Browned Butter Apple Bread – the perfect quick bread for Fall!

Val Curtis

A couple of week’s ago I made Sprinkle Bake’s Pumpkin Browned Butter Cupcakes. I tried them out for dessert and then on my son’s preschool class. Both times they were gobbled up and seconds were requested. Not bad.

Browned Butter Apple Bread (A Tale of an Apple Thief)

This week, as I left a friend’s house, she graciously gave us over a dozen apples and 6 incredibly tasty apple muffins. Again, both kids loved them and it was handy to have something so tasty to give the kids between school pickup and our afternoon activity of the day.

As I began contemplating what would become of the apples, my amateur baker brain started turning. What if I combined these two flavors? There is already butter in most cupcake recipes, so why not brown it?

After searching through my files trying to find the right “base” recipe, I found Smitten Kitchen’s Whole Wheat Apple Cupcake recipe AND I had all of the supplies at home already. I was ready to get started and after considering the week’s schedule, I decided to make two loaves, not muffins/ cupcakes.Browned Butter Apple Bread by Val Curtis of Bonbon Break
While I was baking, I noticed that my littlest one was very quiet, a sure sign of trouble. As I scanned the kitchen, I noticed one apple with a little bite…and then another…and then a trail. Another friend had dropped a bag of her delicious apples by during a visit (I love living here) and someone had scattered them across the floor.

Finally, I turned the corner and there she was chomping away on the one that seemed to satisfy her apple needs. In the meantime, her brother ate 4 of them. Yes, 4. Why do I bother baking and what how the heck am I going to keep him fed when he is in high school!?!

After rounding up the remaining apples, I finished the loaves and put them in the oven. There was a sweet request that we leave the light on so we could see when they are ready.

Browned Butter Apple Bread by Val Curtis of Bonbon Break

The result was delicious and someone couldn’t keep her apple thief-y little fingers off of it.

Browned Butter Apple Bread by Val Curtis of Bonbon Break A photo shoot was impossible with these little fingers going for a grab.
Browned Butter Apple Bread (A Tale of an Apple Thief) by Val Curtis of Bonbon Break Note the piece of bread in her hand. Now you know that the picture at the top of this post was a wee bit challenging to capture.

Browned Butter Apple Bread How To Video

Browned Butter Apple Bread

Yield: 2 - 9x4 loaves
Course Breads
Keyword breads, quick breads
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Cooling Time 20 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Author Val Curtis

Ingredients

  • 2 cups organic whole wheat flour
  • 2 cups organic all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup flax seed
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons organic cinnamon
  • 1 cup 2 sticks unsalted organic butter at room temperature, divided
  • 1 cup granulated organic sugar
  • 1 cup dark brown sugar packed
  • 2 large organic brown eggs
  • 1 cup organic yogurt
  • 1 cup organic sour cream
  • 4 cups of organic apples peeled, cored and diced **

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 450°F and generously grease 2 - 9x4 bread pans.

  2. To peel, core and dice your apples try the following: 

  3. 1) Cut off the top and bottom of your apples.
  4. 2) Peel using a potato peeler.
  5. 3) Use OXO Steel Apple Divider to chop into slices.
  6. Dice slices into bite-size pieces.
  7. Add 3 tablespoons of butter over high heat in a skillet until just brown and then add diced apples for 2 minutes over medium heat. Remove from heat and set aside.

  8. Mix together the dry ingredients (flours, flax seed, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon) and set aside.

  9. In a mixer bowl, mix the remaining butter and add the granulated sugar and 1/2 cup of the brown sugar. Beat until fluffy. Add the egg and beat until completely mixed. Add yogurt and sour cream and mix until smooth.

  10. Slowly add in the dry ingredients and mix on slow for 2 minutes.

  11. Fold in the apple chunks.

  12. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared bread pans.

  13. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of brown sugar on top.

  14. Bake for 20 minutes. Lower heat to 375°F and bake for an additional 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a loaf comes out clean.

  15. Cool the loaves for 5 minutes in the pans, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe Notes

SIDE NOTE:

** Apples are always on the Environmental Work Group's Dirty Dozen list. Buy organic or know your source.

Browned Butter Apple Bread (A Tale of an Apple Thief) by Val Curtis of Bonbon Break

 



 

Let's just start with the brown sugar topping. Delicious! This Browned Butter Apple Bread Recipe is the perfect Fall quick bread.


CONTINUE READING RECIPES IN THE KITCHEN

Val Curtis is the Editor-in-chief of Bonbon Break. She is a former middle school science/math/tech teacher who put her career on hold to be at home with her son and daughter on an island in the Pacific Northwest. When Val breaks away from her keyboard, she enjoys gardening, cooking, hiking, camping, photography, tidepooling, sailing and potlucks. She gets a kick out of combing the web for recipes and making them gluten-free so she can enjoy them while cooking for her husband, family and friends. She is a tech-gadget geek who is poked fun at, but it doesn’t bother her a bit. Combining her love of photography, tech and graphics to create new, fun content for her sites quenches her “thirst” for integrated technology.