This bread is deceptive in every way. The name isn’t particularly appealing (unless you’re an oatmeal FREAK) or eye catching (I would have skipped right over it). The ingredients aren’t anything special, just your run-of-the-mill staple ingredients plus the addition of applesauce and oil instead of butter. It tricks you into thinking that this bread is nothing short of plain jane.
Wrong-o!
This bread is PHENOM! It is wonderfully aeromatic: spices that waft together to remind you of that snowy day during Christmas season. It is moist and keeps well. And the flavor OH THE FLAVOR! So simple yet divine. But the star, was the simple addition of pecans and brown sugar pressed atop the loaf prior to baking. It makes ALL the difference.
I subbed apple butter for the applesauce (which gave it a little extra kick in the spice department) and I added rum soaked raisins, just cus I could.
You should try this bread. I promise, you won’t be sorry.
A big thanks goes out to Natalie of Oven Love for choosing this delightful recipe. Get the recipe here. I will be making this again and again.
Up next week: Crunchy and Custardy Peach Tart — I’ll be scaling way down as peach desserts pretty much hate me, but I am excited about this one!
The Whimsical Cupcake 
Great photos!! We loved it as well…packed with flavor!
What a great idea to use apple butter! The colour looks great and I bet it was even tastier!
Your bread looks fantastic! I love that this recipe uses run of the mill ingredients. I waited to the last minute to make this and was thrilled that I had everything I needed.
We don’t have to ask you if you liked it, (laughing) we loved it too. Absolutely GREAT photos! Your bread looks stunning and delicious.
Yours looks really moist and yummy. I agree…..this was deceptively good!
Rock on girl – your bread looks PERFECT 🙂
Thanks for baking with me! I’m glad you were surprised in a good way. 🙂
This was really, really good-your bread looks amazing!
looks so good! you are right– everyday ingredients that make something extraordinary!
Apple butter sounds like the perfect punch of flavour. Love your photos!
Rum soaked raisins! I wish I would have thought of that! Oh well, it was delicious with plain raisins.
Apple butter caught my eye. I think that is what this bread needed.
In answer to your question about yeast bread, I have so many favorites but my family really loves my monkey bread. http://www.salad-in-a-jar.com/family-recipes/bread-machine-monkey-bread-inspired-by-helen-corbitt
This is not sweet or made of canned biscuits but it is easy.
Using apple butter is brilliant! And, a little rum never hurts! The photos look gorgeous — I wish I could grab a piece right off the screen.
Your loaf and slices look perfectly delicious!
Your bread looks amazing. It really exceeded expectations. I am kind of an oatmeal freak, though; I even order it in restaurants.
Your changes sound so wonderful. And what great shots of this terrific bread!
This bread was da bomb!! Moist and sweet and full of flavor.
Looks wonderful.
Looks really tasty. And sounds kind of low in fat…. Maybe I can delude myself that eating half a loaf for breakfast fits into my diet…
I’m finally getting by to check out your oatmeal bread and I LOVE your apple butter idea! I have a jar in my fridge from the double apple thing we did a few months back. Can’t wait to try this again!
This bread looks delicious. I’m new to the site.. is there a recipe for this bread on the site? I have to try it! The photo almost makes me drool, lol.
I just linked to the post where the recipe is found. She made it into muffins (which worked really well for many people) but you can just put your dough in a greased loaf pan to achieve the actual ‘bread.’ recipe here: http://ovenlove.blogspot.com/2010/08/my-tuesdays-with-dorie-pick-oatmeal.html
welcome to my little corner of the internet 😉
Thank you! It’s in the oven baking right now and smells incredible!!
I added a TBL of butter to the topping to make it stick better. I can’t wait to try it.
OK.. I know you’re supposed to let it cool. I tried.. for about 10 minutes, I made one medium sized bread pan and one small one. The small one cooled quickly and we tried it. Absolutely delicious! We had it warm with a bit of home made vanilla ice cream on the side. Just outstanding in every way. I had no trouble slicing it. This recipe is a keeper. Thanks for sharing.
Glad you liked it!! Sounds like it would be fantastic with the ice cream as an after dinner treat!