Rain, Thunder and Applesauce Bread

One of my good friends shared this on Facebook and I thought it was so cool..had to pass it on to you....

We had a job this weekend up in Ramona, Ca....Ramona is a small semi mountain community...the job was very easy..only one lock on a condo....but since the town is so close to Julian, we made a day trip out of it and got some of our favorite Julian apple pie and a few apples....unfortunately, we realized inflation must have hit as the apples were twice as expensive as last year....so we didn't get many...we usually buy a 40 lb. box, make applesauce and can quite a few quarts but as we found out one box would cost almost $35.00 decided against it....did get a few lbs though...Jonathan..and some Snow apples....

 Alan also bought two bags of crab apples...they were very ripe so when we came home, we cut them up and made applesauce right away....not enough to can but I am going to make some applesauce muffins and bread...
I found  this recipe on the Mr. Food site and think I will try it......sounds very good  indeed..

Applesauce and Spice Bread

Cooking Time: 1 hr

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¹/2 teaspoon baking powder
• ¹/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, divided
• ¹/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ¹/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 cup sugar
• ¹/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 ¹/4 cups applesauce
• 2 eggs
• 3 tablespoons milk
• ¹/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans
• ¹/4 cup chopped pecans
• ¹/4 cup packed brown sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, the nutmeg, and allspice.
    
2. In a large bowl, combine sugar, oil, applesauce, eggs, and milk. Stir dry ingredients into applesauce mixture; stir in 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans. Pour batter into a greased 9- x 5-inch loaf pan.
    
3. In a small bowl, mix 1/4 cup chopped pecans, the brown sugar, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon to make a topping; sprinkle evenly over batter.
    
4. Bake 1 to 1-1/4 hours, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool in pan.

I'll have to tweek it a bit as we don't use brown sugar but think I can substitute something else...have to work on that......

Two  hours later.....

I used Splenda instead of sugar..added two T. of dry milk powder which helped it rise well....and for the topping, used chopped nuts, two T. flour mixed with some sugar free maple syrup which made a rather nice crunchy topping....it was a big hit with the young adults as well as us old folks....its already half gone!