Kitchen Adventures; Pecan Apple Spice Bread

This is one of those wonderful and rare occasions when baking and yoga combine.

Saturday morning I got up early for aromatherapy yoga. I'd never done it before. Time to try something new.

It was a little bit magical - not overwhelmingly so, just a little bit.

Our instructor was inspired by the change of weather we've had this week, so she decided to work in some really beautiful fall fragrances into our yoga - cinnamon, anise, chamomile, and rosemary.

The moment she put the cinnamon down on my mat, I knew I needed to bake something when I got home. I knew it had to be with cinnamon. And I knew I had a ton of apples that weren't getting eaten.

After searching the web and some of my favorite go-to cookbooks for an awesome apple spice bread recipe, I came up empty handed.

I found a few on the web, but I they weren't exactly what I was looking for, so I improvised. I made my own.

WHAAAAT?!?

Yep, I made up a recipe. I feel like the king of the world.


It went a little something like this...

Cut and shred apples

This day I felt like getting everyone together for a photo.

Softened butter and sugar get mixed together.

Eggs.

Then flour...

A little milk to soften it up.

Spices! Just cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.

I only had whole cloves, so I had to use my little coffee grinder to grind some up. Worked pretty well.

Chopped pecans! oh, also, you can see the shredded apple I mixed in there. :)

Apple chunks!

Put in a loaf pan!

Bake!

Sorry about all the exclamation points. Here's another one...

RECIPE!

2 c. AP flour
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. butter, softened
2 eggs
1/2 c. chopped pecans
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon (plus additional 1/4 tsp for topping)
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground clove
2 Tbsp. milk
2 c. apples (1 c. shredded, 1 c. cut into chunks)
1/8 c. brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 350F and lightly grease a 9x5 loaf pan. Set aside.

Mix together softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Whisk in the eggs, one at a time. Switch to a spoon. (It's easier) Then add the rest of the ingredients one at a time, flour, milk, baking soda, shredded apples, spices, pecans, apple chunks.

Scoop batter into your greased loaf pan

In a small bowl, mix your extra 1/4 tsp. of cinnamon into the brown sugar.

Sprinkle your cinnamon brown sugar mixture over the top of the loaf and bake at 350 F for one hour.

Remove from the oven and set on a cooling rack. You can remove it from the pan after about a half hour, but I suggest letting it cool completely before you slice it up.

Also, it really sets beautifully overnight, so its even better the next day.

This was my breakfast this morning.