First Day of Fall

Since today is the first day of fall, I thought this would be the perfect time to share this recipe for Apple Honey bread. I had about a dozen apples leftover from our Back To School event, so I needed to make something with them quick! My friend and event chair for the event sent me an amazing recipe that she used for the apples she took home. Here is the adapted recipe from AllRecipes.com.

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

3/4 cup honey

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp allspice

3 apples, peeled and shredded

3/4 cup pecans (the original recipe called for walnuts)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. The original recipe calls for a bundt pan, but I don't own a bundt pan, so I used a loaf pan and a mini muffin tin. Make sure your pans are greased, but I own these, so no greasing necessary!

Before mixing all the ingredients, you want to prep the apples. First, peel the apples:

Since I was working late at night (sorry for the dark photos!), I decided to use a knife to peel the apples quickly, but a good peeler will also work. I did not core the apples, because it actually made the next step easier- shredding the apples:

Holding onto the apple at the core by the top and bottom, run the apple along a cheese grater. I actually used the larger hole side, turning the apple as I grated, so that the whole apple is grated in about a minute. Repeat with the other 2 apples. As you can see from the shredding, the apples start to turn brown quickly, so you know they are ripe and ready to bake!

In a large bowl or mixer, combine the sugar and oil. Beat in the eggs, and then vanilla and honey. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and allspice in a separate bowl, and stir mixture into the batter. Once all the ingredients are mixed, with a spoon, stir in the apples and pecans as to not crush them.  Fill the loaf pan first, it should be about 1/3 of the total mixture. The fill the mini muffin tin. You should be able to get about 30 mini muffins and one bread loaf from the entire mixture. 

When using the mini muffin pan, I found that about 15-20 minutes is the perfect baking time. For the loaf pan, I found that 45-50 minutes was the perfect baking time. To check, place a toothpick into the center and if it comes out clean, the bread is done!

This recipe is so delicious that the bread is already gone - we took it to a family dinner and served it with vanilla ice cream. The mini muffins are perfect for breakfast, and those will be finished up this weekend!I think next time, I will put a cream cheese frosting on the bread and maybe drizzle with a little caramel or honey. Definitely a quick and easy recipe to welcome fall!

Check back next week for my Grandmother's apple pie recipe, in which I hope to use up the remaining apples! 

Happy Fall!