What are the things in your kitchen that you’d say are super time savers and so become a favorite thing.  When I baked this bread I put myself in a tight place by not cooking the apples when the dough was shaped and on it’s final rise. Suddenly I needed to shape the bread and hadn’t chopped the apples yet .  My original plan was to use the grandmother’s  apple peeler, corer, slicer and then chop the slices … Or I would get out the big real mandoline and slice the apple … my timing was off, I didn’t want to go through all that … what to do?

Enter the Adjust-A-Slice and Julienne Mandoline. I saw this about a year ago on Amazon, it was getting rave reviews and my kitchen was still not together. As I remember it was under $20, now I think its gone up slightly and is under $24. But I still buy it for gifts because it is a wonder tool and now one of my favorite things. I use it to chip my chocolate (1 teaspoon chips into my morning coffee ~ it’s medicinal you know), I use it to julienne carrots, radishes, zucchini you name it and throw them into salads.  I used my corer which sits next to this simple mandoline in a drawer to core the apple and made short work of chopping the julienne sticks; the plate went into the freezer for a quick chill and I was ready to go!

Our kitchen of the month is Kelly at A Messy Kitchen. She’s got the original recipe and a great alteration for making just one loaf on her site.

Apple Bread with Cider and Calvados (makes 2 loaves)

Poolish:

¾ tsp yeast

500 grams apple cider

160 grams bread flour

200 King Arthur Irish Whole Meal flour

Final Dough:

1 tsp yeast

300 grams apple cider

200 grams bread flour

200 Irish Whole Meal flour

100 grams coarse rye flour

3¾ tsp sea salt

Add-ins:

200 grams Granny Smith

20 grams butter

1 tablespoon demerara sugar

50 grams boiled cider

Poolish:  Whisk flours and yeast.  Add cider and mix well.  Cover with shower cap and leave to rise for at least 4 hours at room temperature or overnight in the fridge.  The poolish is ready when a cavity has formed in the middle.

Kneading:

Whisk flours and yeast, add poolish and apple cider (if this is apple bread, I decided apple cider was better than water).  Knead well; about 10 minutes by hand.  Add the salt; I sprinkled it on the counter much like I would have if I’d needed to add flour to the dough.  Knead until very elastic .

Place dough in a lightly oiled lidded plastic container and leave for 90 minutes.

Add-ins:

Peel and dice the apple(s).  Melt butter and sugar in a frying pan; add the chopped apple and fry until golden brown.  Add apple cider (the calvados, I do love it but there was none to be found here) and boil until the mixture is dry.  Leave to cool.

Press the mixture into the risen dough.  Divide into two and form oblong loaves without first making a ball. Place on a tea-towel dusted with flour and pull the cloth up between the breads.

I covered the loaves with bowls and allowed to rise until doubled in size, about 75 minutes.

Preheat the oven with baking stone to 475ºF.

Place the loaves directly on the stone and mist with water.

Lower the temperature to 400ºF after 5 minutes.  Open the oven door after another 10 minutes to let some air in. Nice oven spring.

My loaves baked for 60 minutes and reached 207°F.  Even though I made smaller loaves (I had three) because I used so much whole grain, I knew this would take longer than the original recipe. Photos look really dark but they did not burn.

Take out the loaves, I brushed with butter and allowed to cool on a wire rack.