Apple Bread

On the Monday Anzac morning, woke up thinking... "ummmm... what should I make today??" On a public holiday, the restaurants/cafes out there are either closed or have a 5% surcharge (after going to Cairns, I've realised that 5% surcharge is not that much at all, compare to their standard 15% on public holiday!) so I thought that hubby and I can have a quiet lunch at home. 

What's better than having the smell of freshly baked bread filling the whole house? So I've decided to make apple bread - Project 4 - both me and my hubby's favourite! I don't think I can ever go on a no carb diet, cos bread is one of my favourite foods on the list, and it ranks pretty high up. It's definitely my weakness! 

Ingredients:

250g bread flour

2 tbsp of skim milk poweder

30g unsalted butter, room temp

3 tbsp sugar

1 tsp instant yeast

1 egg + 120ml milk 

1 tsp salt

1 apple 

1 tsp cinnamon

20g butter

1-2 tbsp sugar

1-2 tbsp jam

1. In a bowl, mix the flour, milk powder, butter, sugar and yeast

2. Heat up the milk to be slightly hotter than your skin temperature, then add in eggs. Pour half of the egg mixture into the flour mixture. Knead. Then add in the rest of the egg mixture (leaving about 10ml for later use). Knead until it's mixed well (can add in more flour or water to form the dough). Add in salt, and knead until the surface is smooth. 

3. Leave the dough in the bowl in a warm place and wrap with glad wrap. Wait for 30 min for it to rise. 

4. Meanwhile, peel and corded the apple and cut into small pieces. Heat the butter in a pan, add the apple pieces with sugar. Stir until soft. Remove from heat. 

5. The dough should be doubled in size. Take out the dough and knead out all the air bubble gently. 

6. Roll the dough into a ball, then cover it with a wet towel and wait for 15 min. 

7. Roll out the dough into a 20x30cm sheet, sprinkle the apple along the long side of dough, and cinnamon on top, then roll up. Cut the roll into 6 even sections and arrange it in a greased cake tin. 

8. Cover it with a wet towel, and leave it in a warm place for the second rising. 

9. Brush the dough top with the left over egg mixture. Decorate with some almond flakes, and bake in a preheated oven for 20 min at 180C

10. Warm up the jam in the microwave, and brush it on top of the bread to create a glaze. 

This is actually a quite easy recipe, but it takes time for the dough to rise, which is the frustrating bit! My bread tends to take a long time to rise, double or even triple the time suggested, I don't know why. But it still turns out at the end! 

I love freshly baked bread, I like the feeling of having it hot in hand, tearing it out bit by bit seeing the fibre rips apart with steam coming out of it! Both of us polished almost the whole tin of bread.... almost.... my hubby was very tempted to eat the last bit as well, but he stopped himself, so that he could have it as breakfast the next morning! haha.... Fresh bread always get out of control in this household!