Yanfei: Apple Almond Yeast Bread

September 25, 2025

Hello, every birdy. Today we are going to make something that is become one of my favorite things to do. Bread baking. Today’s recipe is a combination between Betty Crocker’s White Bread Recipe and the Sweet Roll Recipe. And to that, I added some apples and almonds.

Yanfei is a lawyer from Liyue. She is the character that I choose for this recipe. Her favorite food is anything with tofu in it. Obviously, right now, I don’t have any access to tofu. And I realize that Yeast Bread and Tofu are not exactly the same. But, in a sense, they are (somehow). I mean they both soak up flavors.

For this recipe you will need:

2 packets active dry yeast
¾ cup warm water (105 to 115℉)
2 cups lukewarm milk (scalded then cooled)
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
3 tablespoons shortening
1 tablespoon salt
7 to 8 all-purpose flour
Margarine or butter softened
1 cup diced almonds, in a food processor
1 or 2 apples grated

The first thing you want to do is dissolve the water in warm water, in a large bowl. Let it sit for 5 minutes so that it can bloom.

Heat up your milk, sugar, shortening, and salt in a pot just until the milk becomes blood temperature. Meaning when you place your finger in the pot, you can’t feel the temperature. It is essentially the same temperature of the blood in your finger.

Add the milk mixture to the yeast, and add 4 cups of your flour. Beat it until smooth. Mix in enough of the remaining flour to make the dough easy to handle.

Now on to the fun part of making bread. Yes, you could use a standing mixer fitted with a dough paddle, but that defeats the therapy part of beard baking. You will want to turn your dough into a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes. Until it is smooth and elastic. Place the dough into a greased bowl. Let it rise in a warm place until it doubles in size for about 1 hour.

While it is proofing you can start on your filling. You are going to grind up your almonds in a food processor. For some reason, I did not add my apples to the food processor, which I really could have done. De-cored them and just tossed them into the almonds. But no, I decided to shred the apples the old-fashioned way, with a shredder. And I place both of them in a bowl. Added a little bit of cinnamon and nutmeg, to taste.

After an hour, you are going to punch the dough down and divide it in half. You are going to add your apple-almond mixture to the rolled-out dough, and then you are going to roll up the bread like you would if you were making a roll cake. Pinching all of the sides so that none of the insides come out.

Place the loaves into the prepared loaf pans, and let the proof for another hour in a warm spot.

While they are proofing for the second time, you will want to start to preheat your oven to 425F.

Once the hour is over with, the bread is noticeably larger. You are going to bake the bread for somewhere between 25 to 30 minutes, or until the loaves have a deep golden brown color, and sound hollow when tapped.

Now that they are out of the oven, you are going to carefully take them out of the pans. And enjoy.

Breakfast is one of the hardest meals in my family. It’s not that we don’t eat breakfast, but it is just hard because we have to eat. And sometimes, some people have a sweet tooth, and other times people wake up and need protein. Most mornings are just getting your own breakfasts. I mean it makes sense because we are all adults. One thing everyone has in common though, is they like it when I make something like this. Because it makes breakfast easy. They can just grab whatever I have made, and if they need protein they will just add an egg. So I have unofficially been in charge of breakfast for my family.