My grandparents had a smokehouse when I was a kid, I think. An entire hog would be butchered in the depths of winter when the temperature was much below freezing. The uncured fresh hams were then wrapped in plastic, sprinkled with dry salt, and hung for several months. They were pan-fried in a hot, black iron skillet after being cut into slices, occasionally with a tiny bit of lard. The skillet was deglazed with hot, often breakfast coffee to make red eye gravy. The name “Redeye Gravy” refers to the color of the gravy when the coffee has sunk to the bottom. Place over grits or biscuits.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 55 mins |
| Additional Time: | 1 hr |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs 15 mins |
| Servings: | 9 |
| Yield: | 1 9×5-inch loaf pan |
Ingredients
- ⅔ cup pecans
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ⅓ cups packed brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup applesauce
- ¼ cup water
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 1 ½ tablespoons cider vinegar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 9×5-inch loaf pan.
- Spread pecans in a single layer on a baking sheet.
- Bake pecans in the preheated oven until golden, 5 to 7 minutes. Remove pecans from oven and reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Mix flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, nutmeg, and salt together in a large bowl. Stir applesauce, water, vegetable oil, and vinegar together in a separate bowl. Stir applesauce mixture into flour mixture until just combined; fold in pecans. Pour batter into the prepared loaf pan.
- Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean, 50 to 60 minutes. Cool bread in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Reviews
Easy, moist, and delicious!
Love it – my favorite flavors. First time I made it as is and thought it a bit too sweet – I did use sweetened applesauce – probably the culprit. Just made it again same applesauce but reduced the sugar to 1 cup. Also skipped the nuts. GREAT RECIPE – simple and yummy. I will make it again. It’s a winner. 1
I substituted applesauce for four frozen brown bananas and six frozen strawberries, and omitted the water. It’s perfect.
I made the following substitutions: 1. For pecans, substituted 1/2 c walnuts, toasted in toaster oven for 5 min. @ 375 degrees F & 1/2 c raisins soaked in 2 Tbsp brandy & 2 Tbsp water. 2. Reduced brown sugar to 1 c. 3. Added an additional 1/4 c applesauce as a substitute for the oil. 4. Used the remaining brandy water from raisins for the 1/4 of water. I really enjoyed the crunchy, caramelized crust this modified recipe initially made, but it softened a bit after being stored in a ziplock bag after the first day. The crumb actually improved in flavor after the first day as well.
Probably error on my part- but center sank in.
Fantastic taste and chew! Like others, I omitted the oil for all applesauce, and added dried cranberries reconstituted in Cointreau, and a handful of dark chocolate chips. Best bread I’ve made on this app so far!
Wow! I was really impressed with this recipe. Last night our next door neighbors gave us a big bag of apples. They were past the cruncy, eating stage so I cut them all up and canned applesauce. A whole bunch. Then I decided this morning to use some of the applesauce to make this applesauce bread. Toasting those walnuts first (no pecans in our cupboard) really made a really made a big difference! It was delicious. I liked that it doesn’t include eggs: 1. because I have slightly high cholesterol and 2. because during this time of Covid-19, eggs seem to disappear faster from the stores). I had just the right amount of brown sugar in the cupboard, but it was a solid rock, so I put a slice of apple in the bag with the br. sugar, microwaved for 30 seconds and voila! Perfect brown sugar. Anyway, thank you for this recipe! My family loved it. I doubled it and made two, one to freeze or share. That’s a sprinkle of powdered sugar over the top just to be pretty.
Good stuff great left out the pecans and my brown sugar was old lol which gave it brown sugar pockets all together good bread though great with borbon ribboned vanilla ice cream
I think this recipe needs 1 -2 eggs so it will rise and hold the rise better. It tasted good. It just doesn’t look good.
It was delicious and my family ate it so fast that it didn’t last a day. I personally thought it was unnecessarily sweet but I used sweetened chunky applesauce next time I will use unsweetened chunky was delightful little bits of apple.
I made this today! I used whole wheat flour instead of white. Just because I had whole wheat i needed to use up. I also used toasted slivered almonds, added raisins, omitted the vinegar (only because I was out of it) and added an egg. I made them into muffins and they turned out beautifully. A sample taste let me know they are yummy! I can hardly wait to have one for breakfast with my coffee tomorrow.
I made this, using homemade applesauce and I toasted the pecans as suggested. Absolutely scrumptious!!!
Really delicious snack for anytime and easy to prepare. I like to prepare it with homemade chunky applesauce
Really delicious snack for anytime and easy to prepare. I like to prepare it with homemade chunky applesauce
This bread is SO good! Nothing needs to change. I made it in muffin form (12 muffins, 20 minutes baked) and I just want to eat the whole pan. Will definitely be making this recipe again.
Halved the portion –> made 5 muffins 350 F 48 min (and further extra halved brown sugar) Omit the pecan (college broke girl lol) Used corn oil for veg oil I reduced the sugar content and it turn out quite good. I’m supraise that the texture is not bad even though it’s a vegan recipe!! Will try again with chocolate powder and/ or coconut oil!!
Used this recipe as a base for muffins. I omitted the apple cider vinegar and subbed walnuts for the pecans because I didn’t have any. Instead of mixing the nuts into the batter, I mixed them with 1/3 cup of brown sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon to make a streusel-y topping for the muffins. The recipe made 18 muffins and took 20 minutes to bake. The muffins have a great texture – very soft and moist . The flavor is mostly spices with just a hint of apple.
This is my first time making this recipe…Toasted, in a dry frying pan the pecan along with cinnamon and cardamom we don’t like nutmeg….until it release the spices and their aromas….then made as per recipes….it is baking….the batter had a good taste and the aroma is warm and inviting….Thanks, Happy Cooking! This time I’m adding raisins…
I subbed unsweetened rhubarb sauce for the applesauce. Delicious!
Omitted nutmeg and pecans. Used applesauce instead of oil as well (applesauce can be used as a healthier sub for oil, butter,and eggs in any recipe)and added 4 ripe bananas mashed in the batter. BEST BANANA BREAD EVER!
Third time making this bread; also, made a loaf to give to my daughter in law, since she liked the slice she had of my first loaf; it’s great warm with a cup of tea. Also, after cooling the loaf I like to wrap it in foil and refrigerate for an hour or longer, which makes it slice neatly. This loaf I added half teaspoon of lemon extract to my homemade applesauce and used 2&1/2 teaspoons of Penzeys Baking Spice for the cinnamon and nutmeg. I sprinkled fine shred organic coconut on the bottom of the prepared ceramic loaf pan, and sprinkled cinnamon sugar on the top before baking.