Apple Quick Bread

from OOAL Apprentices Josh Hinchman & Alex Mahaney

Ingredients:

• 1 stick + 1 Tbs Butter

• 1 cup of sugar

• 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour (or bread flour if you have it)

• 1 tsp baking soda

• 2 eggs

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 1 tsp lemon zest

• ¼ cup sour cream

• 1 ¾ cup small sweet apple - diced or grated

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Cream room temperature butter and sugar together until it looks like one cohesive paste. You can use a mixer or cream by hand.

3.  Add eggs one at a time, and mix thoroughly after each addition to make sure the egg is well incorporated.

4. Add sour cream, and mix to combine.

5. If you have diced your apple, use an immersion blender to puree it into an apple mash. Grated apple also works.

6. Add lemon zest, apple mash and vanilla; mix to combine, and scrape down the sides of your bowl.

7. Delicately incorporate your dry ingredients until just combined; you want to mix as little as possible after adding the flour as this develops gluten which will make the bread tough and chewy. The end product should be light and fluffy.

8. Spray or oil a medium-sized loaf pan, and coat the inside with white sugar. 

9. Bake for 40 minutes or until a tooth pick pulls out cleanly when poked into the center of the loaf.

10. Enjoy.