Whole Wheat Apple Cinnamon Bread

October brings the smell of apples and a hint of winter; all the reason I need to bake a whole wheat apple cinnamon bread. Just like banana bread, this one has apples – little cubes of juicy fruit, not applesauce, not grated apples and not dried apple either. This bread is a little rustic, not the prettiest to look at and I admit, a little challenging to slice when it’s warm but it is healthy, all cinnamon and apple and smells so festive. This whole wheat apple cinnamon bread heralds the season of celebrations and hearty cooking.

The markets are abundant with Gala, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Fuji, McIntosh and many more varieties of apples. Crisp, fresh and still orchard-fragrant, they are hard to resist despite high early season prices. One look at them and I can taste cinnamon, on my brain and on my tongue. Whoever thought of apples and cinnamon was a genius. The urge to bake was so strong that all I wanted to do was rush home and get to it. And I knew that whatever I baked had to be loaded, no, bursting with apples. An apple bread sounded appealing and a whole wheat apple cinnamon bread ticked all the boxes on my sensory list.

So, this apple bread recipe has all the regular pantry staples such as whole wheat flour (cake not bread flour), brown sugar, vanilla extract etc. I do use the best, most aromatic cinnamon that I can get. In India, grown on the Malabar coast in Kerala, Ceylon cinnamon is by far the most superior variety in terms of aroma and concentration of essential oil and nutrients. It is also very thin unlike the thick cassia bark. The sweetness of the apples need the rounded, fullness and flavour of good cinnamon.  

The whole wheat apple cinnamon bread gets its rich colour of molasses from soft brown sugar and to some extent from the flour itself. I’m too lazy to peel the apples – it adds bite and some fibre to the bread. Walnuts are always great in banana bread and work beautifully here as well, bringing some crunch to the fruit-filled downy bread. I adapted this recipe from the Whole Grain Banana Bread by King Arthur Flour but only broadly so. I changed the quantities of flour, fruit, sugar and even oil. Since I was going the whole wheat route, I added rolled oats to amp up the texture and add heft to the bread. 

The batter is shaggy and full of chunks. But don’t worry, the whole thing binds and comes together when baked low and slow for 50-60 minutes. The advantage of slow baking is that your home is infused with warm, cinnamon aromas that is sure to even reach your neighbours’. There’s a lot going on in my whole wheat apple cinnamon bread. So as tempting as it may be to slice it  as soon as it comes out of the oven, hold on till it cools. Because it is loaded with fruit, it may crumble a little when warm. Use a serrated knife to cut generous thick slices once cooled. It keeps well for 2-3 days wrapped in cling film in an airtight box at room temperature but since it has fresh fruit, wrap it in cling film and refrigerate to store for longer. This recipe yields one 5”x 9” loaf or 15 regular muffins. Muffins must be baked for 20 minutes.