Ganache-covered clove-spiced applesauce bread
Applesauce Bread at its finest: Ganache-covered and clove-spiced
Everything is better with ganache. And who doesn’t love to say "guh-naash" – that heavenly mixture of heavy whipping cream and decadent chocolate named by the French and used in the best desserts. Despite its fancy name, ganache is simple to make and very forgiving. You can whip ganache and frost cakes with it, roll it into truffles, or sneak it by the spoonful. My favorite is to pour it over a tart or cake in all its glossy gloriousness. So when I started thinking about how to reinvent the applesauce bread that my mother used to make (okay, and I also saw this sweatshirt on @fancysprinkles Instagram - scroll down for pic), ganache was the obvious choice. Voilá. Ganache-covered clove-spiced applesauce bread.
Applesauce bread was one of the several varieties of quick bread that my mom always made during the holidays. I remember especially loving her applesauce bread—probably because it was covered in chocolate frosting—what kid wouldn’t like that! The bread was so good that it was worth the labor of picking the raisins out one by one. Yes, I was that kid. I wanted to give this recipe an update but not lose the flavor I savored from my childhood.
Ingredients in my Mom’s Applesauce Bread
2 cups sugar 1 cup shortening
1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon cloves
½ teaspoon salt 1 cup raisins
3 cups applesauce (boiling) 1 cup nuts
3 teaspoons soda 4 cups flour
Looking at the recipe, I knew the shortening and the raisins had to go. Homemade applesauce was a given. I knew that cloves were key to duplicating the taste. (Oh how I used to love smelling the container of cloves.) I remember my mom would boil the applesauce and then add the soda and watch it foam. She also “steamed” the bread in recycled bread bags. Too late I remembered this little detail but I think I’ll try this technique next time (with Ziploc bags). I debated but decided to omit the nuts because the purist in me won out. No add-ins allowed.
After some searching and comparing, here’s the recipe I decided on: Applesauce Mini Loaves. I made one regular-sized loaf and lined my pan with parchment paper making the bread easy to lift out. I did not use the suggested icing, because, remember, this is all about the ganache. I substituted 1/2 teaspoon of cloves for the nutmeg and kept the cinnamon the same. I had made applesauce a few days before, using this recipe for Chunky Homemade Applesauce as a guide. You can use whatever apples you like, but a mixture of sweet and tart is good. I used McIntosh and Golden Delicious apples with one Honey Crisp thrown in. It would be fine to cut back on the sugar to your liking.
Let’s get to the important part. THE GANACHE.
Ganache is the ultimate form of chocolate frosting and the proverbial icing on any cake. If you’ve never made ganache or need a refresher, How to make chocolate ganache for any dessert is a great primer. This article explains what it is, how to make it; and very important, how to get the details and proportions perfect for how you plan to use it. Martha Stewart’s version has great photos that show you what each step should look like.
For this bread, I didn’t want a super sweet result; I used Theo Organic Pure Dark 70% Chocolate. Theo’s is local to me so easy to find at the grocery. But any high quality ~70% chocolate will work. However, do NOT use chocolate chips as they won’t melt properly. I recommend reading the primer, but basically the steps (summarized from the Kitchn primer) are:
Weigh and chop the chocolate; measure the cream: Weigh out the amount of chocolate called for in your recipe. Since I wasn’t really following a recipe, I started by chopping 4 oz of chocolate on a cutting board and measuring 1 cup heavy cream in a small bowl (a 1:2 ratio of chocolate to cream so it would be a pourable glaze). This ended up being the perfect amount with just a tiny bowl left over. If you don’t have a food scale, it’s helpful to buy chocolate that’s scored so you know where to break for each ounce.
Heat the cream: Pour the cream into a small saucepan and place it over medium-low heat for a few minutes. Don’t walk away. The cream only needs to come to just a simmer so it’s hot. Tip: The cream is ready when you can place a finger in the cream and keep it there for 3 to 4 seconds. Remove from the heat.
Add the chocolate to the cream. Stir gently to distribute the chocolate through the cream and then let it sit so the chocolate melts.
Stir the mixture: Wait 8-10 minutes and then stir the ganache with a spatula. At first it might look separated but keep stirring until it becomes creamy and shiny.
Cool the ganache: Cool the ganache as specified in your recipe.
The longer your ganache sits, the thicker it will get. You can always do a test by pouring a little onto a plate or parchment paper. I wanted to be able to pour it over the bread without it running off but didn’t want to have to spread it with a knife either. I actually decided mine wasn’t thick enough, so I put it back on the stove on low and added a couple more ounces of chocolate. This time, after sitting for another 5 minutes, immediately when I started stirring, it began to get shiny and I knew it was the right consistency. So, moral is don’t fret if the consistency doesn’t seem right the first time; it’s a simple fix. Another tip, I placed the bread on a cardboard cake board on a wire rack with parchment under to catch the overflow. When the ganache was set, I lifted the cake off the board with an oversized spatula and moved it to a serving plate.
Then it was time to wait for the ganache to set. It takes several hours at room temperature. When it was ready, I cut the bread in 3/4 to 1” slices. The verdict was in. This was not my mom’s applesauce bread. It was better.
While fabulous on its own, the dark chocolate ganache really complemented the pungent cloves in the applesauce bread. It was a perfect balance with a glass of red wine in the evening (guess that’s why mulled wine calls for cloves …) and with a cup of coffee the next morning. Cloves do have a strong, distinct flavor. If you’re not sure about the taste, then cut the amount in half or you can use nutmeg. Just make sure to give it some ganache.
