When the holiday season rolls around, it is easy to go straight to the traditional recipes. Sugar cookies and Peanut Butter blossoms to eggnog and fruit bread – the list is endless.
While staying with tradition is always a nice way to celebrate the holidays, it can be fun to change things up, like with this Eggnog Fruit Bread recipe our friend, Chelsea from A Duck’s Oven created. (Did you know she is amazing with recipe creation?! She comes up with all sorts of good stuff like this Savory Breakfast Bowl featuring our Piñata® apples. It’s DELICIOUS!).
I told Chelsea we needed help creating an Eggnog Fruit Bread that features Stemilt’s apples and pears and boy, did she deliver. This bread is AMAZING.
Bread is one of my favorites (because honestly, who doesn’t love bread) and this one is no different. Chelsea created a sweet batter with creamy eggnog that includes the oh-so savory taste of pumpkin pie spice, and our World Famous Fuji apples and d’Anjou pears. Then she folds in the walnuts for a tasty crunch and bakes it for about an hour. Once it’s out of the oven and cools for about 10 minutes, she drizzles on a homemade glaze that adds just the perfect finishing touch. Amazing.
Using Fuji apples and d’Anjou pears in this recipe is a great addition as it adds a sweet flavor and a lovely texture to the mix. Fuji pears are the sweetest apple on the block, with Brix (sugar) levels reaching 21-23 Brix. That’s a lot. Our dear friend, the Granny Smith, has a range from 11-14 Brix, so that just goes to show the difference sugar levels can make. Fuji apples, although don’t often tend to be a baking apple, can withstand heat and add a sweet flavor when baking, cooking, making into applesauce or even freshly pressed apple juice! Fuji apples have creamy, white flesh and an aromatic smell that has you licking your lips (just like when you were a kid in a candy shop).
D’Anjou pears also make a wonderful addition to this bread. If you didn’t know d’Anjou pears are one of the most versatile pears. From fresh snacking to baking and poaching, the d’Anjou adds a refreshing flavor to your recipes or charcuterie boards. D’Anjou pears also have a sibling, the red d’Anjou pear, which essentially is the same pear, besides having a striking red appearance. D’Anjou pears tend to be the classic pear flavor people have come to know and love. Its egg-shaped-like appearance, many-month availability, and citrus-like flavor are just a few of the many wonderful traits of this pear.
Both of these World Famous fruits make a wonderful addition to this Eggnog Fruit Bread. We hope that you give it a try this holiday season as we know you won’t be disappointed! Happy Holidays!