Week 1 Recipe 1 of the PPK Blog Cooking Challenge. This challenge is 10 whole weeks and it’s featuring a ton of bloggers who I haven’t really added to my RSS feed. A great way to meet new people, try (at least) 3 new recipes a week and have a good time in the kitchen.

I’ll be honest, I have never been to Richa’s blog before. I was pleasantly surprised by the variety of recipes. Since I love to bake bread I thought this Apple Pie Swirl Bread just sounded so up my alley.

After almost slogging through all of the Bread Bakers Apprentice it was nice to come across an easy loaf. It doesn’t look easy and I didn’t think it would turn out. I didn’t feel like adding barley flour (it was in the very back) and I didn’t want the texture so I just added another half cup of bread flour. It rose like a dream on the first rise.

The second rise I wasn’t hoping for anything. The apples were a bit watery from being lazy and pulsing them in the Blendtec. PS: don’t use a wooden spoon to tamp down things in the Blendtec before it’s at a complete stop. It broke my spoon and if it was going full speed it would have been sawdust. Seriously, those “does it blend” infomercials are real. Oops. But back to the apples: they were a bit watery and I rolled the dough out a bit too long. I just folded it under, popped it in the loaf pan and the thing still rose really nicely with all of the moisture. So surprising.

The taste is very light and not sugary at all. The bread texture is fluffy and really enjoyable to eat. I cut a nice big thick slice for myself and it was really really tasty. This is going to be rockin if it lasts long enough to be toasted with peanut butter. SO good.