Having been inspired by the plentiful and varied apples available during my trip to the apple festival, I decided to make a bread reflecting the season and celebrating this special fruit.
I briefly followed the recipe here: http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.ca/2011/05/apple-and-oat-sourdough-fresh-fruit.html which is supposedly from Bourke Street Bakery since I wanted to use whole apples in the dough. I modified it to use my standard 8 hour bulk ferment dough which means a much lower proportion of sourdough starter. I used one medium size spartan apple cut roughly into chunks.
And here's the result with a crumb shot featuring the lovely bits of baked apples poking out of the crumb.
Overall it was a nice bread with great oven spring (the lower hydration helped keep its shaped too). I am slightly disappointed that the apple flavour was not so pronounced. Maybe it was the type of apple used. Comparing it to a similar recipe, ie Nancy Silverton's Pear bread, I think this could do with a hint of spice or maybe a paste of mashed up apples to flavour the crumb. Texture was quite nice though, with the oats giving it a slightly softer texture.
-Tim
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Hi Tim,
I have baked a lot of apple oat breads this fall too. I used Dan Leopard's recipe from his book 'The Hand Made Loaf'. I tweaked it with each bake.
To bring out a more pronounced apple flavor I added boiled cider (KA catalogue) to the cooked oats. I also added dried cranberries and spices. I used Penzey's baking spices which is a combo of cinnamon, anise, nutmeg and allspice. Smelled heavenly as it baked and all who got loaves loved it. I also used Granny Smith green apples as the apples which I grated and chopped so texture was varied.
I also found that due to the moisture content that the loaves needed to be baked in a loaf pan or else they spread hopelessly once in the oven. People still loved them but the looked as though they had been dropped just prior to baking. :O
Have Fun experimenting with your apples.
Janet
Hi Janet, thanks for the suggestions. I was considering whether to go with Dan Lepard's recipe initially having seen quite a few good bakes, but opted to use this for the fresh apples instead. Next time round I will add some spices and grated apples as well. Did not really have a problem with the hydration though. Maybe its the the grated apples that are contributing quite a bit of extra water to the though. Will keep on experimenting!
Very nice baking Tim. I just finished baking a hard cider loaf but didn't use any fresh apples in it. Yours came out real nice.
Regards
Ian
so combining them in a bread sounds delicious and yours turned out very nice. Odd the apple flavor wasn't very pronounced. I saw on America's Kitchen where the same thing happened and they tested everything to get more apple flavor to come through. Their solution was using dried apples and re-hydrating them in apple cider.
It sounds like a nice combo with apples and oats. The bread looks so simple and rustic.
Warm Regards,
Casey
That is a great looking loaf, Tim, and it's making me hungry! I imagine it would be hard not to get inspired at an apple festival. I hope we'll see more tasty creations!
Marcus