Walnut and apple bread

For a while I had had a sweet, appley scent in my nose. So, spurred on by that, I had lugged home half of an orchard. And then the theme for the Finnish food bloggers' monthly food challenge was announced and it was... apple! What a cosmic coincidence! So, better get to the core.

And since it is a challenge, I started wondering if I could come up with something other than the standard apple pie (which, don't get me wrong, is a classic. And rightfully so) And I came up with an idea for a... bread.

The inspiration came from an Irish soda bread. Since it has no yeast and therefore doesn't require any raising and waiting it's quick to make and I figured a potential disaster would be every bit as quick to get out of my sight. But it did not turn out disastrous at all. It turned out a nice, sweet and spicy loaf of a bread. Half of which was gone by the time it had cooled enough to be cut...

1 loaf

3 apples

1,5 tbsp orange zest

80 g walnuts 
(roughly chopped)

6-7 dl wholemeal flour

(I substituted half of that with oat flour)

1 heaped tsp salt 
2 tbs oil

1 heaped tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp allspice

1 tsp black pepper

1 heaped tsp baking soda

Peel the appled and grate them finely. Add spices, orange zest, oil and walnuts. In another bowl mix the dry ingredients (start with 6 dl of flour and add more if needed after the ingredients have been combined).

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones and add more flour if needed until a rough dough starts to form. 

The dough doesn't need to be smooth and pliable the way regular bread dough would - just manhandle it until it stays together and with floured hands form into the shape of a loaf. Either bake in a loaf tin (grease and flour it first) or as a free form loaf on a baking tray. Decorate with walnuts (if you feel like it) and bake in 180 ° for 50 minutes. 

And this is our entry to this month's food challenge!

Let cool (if you can), slice it, grab some butter and watch how the butter mesmerisingly melts on the freshly baked bread...

Oh, and that mystery of the apple scent was solved eventually too. It was not about the synergy of the souls or Universe sending me messages - the source turned out to be a family size pack of scented candles I'd lugged back home from IKEA...