Naturally sweetened Apple Pecan Bread

If you grew up with treats freshly baked out of the oven, you’re likely to find yourself craving for some kind of pastry regularly. We grew up in the time that sugar wasn’t a topic that was even discussed. So if a recipe called for 400 gram sugar, you’d just add that sugar. Now that we’re a bit more conscious about what that sugar does, we’re trying to find different ways to still add sweetness, but more naturally, unrefined.

One firm favourite natural sweetener is obviously banana, with banana bread being the most famous bake. Banana can also be used in Hummingbird Cake, carrot cake etcetera. For this recipe we tried apple, which was born out of the need to use up some Golden Delicious apples that started to turn yellow, just before you know they’re starting to look wrinkly and dried out. Not the most appealing look to eat fresh (even though still perfectly fine), but perfect for making apple sauce. If your apples are still fresh, they’re perfectly fine to use for apple sauce too! No need to wait to start baking.

With your OmniBlend its super easy to blend homemade fresh apple sauce. The apple sauce for baking is super easy as you don’t even have to peel the apples. If you were to use it as apple sauce on its own (makes great baby food too), you would peel the apples as you blend it minimally. Or blend for longer and the sauce will be completely smooth, which solves all problems.

Apple sauce not only adds sweetness, but moisture too. It’s a great ingredient for a light, pretty nutritious loaf. This Apple Pecan Bread is baked as a loaf, but you can also make little cupcakes with the batter. Just reduce the baking time to about 25 minutes (test whether it’s done by inserting a skewer). For the perfect sweetness we added some raw honey too, which allowed us to keep unrefined sugar used in the recipe to a minimum.

Serve for afternoon tea, or even as part of a lazy Sunday morning brunch. It’s delicious!

Ingredients:

• 100g Butter, room temperature
• 1/4C Brown Sugar
• 1 large Egg, room temperature
• 1/4C Honey
• 1C Apple puree (about 4 small apples)
• 1 1/3C Cake flour (200g)
• ½C Pecan nuts, chopped
• ½ tsp Bicarb of soda
• 1tsp Baking powder
• ½tsp Cinnamon
• 1/8tsp Nutmeg
• Pinch salt
• Apple slices for decoration (optional)

Method: 

Preheat the oven at 170C degrees, and line a small loaf tin.

For the apple puree: quarter and core the apples (no need for peeling), and cook with a tiny bit of water for 8 minutes until softened.

Decant the apple quarters and liquid to the OmniBlend jug, place the lid on and remove the cap, to place the tamper through the lid. Blend on low speed for about 10 seconds for a a puree. Pour into a bowl and set aside.

Beat the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add the egg and beat again until incorporated, and then add the honey and beat in.

Measure all dry ingredients in a separate bowl, and mix.

Fold half of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, add 1 cup of the apple sauce and fold in, then add the remainder of the dry ingredients and fold in.

Add batter to a small loaf tin, and decorate with apple slices. Bake for 1 hour.

Delicious served warm, or store in an air-tight container (once cooled completely) and serve later.

To make the apple sauce, we used the 1.5lt narrow base jug, which is perfect for pureeing.