Swirled Cinnamon-Apple Bread

If you have a bread machine, this recipe is a must! It's perfectly delicious and (I believe) tastes just like the cinnamon swirl bread you can buy in the store. It's amazing as toast, but if you like apples and you like cinnamon than you should like this bread any old way. Kevin was a huge fan...as was I!

This recipe is from Better Homes and Gardens: Bread Machine Bounty.

Ingredients

1/3 cup milk

1 egg

2 Tbsp butter or margarine

2 cups flour or bread flour

2 Tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp active dry or bread machine yeast

1/2 cup peeled, shredded apple (about 1 apple)

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3/4 cup peeled, finely chopped apple

1/4 cup toasted chopped walnuts or pecans (this would be amazing, but we had none and it was fine without!)

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 Tbsp butter or margarine

Powdered sugar

Add first 8 ingredients to machine according to manufacturer's directions. (Always add liquid ingredients first, then dry ingredients (should be floating on top of liquids), then make a small well in the dry ingredients and add yeast LAST--being sure the yeast never comes in contact with the liquids or it will be activated too soon.) Select dough cycle.

When cycle is complete, remove dough from machine. Cover and let rest 10 minutes. Meanwhile, for filling, in a medium mixing bowl stir together the chopped apple, walnuts, brown sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.

On lightly floured surface roll dough into a 14x9 inch rectangle. Spread with 1 Tbsp margarine or butter and filling. Beginning at both short ends, roll each end up jelly roll style to the center (I totally missed this and rolled it all one direction...it worked just fine). Place loaf, rolled side up (or down if rolled in one direction like I did), in a greased 9x5x3 inch loaf pan. Cover and let rise till almost double (about 30 minutes).

Bake in a 350 oven for 30 minutes or till bread sounds hollow when top is tapped with your fingers. If necessary loosely cover with foil the last 10 minutes to prevent overbrowning. (I ended up baking it for almost 20 extra minutes and it still wasn't sounding hollow as most loaves do, but it looked done so I called it done and it was fine.) Remove from pan. Cool on wire rack. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.