Apple almond bread

Use up a few of those abundant fall apples in this quick, easy loaf that you can make in one bowl!

Take me to the recipe!

Apple and almond might be one of my favorite combinations and luckily, M thinks so too. Because we’ve eaten a lot of these breads in the past few weeks. And I mean…a lot.

Why have I tested this recipe so much, you might ask? Well, I thought my first try was pretty darn close to perfect, but my husband thought it was too dry. I thought he was crazy, but his comment stuck in my craw. I tried this quick bread with more butter, more yogurt, more butter and yogurt, etc, but the end results, to me, never seemed as good as the original and it spoiled faster the wetter I made the batter.

If you like a wetter crumb, feel free to throw in another 1/4 cup of yogurt, but remember that you probably shave off a day from the life of your loaf. (Without the extra yogurt, you get about 4-5 days loosely wrapped at room temperature from this bad boy- not that you'll need it).

A couple of notes:

• No need to toast the almonds in the topping because they'll toast while the bread cooks.

• If you want the apples to disappear into the bread, chop them into tiny pieces. If you like to see and taste the apples more emphatically, leave them in 1/2-inch chunks. Larger chunks of apple make the bread a bit more crumbly, so choose whichever method better suits your tastes.

Also great about this bread? You only need one bowl for the base! (The topping uses another small bowl, but you could wipe out the large bowl and use it again to make the topping once you pour the batter into the loaf pan.)

Apple almond bread

Time: about 1 hour, mostly hands off
Yield: 8-10 slices

For the topping:
1 ½ Tbsp butter, melted
¼ cup sliced almonds (not toasted)
3 tbsp whole wheat flour
2 Tbsp brown sugar
pinch of salt

For the bread:
2.5 Tbsp butter, melted and cooled slightly
1/4 cup whole milk yogurt (non-Greek)
¾ cup maple syrup
2 eggs
½ tsp almond extract
1.5 cups whole wheat flour
½ cup almond flour
2 heaping Tbsp flax seed meal
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 Tbsp cinnamon
3 cups diced apples (about 2 large apples, not peeled)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9x5 or 10x5 loaf pan with olive oil and set aside.

Make the topping: In small bowl, melt the butter. Add the almonds, 3 Tbsp of whole wheat flour, sugar, and salt and mix well. Set aside.

In a large bowl, melt the rest of the butter and let cool slightly. (Or, melt the butter halfway and stir to melt the rest. This usually results in warm, not hot, butter.)

Add the rest of the wet ingredients and whisk to incorporate .

Add the dry ingredients and mix just until combined and no streaks remain. Set aside.

Chop the apples and add to the batter. Stir a few times to combine, but don’t over mix.

Bake for 40-50 minutes until a tester comes out clean. Check the bread after about 30 minutes or if you start to smell the almond too strongly. Cover with foil if the topping browns too quickly and continue to bake until the tester comes out clean.