Cinnamon-Apple Twist Bread

Ingredients

Dough

  • 195g all-purpose flour
  • 22g potato flour
  • 17g granulated sugar
  • ¾ teaspoon instant yeast
  • heaping half-teaspoon table salt
  • 22g unsalted butter softened
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ eggs
  • 127g milk lukewarm

Filling

  • 115g peeled, grated apple
  • 7g lemon juice
  • 50g granulated sugar
  • 11g instant ClearJel
  • pinch table salt
  • ½ teaspoon cinnamon
  • 56g chopped walnuts or pecans optional

Glaze

  • 28g confectioners’ sugar
  • ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • pinch table salt
  • 7-14g heavy cream adjust to desired consistency

Instructions

To make the dough

  1. Whisk together all of the dry ingredients. Add them to the bowl of a stand mixer along with the butter, vanilla, egg, and milk, mixing until a shaggy dough forms. If possible, let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
  2. Knead the dough until it’s smooth and soft, although still slightly sticky. Place dough in a greased bowl and cover; let rise until almost doubled, about 1½ to 2 hours.

Making the Filling

  1. Whisk together the sugar, ClearJel, salt, and cinnamon.
  2. Toss the grated apple with the lemon juice, then add it to the sugar mixture. Mix well and set aside.

Assembling and Baking the Loaf

  1. Gently deflate the risen dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured or greased work surface. Roll it into a 10” x 12” rectangle. Spread the filling over the dough, leaving a ½” margin clear of filling along all sides. If adding nuts, sprinkle them over the filling.
  2. Starting with a long side, roll the dough into a log, sealing the edge. Use a knife to cut tht log in half lengthwise. Place the half-logs filled side up on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Keeping the filled side up, twist the two logs together, and then pinch the ends together. Cover with lightly greased plastic wrap, and set aside to rise for 1-2 hours; they should be puffy but not doubled in bulk.
  3. Bake the loaves in a preheated 350°F oven for about 30 minutes, until lightly browned. Cover with foil about halfway through baking to prevent overbrowning. Fully-baked loaves should register 190°F or higher on a digital thermometer inserted into the center of the loaf (make sure to test the bread, not the filling). Let cool for at least an hour before glazing.

Notes

26 January 2024: I made this bread today using one Honeycrisp apple. Peeled and cored, it yielded about 115g, which was perfect. I would not want to use less apple. Rather than grating it, I cut it into 1” cubes and pulsed it in a food processor for 4 short pulses. After using the dough hook to bring all of the ingredients together (which took about 2 minutes), I let the dough rest for 10 minutes before proceeding. I then mixed/kneaded in the stand mixer for 9 minutes. The first rise was 1½ - 1¾ hours in the oven with the light on. The second rise was 1 hour, of which the first 15 minutes were in the oven with the light on, and then 45 minutes on the counter while the oven preheated. I baked it on rack 3 for 30 minutes, covering with foil after 15 minutes. In addition to the parchment, underneath the loaf I also had a silicone baking mat. The bottom got a little more cosmetically brown than I would have liked, but it was not dry or tough, tasted fine, and softened a lot overnight. Still, I would not want to bake it any longer, and would consider doubling up on the baking sheets next time.