Angry Orchard Cinnful Cider Bread

For those of you who haven't made my Cinnful Cidercakes yet, you need to! My cidercakes have been a hit and I decided I wanted to take the recipe to the next level and turn it into a bread. I love any and all kinds of bread - especially banana bread, pumpkin bread, and beer bread. After giving it some thought, I decided that I wanted a moist bread like banana bread, with the denseness of pumpkin bread, and that used hard cider instead of beer. I had a pretty solid recipe for my cupcakes and decided to somehow modify it to give it a bread-like texture. 

Now I've done my fair share of food research and I know that substitutions can be made for most things but not without a little modification first. Banana bread is moist because of the banana, pumpkin bread is super moist because of the pumpkin puree and beer bread obviously uses beer to keep the bread from drying out. When it comes to apple cider bread, equal substitutions cannot be made. Apples are a very, very wet fruit and adding applesauce instead of banana or pumpkin puree nearly doubles the moisture which could turn the bread to goo, especially since there is added liquid from the hard cider already. I wanted a strong apple flavor so I cut the amount of cider in half to account for the moisture in the applesauce. The result was a rich, moist, bread that fully embodied the flavor of Angry Orchard's Cinnful Cider.

Angry Orchard Cinnful Cider Bread

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon apple pie spice
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup cinnamon applesauce
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup egg beaters
• 1/2 cup Angry Orchard Cinnful Cider
• 1/4 cup cinnamon chips
• 1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon fat free half and half (or milk)
• Chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly spray 9x5in. loaf pan with cooking spray; set aside. 

In a small bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and apple pie spice. In a large bowl cream butter and brown sugar then add applesauce and mix. Add 1/4 cup egg beaters and mix. Once mixed add remaining 1/4 cup egg beaters and mix again. Slowly mix in hard cider until fully incorporated. Working in 3 batches, add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix. Pour into loaf pan and cook for 55 minutes; rotating after 30. 

Allow bread to cool for 10 minutes in the loaf pan and then slowly remove from loaf pan and cool on a cooling rack. 

For the cinnamon drizzle: melt cinnamon chips, fat free half and half, and vanilla over a double boiler. As soon as ingredients are melted, drizzle over cooled cider bread and top with chopped walnuts.