Braided Apple Bread

I found a recipe via "Pinterest" for a braided apple apple bread, and it looked scrumptious. I pinned it on my "nourish" board and went on with my life, all the while thinking it would really be fun to actually make this fantastic looking concoction.

And then one of my friends gave me three wolf apples that his brother grew. They were rather large. Do you want to see one?

 And this is how ridiculous I would look if I tried to eat it like a normal apple.

So, I decided to chop it up and bake it. You can find the recipe here, but I made a few modifications as well. The dough seemed really sticky, so I ended up using 3 1/2 cups of flour. In a nutshell, here's the concept:

• Slice apples and toss them with cinnamon, sugar, and lemon juice and throw them in the oven for about 15 minutes.
• Mix up a sweet yeast dough.
• Roll out the dough (about 12 x 16 inches works well) and cut 1 inch strips 1/3 of the way in on either side.
• Pull the partially baked apple slices out of the oven and spread on the intact 1/3 of dough.

I sprinkled on extra cinnamon, and a dash of mace and ginger, just to revel in the glory of fall spices.

Then, you fold the strips into the center. Quite simple, really.

And bake in the oven for about 25 minutes, or until golden brown.
The original recipe called for a creamy glaze, but I opted for caramel. I used the glaze topping from the Apple Cake in Simply in Season.

2/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup milk or cream
1 tablespoon flour

Heat to boiling in a small saucepan, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat.

Mix in 1/3 cup powdered sugar.

Drizzle over the bread. I tried to make just a half recipe, but it was tricky to work with such a small quantity. I recommend making the entire quantity of glaze listed above, and then only using as much as your sweet tooth desires.

Look at it- isn't it luscious? Especially when shared with friends in a pavilion down by the pond on a foggy night as a snack after rock climbing...