Apple Bread Recipe with Walnuts (2024)

FAQs

What are the best apples for baking bread? ›

Avoid soft, mushy apples. I use Granny Smith because overall, its flavor and texture are the best for baking. I also love sweet apples in this bread like Honeycrisp, Fuji, and Pink Lady. Applesauce: If you don't have unsweetened applesauce, use the same amount of plain yogurt or sour cream.

Why is my cranberry walnut bread turning purple? A reaction between gallic acid naturally found in walnuts and iron in flour results in purple discoloration. This transformation occurs in an acidic environment, which is facilitated by the acids released during the fermentation process in bread dough.

There are a few reasons why your apple bread might be dense. One reason could be that you overmixed the batter. Be careful not to overmix, or your bread will be tough. Another reason could be that you didn't let the bread cool completely before slicing into it.

Why does psyllium husk make my bread turn purple? Psyllium husk contains an antioxidant in the outer layer of the psyllium husk seed called anthocyanin that can turn your bread or other baked good purple if too much of the powder is used.

Honeycrisp. One of the sweetest apples around, this Midwestern favorite is good for anything—including baking. It boasts a distinctive juicy crispness and is firm enough that it won't cook down much. It complements just about any other apple variety to make a stellar pie.

About 3/4 of an average sliced or cubed apple equates to a single cup. However, it really depends on the size of your apple and how you'll be cutting it. In a perfect world, you'll start with a medium apple. It's about the same size as a tennis ball (or about 2 ½ – 2 ¾ inches in diameter).

Eating walnuts on a daily basis poses little to no harm unless you have a food sensitivity, intolerance or allergy. With that said, replacing less nutrient-dense foods with nutrient-dense options, like walnuts, may help you achieve your health goals.

Walnuts go rancid when exposed to warm temperatures for long periods of time. Heat causes the fat in walnuts to change structure, which creates off odors and flavors. Fresh walnuts smell mildly nutty and taste sweet. If your walnuts smell like paint thinner, you know they're rancid.

Toasting nuts brings out their earthiness and minimizes any bitterness found in raw nuts. In just a few minutes, nuts will go from pale, somewhat waxy, and mild in flavor and smell, to golden brown, rich-tasting, and with an intensity and delicious aroma that adds a whole new level of flavor to any dish.

Add Sugar

Adding sugar weakens the gluten structure, absorbs water, and eventually makes the bread lighter and softer. As a result, sugar improves the bread's taste, structure and texture. Yeast also eats up sugar to produce carbon dioxide, which raises the dough and makes bread fluffy.

Why does my apple bread fall in the middle? ›

Baking temperature

Some ovens run hotter than its settings, some cooler. If the oven is too hot the loaf will be brown and crispy on the outside but doughy in the middle and may collapse as it cools. When bread is baked at too low a temperature it will not rise enough in the oven resulting in a dense and sunken loaf.

While bread flour is the best option, it can sometimes be used if you don't have bread flour. “Check the protein content,” advises Chef Jürgen, since it can vary from brand to brand, and an all-purpose flour that contains protein on the higher end of the range, 12 to 13 percent, will produce a better outcome.

You shouldn't eat mold on bread or from a loaf with visible spots. The mold roots can quickly spread through bread, though you can't see them. Eating moldy bread could make you sick, and inhaling spores may trigger breathing problems if you have a mold allergy. Try freezing bread to prevent mold.

Pink Mold. Actual pink mold is often on bread and baked goods. Pink mold can cause respiratory infections. Additionally, it causes gastrointestinal and urinary tract infections.

You might only see these white or green spots on the surface of bread, but mold branches out with roots deep inside, below the surface—that's the part you don't see. Mold thrives in warm, humid conditions, but can also live in cool environments, like the inside of a refrigerator.

What kind of apples are good for bread? Firm, less sweet/more tart apples like Granny Smith, Gala, Pink Lady, and Cortland work best. Don't use a soft apple like McIntosh.

Look for crisp, crunchy apples, which have a lower water content and are less likely to turn to mush. While you may like Gala, Fuji, Red Delicious, and McIntosh apples for snacking, these mealy apples run a higher risk of disintegrating in the oven.

Gala apples are also too sweet for most desserts and don't bake as well as other varieties, so save those for snacking, too.

The best apples to use in these healthy apple muffins are a sweet variety like Pink Lady, Honey Crisp, or Fuji. Or you can use 1 tart apple like Granny Smith and 1 sweet. A combination of flavor profiles can be important in baked goods, especially apple pie or apple crisp.