Apple Bread

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When my grandpa was alive we would spend Christmas Eve with him. We’d have a big dinner with way too much food and way too many desserts. My mom would make him an apple pie and give him a basket full of our Christmas goodies. When he passed we continued to have that Christmas Eve dinner. It was difficult for awhile but we still love to reminisce about the old days with him. For the first time since 2009 we had an extra guest at our Christmas Eve dinner this past year and this time I got to fill the basket. In addition to my snowball cookies and some fresh eggs from the chickens I also added a loaf of apple bread to the basket. 

The Original Recipe

Not only did we lose my grandpa in 2009 but we also lost my gram in 2017. They weren’t together and hadn’t been together since before I was born. They each held a special place in our hearts though and when they passed we were able to get a couple things from them. One of the things that we got from my grandma were her boxes of recipes. This apple bread was one that I found among the boxes. 

It states that it was originally from JoAnne Pitsch. I don’t know JoAnne personally but I assume she is local to our area. If you are JoAnne, or kin to her, we are thankful for your recipe. It has been our pleasure to find it and recreate it in our home. It also made a wonderful gift for our Christmas guest!

Oleo & Sour Milk

This recipe calls for oleo and sour milk which pretty much gives away it’s age! Oleo is an old fashioned name for butter. If you ever come across this in a recipe just assume they mean butter and you will be just fine. I did look it up and, technically, it means margarine. So use butter or margarine interchangeably for oleo.

Sour milk can also be interchanged with buttermilk. If you are making your own butter at home you will probably have some of this on hand. For those of us that aren’t, it’s very unlikely that we will have it. Thankfully, it’s easy enough to make with vinegar or lemon juice. To make 1 cup of sour or buttermilk. Simply pour a cup of milk and add a tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice. Let it stand for 5 minutes and it will be ready to use. It should be thick and curdled when it is ready. We don’t need a whole cup here which means we need to scale down. Use about ½ to ¾ tsp of vinegar or lemon juice in the 3 Tbsp of milk to make it sour. 

To Peel or Not to Peel?

That is the question! I chose to peel these apples before using them. I have the KitchenAid attachment that makes it super easy to core, peel, and slice apples all at once. It’s kind of like cheating! Not that peeling a couple of apples takes that much time but it’s just an extra step in the morning. The apples are diced so the peels would most likely not be noticeable anyways. I’m sure that there will be mornings when I am in too much of a hurry or just too tired to manage to peel and cut them up. Perhaps someday I’ll be that person that makes breakfast the night before but, for now, that is not happening.

Anyways, I’ll leave the peeling up to your personal preference but the apples definitely do need to be diced up at least.  

Apple Bread Ingredients

• 3 Tbsp sour milk
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ cup oleo (1 stick of butter)
• 1 cup of sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp vanilla
• ½ tsp salt
• 2 cups diced apples

Directions 

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Mix the above ingredients together. 
• Pour into greased loaf pan.
• Add the crumb topping below.

Crumb Topping Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp flour
• 2 Tbsp brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp oleo (butter)
• 1 Tbsp cinnamon
• Mix all ingredients together. 
• Sprinkle on top of the bread batter.
• Bake for 1 hour. 

Tips & Tricks

The original recipe says that if you double it then it will make 3 loaves. The original recipe worked perfect for one thick loaf of bread, but I do have a large bread pan. If you are using small bread pans, like the cast iron ones that I love, it might work better to make a double batch and have 3 full loaves. 

I used a variety of apple types for my 2 cups. I’m pretty sure you could use whatever type of apple you have on hand to make this bread and it would still be good.

As always, I used less sugar than what the recipe calls for. I only used ¾ cup of sugar. I often feel like there are a lot of recipes that just use too much sugar. This one was just as good with a little bit less than what was called for. 

In Summary: Apple Bread

This apple bread was fun to make, tastes delicious, and makes a great gift. It was a big hurdle for me to give something that was homemade as a gift. I’m still not quite sure why I feel so self conscious about it. I used to make cupcakes and wedding cakes for people! Now, all of the sudden, I’m self conscious about giving baked goods. It’s always so special for me to receive something that is homemade though and that thought helps me get over my anxiety. What homemade gift is your favorite to give or receive?

Apple Bread

A sweet breakfast bread.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Ingredients

  

• 3 Tbsp sour milk
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup oleo 1 stick of butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups diced apples

Crumb Topping

• 2 Tbsp flour
• 2 Tbsp brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp oleo butter
• 1 Tbsp cinnamon

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Mix the bread ingredients together.
• Pour into a greased loaf pan.
• Mix the crumb topping ingredients together.
• Sprinkle crumb topping over the bread mixture.
• Bake for 1 hour.

Keyword Apple, Bread