Dreary rainy weather, check. Urge to make bread, check. Soft cozy blanket, check. Kettle of tea, check. Time to make bread. This is the kind of bread that will have your neighbors stopping by for no good reason; like they got your junk mail and thought they should bring it by. Uh huh. Trying to sell your house? Make this bread right before your showing or open house-the house smells divine while it’s baking. With apples being abundant right now it sounded like the perfect type of thing to be baking in the oven with the rain falling outside. Cuddled on the couch with your favorite soft cozy blankey, rain falling, sipping a cup of hot tea. What could be more perfect. You might even have all the ingredients on hand. I tweaked the original recipe a bit and added apple pie spice to the batter and a little cinnamon to the streusel topping. Enjoy~

Apple Pie-Spice Bread

recipe: adapted from Better Homes and Garden “Baking” cookbook

yield: one standard loaf (9x5x3- inch) pan

1/2 Cup butter, softened

1 Cup sugar

1/4 Cup buttermilk or “sour milk”

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

2 Cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

3/4 tsp. apple pie spice (such as McCormick)

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 Cup raisins (I used golden)

1 Cup chopped walnuts or pecans, lightly toasted

2 Cups shredded, peeled apples (about 3-4 medium-I used a mixture of not too tart and not too sweet)

1 recipe streusel-nut topping* (see below)

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F or (180° C). Grease the bottom and sides of a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan. In a small bowl combine the flour, baking soda, salt and apple pie spice mix with a fork and set aside.

2. In a stand mixer or large bowl cream together the 1/2 Cup butter and 1 Cup sugar until fluffy; about 1 minute. In a glass measuring cup combine the buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla with a fork. Add the milk mixture gradually to the mixer with the running on low and beat on medium speed until combined. Add the flour mixture all at once and beat on medium low (careful if using a hand mixer) until combined, being careful not to overbeat. Stir in the raisins and walnuts. With a rubber spatula fold in the shredded apple along with any juice that collected. Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Prepare the streusel topping and sprinkle over the top of the bread.

3. Bake at 350° F for about 60-65 minutes or until a wooden skewer comes out clean when inserted in the middle. Let the bread cool in the pan over a wire rack for 10 minutes, then carefully remove the bread from the pan and continue to cool completely over the wire rack. Note; this streusel falls apart easily when cutting; to help prevent this, wrap the loaf in plastic wrap first and cut it the next day. If you can wait that long!!

Streusel Nut Topping:

1/4 Cup brown sugar

3 Tbsp. flour

1/8 tsp. cinnamon

3 Tbsp. slightly soft butter