Apple Spice Sandwich Bread

When I experimented with ingredients for the apple spice sandwich bread, I discovered that adding applesauce to it made it super soft, and just a little bit of cinnamon brought out its incredible fall flavor.

It can absolutely become the greatest alternative for your sandwich bread.

Approved by my family. Kids loved it for school sandwiches with cream cheese or butter.

Also the recipe doesn’t require any eggs. So it can be considered a vegetarian.

Let’s bake it!

Ingredients

Sourdough Starter

• 7g sourdough starter
• 35g water
• 35g bread flour

Dough

• 320g bread flour (100%)
• 240g applesauce (75%)
• 32g brown sugar (10%)
• 3g of cinnamon (1%)
• 64g of starter on it’s peak (20%)
• 6g salt (2%)
• 48g soft or melted butter(15%)
• 0.5 g dry yeast (optional, to reduce the sourness, can be added with water)
• Extra 2 tbs of cinnamon mixed with 2 tbs of sugar, for coating (optional)

Directions 

Day 1

Starter 

• 10 pm add starter to the water and whisk together, add flour, mix well, cover loosely, let it sit at a room temp 74-78F for about 8-10 hours until starter reaches its peak (at least triples in volume).

Dough

• 8 am mix applesauce , flour, cinnamon, brown sugar, sourdough starter (64g on its peak, the rest use for future feedings), yeast, if using. Let the dough autolyse for 1 hour. During the autolyse process the flour becomes fully hydrated. This activates gluten development.

• 9 am mix dough on low speed of your mixing machine for 2-3 minutes, or KitchenAid on speed 3 for 3-4 minutes until well incorporated.
• Add salt, mix for a couple more minutes. The dough should come up together.
• Add soft butter, increase the speed to medium and mix for 10 more minutes until the dough is well incorporated and comes up together.
• Perform a windowpane test. Wet your hands and stretch the dough. You should be able to stretch it very thin, that’s a sign of a well developed gluten, and that your final product will have a soft and light structure.
• Cover and let the dough proof for 3-4 hours at 76-80F/ 24-28C.

• During that time perform 2 stretches and folds.
• The dough should become slightly puffy.
• 1 pm transfer the dough to the fridge for cold fermentation till the evening (for 8-9 hours).
• 10 pm remove the dough from the fridge.
• Shape as desired. I rolled it into a roll half length of a baking/loaf pan.
• Optional: roll the dough into cinnamon sugar mixture for more flavor.
• Put a sheet of parchment paper on the bottom of your loaf pan, or spread butter and sprinkle some flour, inside your loaf pan.
• Transfer the shaped loaf into the loaf pan.
• Cover the dough and let it proof overnight at 68- 72F /20-22C until it doubles or more in volume. About 7-9 hours. Usually it doubles or more in volume by morning (6-7 am).

Day 3

• 7 am preheat the oven to 375F.
• Bake bread for 30-35 minutes until golden brown.

Enjoy your apple spice sandwich bread!