With the Light and Tasty column today we present a selection of light sweet leavened breads. As light as possible, as per the ‘statute’ of our column. 😊 Since I really love sweet yeasted breads, I thought I’d contribute a simple bread, strictly without sugar in the dough, sweetened only with an apple, a tablespoon of raisins + three teaspoons of honey. Here it is, I present my apple bread:

To tell the truth, my initial idea was to use only the apple (or rather: apple and cumin), because I started from the idea of trying to make a minimal version of that typical German – and Austrian and South Tyrolean – apple bread, which is usually rich in dried fruit and spiced with cinnamon and cloves.

Then during the process I removed the cumin (only a temporary abandonment; the idea is still there and who knows, it may become a future recipe!) but I allowed myself to be tempted by adding almonds and a few walnuts, and a tablespoon of raisins — just a tablespoon — which I added at the last moment to finish off the small remaining amount left in the bag. Yes, cooking from the bottom of the bag reigns in this house all the time! 😄

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If you’re looking for more ideas to sweeten your bread, here are three more: 👇

Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Inexpensive
Rest time: 15 Hours
Preparation time: 15 Minutes
Portions: 20 slices
Cooking methods: Oven
Cuisine: Italian
Seasonality: All seasons

Ingredients

2 cups type 0 flour (all-purpose)
2 cups re-milled durum wheat semolina
2/3 cup liquid sourdough starter (licoli)
1 cup oat milk
1 apple (about 10.6 oz (300 g))
4 walnuts
1 oz almonds (about 1 oz (30 g))
1.5 tbsp raisins (about 15 g)
3 teaspoons honey

Tools

Bowl for dough rising
Pastry board
Baking tray
Parchment paper

Steps

Prepare the bread dough. This is a little-worked dough, almost a no-knead bread:
Pour the liquid sourdough starter and the oat milk into a bowl.
Mix well to dissolve the starter, then add the two flours.
Stir with a spoon until you obtain a coarse dough.
Work briefly with your hands, just a few minutes to better combine the dough.
Let it rise in a sheltered place (covered with plastic wrap, or inside the oven, or in the microwave) until doubled. My dough took about 7 hours, but the time can vary depending on the room temperature.
Once doubled, transfer the bowl to the refrigerator, covered, for several hours (I left it overnight, about 8 hours).
After the cold maturation time, place the dough on the floured board and stretch it (while still cold) with your fingertips to obtain a rectangle of dough (even if irregular, it does not need to be a perfect rectangle).
Wash the raisins and let them soak for a few minutes.
Meanwhile, peel the apple and cut it into not-too-large pieces, and roughly break the walnuts into pieces.
Spread the apple pieces, the almonds, the walnuts and the well-drained raisins over the dough.
Gently press everything with the palm of your hand so that all the pieces adhere to the dough.
Spread 2–3 teaspoons of honey over the filling.
Roll the dough starting from the short side of the rectangle, obtaining a roll with the filling inside.
Seal the roll on top and at both ends by gently pressing the dough.
Bake in the oven at 392°F for about 40 minutes.
👉 Check the crust color and, if necessary, protect the loaf with a sheet of foil. This is a useful precaution especially if you use a small oven like my Sfornatutto, but it’s always useful when baking a filled bread, which usually requires a slightly longer baking time due to the moisture of the filling.
My apple bread did not rise much in the oven but the interior was well baked, even where the apple pieces were, so I am very happy with the result. 😊
Let the loaf cool slightly on a rack before slicing.
The apple bread with walnuts and raisins is excellent for breakfast, either on its own or spread with butter and honey or with cream cheese and jam.
But we also ate it with meals, because — although it contains apple, honey and raisins — it is not sweet. 😉