This brown butter apple bread recipe is just in time for local fall apples. You’ll love the nutty flavor of brown butter paired with tart apples and brown sugar!
Between the browning of butter and baking this bread, your house will smell so good!
Tips
- I added a little whole wheat flour to give this bread extra body. If you want to use all whole wheat flour, I’m sure that it will be delicious!
- Use any apple variety that you like. Some apples will melt into the bread more than others. For example, Macintosh apples tend to cook into the bread, while a harder apple like Granny Smith will not break down as much.
Ingredients
You need the following ingredients to make this brown butter apple bread.
- 1 stick unsalted butter
- 1 cup white flour
- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup white granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 1/4 cup applesauce
- 2 tablespoons sour cream or creme fraîche
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 large apples, peeled, cored and chopped into small pieces (about 1/4 inch)
- 1 cup walnuts
Directions
Grease a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
Sift the flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt together into a bowl and set it aside.
Cut the stick of butter into several slices and add them to a heavy-bottomed sauce pan. Melt the butter over medium heat, whisking it often. Watch the butter carefully, so that it doesn’t burn. The butter will foam and then the foam subsides. You’ll start to see little bits of brown on the bottom of the pan. When it is nicely browned and has a nutty aroma, remove the pan from the heat and pour the butter into a bowl, so that it doesn’t cook any longer.
Add the sugar (brown and white) and eggs to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whip attachment and beat them on medium speed until light and fluffy (about 5 minutes). If you use an electric hand mixer, it will take about 8 minutes.
Turn the mixer down to the lowest speed and slowly drizzle the butter into the sugar and egg mixture, blending it until it is just incorporated. Do not put the oil in all at once. You want to keep the mixture airy and light.
Add the sour cream, vanilla and applesauce to the sugar, eggs and oil and blend on a low speed until just incorporated.
Fold in the dry ingredients. When blended, fold in the apples and then the walnuts.
Pour the batter into the loaf pan.
Bake for approximately 1 hour. The bread is done when a toothpick stuck into the center comes out clean.
Cool the bread in the pan for about 30 minutes. Transfer it from the pan to a cooling rack and cool a little longer.
Tightly wrap the bread to store it. You can keep it at room temperature for several days or you can freeze it.
Related Posts
Here are some other bread recipes that you might enjoy.