (which I also didn't do... I had that mixer on high, just goin' to town!)

Fold in your apples and once they're combined, transfer to your bread pan.

Bake for 55 minutes and enjoy the aroma that will transfer from your kitchen to the rest of your house. It will smell ah-may-zing.

Once it's out of the oven, let it cool for 20 minutes before slicing and serving. Even though mine did have chunks of apple in it, I didn't mind. It was really moist, and I could definitely taste the cinnamon, but I felt like it needed something else. More nutmeg maybe? More allspice? Maybe more salt? I'm not an expert taste-tester so I can't say, but it still tasted good nonetheless, despite my best efforts to ruin it!

TOTAL COSTS: About $49 (but that's if you don't have any of the ingredients - most prices from Vons)

$1.99/lb. for apples

$4.79 for cinnamon

$4.29 for honey

$2.29 for lemon juice

$4.39 for whole wheat flour

$1.59 for baking soda

$3.98 for nutmeg

$6.69 for allspice

$.99 for salt

$2.59 for unsweetened applesauce

$1.99 for store-bought brown sugar

$5.99 for coconut oil at Whole Foods

$2.49 for eggs

$4.99 for store-bought vanilla 

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 1 hour, 40 minutes

30 minutes of prep work (original site says 10 minutes! Ha!)
50 minutes to bake
20 minutes to cool

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 2 out of 5
It's not easy to peel, core, and grate apples and her instructions weren't very clear at times, but overall it's a piece of cake... errr... bread... Just break the recipe up into three sections -- apple mixture, dry ingredients, and wet ingredients -- and I guarantee you'll do just fine!

Almost No Fat Banana Bread = Tasty Treat or Terrible Trick?

If you want to stick to a resolution to eat healthier AND enjoy some comfort food on the side, grab those bananas you keep telling yourself you're going to eat (and still haven't) and try this banana bread! I'm not a big fan of things that say "low fat", "zero calories", or "no trans fat" because that's where the flavors are but when I saw this recipe... and my aging bananas... I figured it couldn't hurt, right? Either it'll be "almost no fat" and taste terrible or "almost no fat" and taste good. Here's what I found:

First, preheat your oven to 350 and grease a bread pan. The original post called for a 8" x 4" pan but I only had a 9" x 5" pan and it worked fine.

Next, grab the following 8 ingredients:

Dry ingredients -
1 1/2 C of flour
3/4 C of white sugar
1 1/4 t of baking powder
1/2 t of baking soda
1/2 t of ground cinnamon

Wet ingredients -
1/4 c of applesauce (I used cinnamon applesauce because I can't have enough cinnamon!)
1 C of smashed bananas (I found this equaled to about 2 bananas)
2 egg whites


Next, mix all the dry ingredients together and then add the wet ingredients. It's going to look like the cat vomited in your bowl. You have been warned.

Pour the mixture into your bread pan.

Put in the oven for 50-55 minutes. I put mine in for 50 minutes and I knew it was done when I put a toothpick in the bread and it came out clean.

Let it cool for at least 30 minutes before cutting into it and tell me what you think. Me personally, it lacked any sort of flavor. Nutmeg, vanilla, almond extract... SOMETHING would have been a nice addition but as it stands, this bread has:

Nutrition

• Calories
• 127 kcal
• 6%

• Carbohydrates
• 29.5 g
• 10%

• Cholesterol
• 0 mg
• 0%

• Fat
• 0.2 g
• < 1%

• Fiber
• 1 g
• 4%

• Protein
• 2.4 g
• 5%

• Sodium
• 100 mg
• 4%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet

I mean, it's kinda hard to argue with those numbers when it's semi-healthy... but again, it's also like eating cardboard.

TOTAL COSTS: About $18 (if you don't own any of the ingredients - prices from Vons)
$1.99 for flour
$2.69 for white sugar
$1.59 for baking soda
$1.99 for baking powder
$4.69 for ground cinnamon
$1.99 for applesauce
$.69/pound for bananas
$2.59 for eggs

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 1 hour, 30 minutes
10 minutes to mix ingredients
50 minutes in oven
30 minutes to cool

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 1 out of 5
It's not hard to bring the ingredients in a bowl, then in a pan, then in your mouth but remember, it's "almost no fat" because it's "almost no flavor." Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some bread that needs to be slathered in butter...