Going Back in Time to My Very First Bread...

I have never ever baked a bread in my life until approximately 6 weeks ago. It was a nice day in the fall after a weekend of apple picking... I had a huge bag fresh off the farm. The distress call for new apple recipes over Facebook had proven to be useless as the best recipe consisted of: wash, dry, then eat the apple. Granted that was how some of the apples met their ends, I was still on the prowl for apple recipes on the internet and in my cookbook library. I settled on a few recipes to start, one of which was a delicious looking sweet apple bread recipe. The original recipe calls for a bread machine. I didn't have one so I did it the old fashion way following instructions from James Peterson's "Baking". I was (and still am) not sure how correct my methods were and the bread didn't rise as much as I'd hoped. All in all, it was still delicious. One apple down and another 50 to go!

Sweet Raisin Apple Bread Recipe
Adopted from Vegetarian Gourmand

1 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
3 cups bread flour, divided
1 medium apple, diced
1/4 cup raisins

1. Heat milk, butter, sugar, and salt in a small sauce pan until the butter has almost melted. It is best to heat until the mixture reach 100F as that is the optimal temperature for yeast to rise.
2. Combine 1/4 cup of the mixture with the yeast and allow it to proof at room temperature until the volume has doubled.
3. After the yeast has finished proofing, add it to the milk mixture and mix in 2 1/2 cups of bread flour.
4. Using the last 1/2 cup of flour to dust the working surface, knead mixture until smooth and elastic. This could take a while so take a short break between kneading and remember to switch hands. This will take 20-45 minutes.
5. Place bread in a bowl and cover with plastic warp. Allow bread to rise in a warm place until the volume has doubled. This will take 1-2 hours.
6. Work in the chunks of apple and the raisins to the dough.
7. Shape dough into a boule by pulling the sides towards the middle to form a ball shape, pinch then turn the dough over so the seam is on the bottom.
8. Transfer the boule to the baking pan and dust the boule with flour and cover. Allow it to rise until the size doubles in volume. This will take another 1-2 hours.
9. Place a pan with water in the oven and preheat the oven to 450F.
10. When the boule has doubled, slash the top with a lame or a sharp knife.
11. Spray some water against the side of the oven. Wait for 30 seconds, then spray some more.
12. Put the boule in the oven and turn it down to 425F. Bake for 30-40 minutes.