Apple Spice Bread (No eggs!!)

My nana's best recipe is Apple Cake. Everyone absolutely loves this cake beyond all reason- no one more so than my mother. So much so, that every time we go visit my Nana, it's understood that there will be an apple cake chilling in the refrigerator. So when I got married, and my mother was coming up to visit for the first time, I thought it would be a fun surprise to have this cake ready, so I emailed my Nana for the recipe. As if. The recipe required soaking, food processing, and waiting, waiting, waiting. There was no way I had the time or energy to tackle that. But every now and again, the cravings hit. And today was one of those days.

Again, using an apple to make something delicious and cheap. I doubled the recipe and used half for Muffins and half for a loaf. I also split the butter so I was doing half butter and half oil, to make it a little healthier. If you don't have applesauce 2 or 3 eggs with a little bit of milk would work fine in it's place. If you used whole wheat flour and brown sugar, these muffins are pretty darn healthy. I came up with this recipe on my own, so feel free to tweak to your desire!

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup applesauce
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla (or so!)
1 1/2 cup flour
2 tsp. Baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 apple, chopped finely
cinnamon, allspice, ginger, cloves, nutmeg
raisins, walnuts, and/or oats

Cut butter into sugar until creamy. Add vanilla.
stir together flour, baking powder and spices, and add to wet ingredients.
*for spices, use to taste...start with maybe 1 tsp. of each, or whatever you have, and go from there*
Stir in applesauce until dough forms.
Stir in apple.
Stir in Raisins, walnut, or oats to taste.

I baked the loaf in the oven for 1 hour, and the muffins for 20-25 minutes at 350. I topped my loaf and muffins with a little bit of extra all spice on the top, just for some added kick. These would be excellent with some crumb topping. (a few tablespoons of butter, flour and sugar mixed together with some spices and maybe oats.)

These are excellent! I don't think they match my Nana's cake (nothing ever will) but if you're wanting that spicy apple goodness on the cheap, quick, easy, and most importantly delicious, then this is a great choice. I am freezing the muffins, they last so much longer, and are a great quick breakfast. 30-45 seconds in the microwave, and you're good to go. I hope you enjoy! I am. :)