Honey Spice Bread

The apple trees are loaded this year. I can see it from the kitchen window every morning — the Macintosh at the corner hanging heavy, the branches bent with the weight of it. A good apple year follows a cold winter and a warm spring and this year was both. I pressed cider at the Hendersons' on Saturday, the same annual ritual — twelve gallons of sweet cider that I'll freeze some of, drink most of fresh over the next few weeks before it ferments on its own.

Made apple pie this week. The first apple pie of fall, from the Macs, the ones that are too small and tart and slightly lumpy-looking and make the best pie I know of. Helen's crust recipe, which I've now made many times and which I've arrived at a real feel for — that balance of cold butter and just enough water, the point where the dough is right, the way it behaves when it's been rested. There are things you learn from doing them repeatedly that no instruction can give you ahead of time.

The foliage is beginning. Just suggestions at the margins — a few early maples showing red, the hillside across from the farm starting to look considered. In two weeks it will be the full display. Vermont in peak foliage is a thing people drive from far away to see. Living in the middle of it requires a different attention: not the spectacle of a day trip but the daily intimacy of something beautiful that changes a little every morning.

Carol came for apple picking. We filled two baskets from the Macintosh and she took hers back to Stowe for apple butter, saying she wanted to try for a second ribbon next year. Competition does interesting things to people.

After that first apple pie came out of the oven — Macs, Helen’s crust, the kitchen smelling the way it only does in October — I didn’t want to stop. Carol left with her basket for Stowe and her apple butter ambitions, and I had the afternoon and a warm oven and no particular reason to let the fire die down. Honey spice bread is what came next: simple, fragrant, the kind of thing that makes the kitchen feel like it’s doing what it was built to do. A good apple year deserves more than one afternoon of baking.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 55 min | Total Time: 1 hr 10 min | Servings: 12

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 large eggs
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup whole milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat oven. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan and lightly flour it, tapping out any excess.
Mix dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg until evenly combined.
Mix wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, honey, and brown sugar together until smooth. Add the milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract and whisk again until fully incorporated.
Combine. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir gently with a spatula until just combined. Do not overmix — a few small lumps are fine and will bake out.
Bake. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and smooth the top. Bake for 50–55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the top is deep golden brown.
Cool. Let the bread rest in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool for at least 20 minutes before slicing. Serve warm or at room temperature, with butter or apple butter alongside.

Nutrition (per serving)

Honey Spice Bread — The Smell of a Good Apple Year Coming In from the Cold