Chopped Apple Bread

Ratings

Aesthetics: 5/5

Active time: 4/5

Difficulty: 2/5

Tastiness: 5/5 if you like sweet stuff

Modifications:
I left out the nuts in favor of raisins.

Reason for baking: a goodbye for a coworker who likes raisin bread.

Recipe from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Bread. Also available at King Arthur Flour.

INSTRUCTIONS

Chopped Apple Bread is a hodgepodge of dough, apples, and nuts-a wonderful mix that produces a handsome and delicious loaf that makes marvelous toast. When everything is chopped in pieces spread before you on the table you might wonder how it can produce something as orderly as a loaf of bread. But it does.
I found the recipe first at Mrs. London's Bakeshop in Saratoga Springs, New York, and then had its goodness confirmed in the Jaarsma Bakery in Pella, Iowa. The only difference it that one version is made with pecans and the other, watlnuts. In Pella this is called "Dutch Apple-Pecan."
The apple mixture will become part of the dough after the first rise. --------so wrote Bernard Clayton about this recipe.


Dough
6 1/2 to 7 cups bread or all purpose flour
2 packages dry yeast
1 tbsp salt
1/2 c. dry milk
2 1/2 c. hot water (120 to 130)
3 tbsp shortening


Apple Mix
2 c. apples, chopped into 3/4 inch cubes
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 c. walnuts or pecans, chopped into pea size pieces
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon


2 medium loaf pans, greased.


In a mixing bowl combine 3 cups flour with the dry ingredients. Pour in the hot water and stir in the shortening. With strong strokes, beat the batter 100 times by hand, or for 2 minutes with a mixer.
Add flour 1/2 cup at a time, to make a dough that can be lifted from the bowl and placed on the work surface.
Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface, for 10 minutes.
Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and set aside to double in volume, about 1 hour.
Punch dough down. Place on a floured work surface. Roll and press the dough into an 18 inch square, about 1/2 inch thick. Let the dough rest for a few moments.
Spread the chopped apples uniformly over the surface of the dough. Pour the beaten eggs over the apples. Add the nuts. Sprinkle on the sugar and cinnamon. Fold the dough into a package. This will be the last time there will be a semblance of order in preparing the bread. Using a dough scraper or large knife, chop the dough with random blows into pieces about 1" in size. Uniformity is of no great consequence. When the apple dough has been well chopped, toss or scoop the pieces into the prepared loaf pans, two-thirds full.
Cover the pans with wax paper, and put aside to rise slightly above the edge. about 40 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375. Bake about 45 minutes or til a rich golden brown. Test for doneness with a cake tester. If it comes out clean and dry, the bread is done.
Turn out onto a wire rack to cool. Carefully, bread is fragile while hot.