Whole Wheat Apple Bread
MAKES
One large round loaf
TAKES
Prep time: 26 hours (includes preferment + dough rise times)
Cook time: 1 hour
Total: 27 hours
✻ ABOUT THIS RECIPE
This bread is a wonderful fall and wintertime bake. A gorgeous, crusty loaf of homemade bread that’s speckled with tiny pieces of juicy Cosmic Crisp apples. This bread is delicious all on it’s own with a thin layer of salted butter or as toast topped with a smear of cream cheese or apple butter. But my favorite way to enjoy it is as the bread for my Favorite Grilled Cheese Sandwich!
INGREDIENTS
Poolish
150 g / 1 ¼ cups bread flour
115 g / 1 cup whole wheat flour
265 g / 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons water, about 85°F / 30°C
> 1 g / ¼ teaspoon instant yeast
Whole Wheat Apple Bread
150 g / 1 ¼ cups bread flour
115 g / 1 cup whole wheat flour
32 g / ½ cup wheat bran, plus more for finishing
12 g / 1 tablespoon fine sea salt
3 g / 1 teaspoon instant yeast
173 g / ¾ cup water, about 105°F / 40°C
Poolish (above)
283 g / 10 ounces peeled and finely diced Cosmic Crisp apples
Bake This Recipe with Me:
METHOD
1. The day before you want to make the bread, make the poolish: in a medium bowl, stir the bread flour, whole wheat flour, water, and yeast together to combine. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel, and let it ferment at room temperature for at least 10 hours, and up to 15 hours. When it’s done, it should look visibly active and bubbly.
2. The next day, make the whole wheat apple dough. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, mix the bread flour, whole wheat flour, wheat bran, and salt to combine, 30 seconds. Add the yeast, and mix to combine, 30 seconds more. Add the water and poolish and mix on low speed until the mixture starts to form a dough around the hook, 3 minutes.
3. Scrape the base and sides of the bowl well, then raise the speed to medium and continue to mix for 2 minutes more.
4. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased large bowl. Cover with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel and let ferment at room temperature for 30 minutes.
5. Uncover the dough, and use a bowl scraper to reach under the dough inside the bowl, stretching it upwards and ultimately folding it up and over onto itself. Repeat this process 6 times. Cover the bowl again, and let ferment at room temperature for 45 minutes.
6. Sprinkle the apples over the surface of the dough, then repeat step 5 again to give the dough one more set of stretch and folds - this time using as many folds as necessary to incorporate the apples fairly evenly. Let the dough rise at room temperature until the dough doubles in size, 2 hours - 2 hours 30 minutes.
7. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface, and use your fingertips to press the dough into a roughly round shape. Lift and stretch the edges of the dough, folding them inward towards the center, or folding the dough onto itself.
8. Turn the dough over so the seam you just created is touching the work surface, and use the edges of your hands to lightly round the loaf to form a round shape. As you work, the surface of the dough will become tighter as well.
9. Sprinkle wheat bran into a bread basket or a medium bowl - the dough will rise inside of it! Gently place the loaf, seam side facing up, into the bowl (the top of the loaf will be touching the side with wheat bran). Cover the loaf with a clean kitchen towel and let rise until visibly puffy, 1 hour 15 minutes - 1 hour 45 minutes.
10. Towards the end of rise time, place an oven rack in the center of the oven, and place a lidded Dutch oven (mine is 5.2 L / 5 ½ quarts) inside the oven, and preheat it to 450°F / 230°C.
11. Uncover the rising loaf, and place a square of parchment paper over the bowl where it is rising. When the oven is hot, and the loaf is fully risen, remove the hot Dutch oven, and carefully remove the lid.
12. Turn the loaf over into the hot Dutch oven - the parchment should now be on the bottom, and the side coated in wheat bran will be facing up. Score the loaf with a lame or sharp knife.
13. Place the lid back on the pot, and transfer it to the oven. Bake for 25 minutes with the lid on.
14. Remove the lid, and continue to bake the loaf until deeply golden brown, 22-26 minutes more. The loaf should have an internal temperature of at least 200°F / 93°C in the thickest part of the loaf.
15. Use the parchment to help lift the loaf out of the Dutch oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before slicing.
✻ HAVE YOU BAKED IT?
Tag @emcdowell on Instagram or use #happybaking. I’d love to see your bakes!
