While browsing through the Streaming Gourmet's blog, I found this recipe for apple pomegranate spice bread. The use of pomegranates made this bread look oh so pretty, that I was excited to try it out. I love pomegranates and how the little jewel seeds look. I was slightly hesitant about baking with pomegranates. First, because of their tartness and the hard seed (I eat the entire seed, but some of my family members were shocked that I did so.) Second, because the pomegranate seeds take so long to take out, that I want to eat every last one rather than waste any on baking.
I had one pomegranate I had bought from a batch that were particularly sour and decided I could part with the one pomegranate. So I used that one to make my pomegranate apple bread.
The bread came out so pretty with the pomegranate seeds. The apples inside the bread made the bread very moist and sweet. The bread has more of a consistency of regular bread rather than cake bread, which is what I'm used to when I bake breads with fruit. It wasn't as sweet as cake breads, but it was sweet enough. The recipe called for 9 x 5 baking pans. Next time I think I will use smaller baking pans. The breads didn't rise that much, so when they are cut, they are wide and short.
Recipe adapted from Streaming Gourmet
Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1 pinch ground cloves
1 generous pinch fresh ground nutmeg
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup melted unsalted butter
1 1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 cup finely diced apples
1 cup pomegranate arils
Directions
1. Mix all of the dry ingredients.
2. Melt the butter by microwaving it for about 30-40 seconds. Mix the melted butter with the applesauce to cool it down. Beat the eggs and milk together. Beat the applesauce/butter mixture into the egg/milk mixture.
3. Pour the wet mixture, the apples and the pomegranate arils into the dry ingredients and stir until just blended. Once all of the dry ingredients are wet, stop mixing, even if there are a few clumps left. If you overmix the dough, the bread will come out tough.
4. Pour mixture into two 9×5 bread tins that have either been greased or lined with foil. Bake at 350˚F for 50 minutes until inside comes out clean with a knife.
5. Cool on a rack for 10 minutes before removing from the pan.
