What better way to start off the recipe section of this brand new blog than with a brand new recipe? That’s right – brand new – never tested – not even tasted yet. Risky? Absolutely. But sometimes risk can be good. Right? Right.

I found myself today with an excess of apple cider. You see, I decided to brew my own batch of hard cider (which is a post for another time), so I bought 3 gallons of all-natural, locally-made apple cider (from Jaswell’s Farm in Smithfield, RI – actually, I bought it in a supermarket, but it was made by Jaswell’s). Problem was though that the cider contains “less than 1/10 of 1% Potassium sorbate for freshness”. Potassium sorbate is a preservative – it kills yeast, which isn’t good when you’re trying to make hard cider (though, I just realized, the bread yeast didn’t seem to have a problem. Must be a time-exposure thing). Anyways, I decided not to risk using it for my hard cider. But that meant that I had 3 gallons of cider in my fridge – that’s a lot of cider at one time for one household. So I did some online searching and came across this bread recipe that I tweaked. I upped the brown sugar and decreased the salt from the original recipe. I made the dough in the bread machine, but cooked it in the oven. Now I only have 2.9 gallons of cider.

Apple Cider Bread
1 1/4 cups apple cider
2 Tbsp softened butter
3 cups bread flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp dry active yeast (I use Fleischmann’s Bread Machine Yeast)

1. Put all ingredients in bread machine according to manufacturer’s instructions and set for dough cycle (I put the wet and fats in first, flour and other dry items in next, yeast in last)
2. Watch dough during first 5 minutes of cycle and add liquid or flour as necessary (I ended up needing to add a few tablespoons more of flour to get the dough to the right consistency)
3. When dough cycle ends, put dough in well-greased loaf pan and punch down.
4. Cover dough and let rise for ~30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350oF
5. Bake bread for about 40 minutes. Cover loosely with foil after 30 minutes if browning too much.
6. Remove bread from pan and cool completely on a wire rack

Like I said, I haven’t tasted this yet, so I can’t guarantee anything. However, it’s a fine looking bread and the house smells incredible. I’m willing to bet it’s going to be good.