Apples, Apples, Apples

I received some apples from a friend who went to the local apple orchard a few weeks ago and have been meaning to write about the two things I baked up immediately afterward.

The first was Praline Apple Bread http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1918535

that was in a recent Southern Living magazine. Although decadent, it was a good breakfast or dessert bread. I accidently added too many eggs so I made 1 1/2 times the recipe. The most challenging part of this recipe was making the Praline but that was not difficult. The family ate the larger loaf and I have the small one in the freezer. I also added purposefully a few more apples. I also forgot to add the pecans on top of the wet batter so I added them when I added the carmel sauce. They did not stay on top as easily but still tasted good.

rep: 20 min.; Bake: 1 hr., 6 min.; Cool: 1 hr., 10 min.; Cook: 5 min. Sour cream is the secret to the rich, moist texture of this bread. There's no butter or oil in the batter—only in the glaze.

Ingredients

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Bake 1/2 cup pecans in a single layer in a shallow pan 6 to 8 minutes or until toasted and fragrant, stirring after 4 minutes.

2. Beat sour cream and next 3 ingredients at low speed with an electric mixer 2 minutes or until blended.

3. Stir together flour and next 3 ingredients. Add to sour cream mixture, beating just until blended. Stir in apples and 1/2 cup toasted pecans. Spoon batter into a greased and floured 9- x 5-inch loaf pan. Sprinkle with remaining 1 cup chopped pecans; lightly press pecans into batter.

4. Bake at 350° for 1 hour to 1 hour and 5 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, shielding with aluminum foil after 50 minutes to prevent excessive browning. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack.

5. Bring butter and brown sugar to a boil in a 1-qt. heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly; boil 1 minute. Remove from heat, and spoon over top of bread; let cool completely (about 1 hour).

Note: To freeze, cool bread completely; wrap in plastic wrap, then in aluminum foil. Freeze up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature.

The second recipe was a apple crostada by Ina Garten.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/apple-crostata-recipe/index.html

It is like a short cut apple pie. I cheated as I had a refrigerated pie crust already so I was able to skip the pastry making step. I am sure a homemade crust would have tasted differently but once you bake it and add some vanilla ice cream who cares.