Surprise-Inside Streusel Apple Loaf
There is no limit to the amount of apples I want to cook/eat/bake this time of year. We’ve even been working double-time to acquire them. I’ve been buying them up at the grocery store and farmer’s market, and picking them straight from the source. I would worry that we are drowning in apples if I didn’t have some many things to make with them. So far I’ve revisited a few old favorites and made this new one. It is a simple apple loaf studded with a brown sugar streusel. But instead of being flavored with chopped apples throughout, the apples are spread in one even layer near the top of the loaf. So when you cut into it and find the apple layer it is like a sweet little surprise inside.
What I love about this loaf is its simplicity. The cake is sweet and moist with a dense crumb. It isn’t flavored with any complicated ingredients, just cinnamon and vanilla. The apple layer is kind of like a little tease of apple pie folded inside of the cake. The lumpy bumpy streusel topping serves as the better-than-frosting topping. It is actually kind of basic, though the assembly and flavor makes it taste anything but.
If you have apple picking plans, or even if you don’t, this fall loaf is bound to become a new favorite. Bake it up for your family and enjoy it for breakfast, lunch, or dessert (or all three!).
Ingredients
- For the Streusel:
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup packed brown sugar
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- For the Cake:
- 1 apple (I used Mcintosh), peeled and sliced thin and tossed with 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1 large egg
- 2 large egg yolks
- ½ cup buttermilk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 9 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour in the inside of a 9x5 loaf pan and set aside.
- To make the streusel: In a small bowl use your hands or a fork to cut together the flour, brown sugar, butter, and cinnamon until small pebbles form. Set aside.
- To make the cake: In the bowl of a stand mixer combine the egg, egg yolks, buttermilk and vanilla and mix well. Then add the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and butter and mix for about 2 minutes on medium-high speed until all of the ingredients are combined and smooth.
- Spread about ¾ of the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Then lay the apple slices on top of it in one even layer, only slightly overlapping. Carefully spread the remaining batter on top. Then, sprinkle the streusel evenly over the top of the loaf so the batter is completely covered.
- Bake the cake for 55 to 65 minutes. You’ll know it is done when the a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean and the sides are browned and pulling away from the side of the pan. Remove the pan from the oven and allow it to cool for 10 minutes in the pan. Then invert it onto a wire rack to cool completely.
This is my new favorite and I haven’t even baked it yet. Loving these cozy fall recipes!
Thanks! 🙂