You will fall in love with this classic apple bread recipe, packed with sweet apple cinnamon flavor in each soft and delicious bite!
Frosted apple cinnamon bread
This moist apple quick bread is a perfect cozy Fall breakfast or snack.
It makes a wonderful holiday or thank you gift for friends and family, with a taste that reminds you of hot apple fritters, sweet apple cake, and a gooey frosted cinnamon roll, all at the same time.
In other words, this amazing recipe is pretty much impossible to resist!
There is no yeast required for the spiced cinnamon sugar apple loaf. And leftovers can be frozen for a rainy day or for Sunday meal prep to enjoy all week long.
The best part is that your entire kitchen will smell like classic Cinnabon and homemade apple pie, straight out of the oven.
You may also like Easy Cinnamon Rolls – 4 ingredients
Grandma’s apple bread
The recipe below is adapted from my grandmother’s famous Dutch apple bread.
Her homemade apple loaf cake was a family favorite when I was growing up. She served it at all of our holiday gatherings, because we would always beg her to make it!
Years later, it is still the best apple bread recipe I’ve ever found, with a full two cups of chopped apples packed into the batter and a cinnamon sugar swirl that makes this traditional apple treat completely irresistible.
Readers also love these Snowball Cookies
Recipe video step by step
Above, watch the full apple bread recipe video.
Homemade apple loaf ingredients
The recipe calls for just a few basic ingredients you might already have at home.
You will need ground cinnamon, pure vanilla extract, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar, milk of choice, oil or applesauce, and finely diced apples.
I used Braeburn apples for the bread in the photos. Other varieties, such as Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, Pink Lady, or Fuji, are also fine to use.
Two cups of diced apple is equal to about two medium apples. You can either peel the apples or leave them unpeeled. It is entirely up to you.
Flours that work in this recipe include white (all purpose), spelt flour, or oat flour for a gluten free version. We have not tried almond flour or coconut flour here.
You can use regular sugar, brown sugar or coconut sugar, unrefined date sugar, or granulated erythritol or xylitol for a sugar free apple bread.
The naturally vegan apple bread is already pretty healthy, but for an oil free version you can substitute mashed banana, sour cream, or additional applesauce. It also works with softened almond butter in place of the oil.
*If you prefer an apple cake, try this easy Applesauce Cake
How to make apple bread
Step One: If you wish to make a cinnamon swirl topping, whisk the ground cinnamon into two tablespoons of the milk in a small dish, and set this dish aside.
Step Two: Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and grease a standard 9×5 inch loaf pan. I often also cover the bottom of the pan with a piece of parchment paper, because this enables you to easily pop the loaf out after baking.
Step Three: In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sugar of choice, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and ground cinnamon if you are not opting for the swirl.
Step Four: Add remaining ingredients, except for the reserved small dish. Stir until just evenly mixed. Smooth this apple bread batter into the prepared loaf pan.
Step Five: Use a spoon to swirl in the optional cinnamon topping. Then bake on the oven’s center rack for fifty minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out mostly clean.
Katie’s tips for storing the apple bread
First let the apple pastry cool. Once fully cooled, I like to cover the loaf pan loosely with a cloth and let it sit overnight on the counter or in the refrigerator.
The flavor and fluffy texture are even better the next day, after excess moisture escapes. If you go this route, be sure to leave a small opening when covering the loaf so it does not turn soggy and dense from the trapped moisture.
Refrigerate leftovers in a covered container after a day. The light and healthy apple bread should stay fresh for up to four days.
Or slice and freeze leftover bread in an airtight covered container for up to three months. Thaw before serving, and reheat in a microwave or toasted oven if desired.
While the cinnamon is out, make Healthy Blueberry Muffins
How do you serve the recipe?
The bread is good on its own. Or top it with almond butter, cream cheese, peanut butter, pumpkin butter, melted Coconut Butter, or your favorite vanilla frosting.
For Dutch or Amish apple bread: make a glaze by combining 1/2 cup powdered sugar with 1-2 tbsp milk of choice and optional 1 tbsp melted butter or coconut oil.
Feel free to change up the flavor by stirring in a handful of raisins or shredded coconut. Or try replacing some of the apples with diced pineapple instead.
Leftover apples? Make Apple Crisp Recipe or Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal
Apple Bread
Ingredients
- 2 cups finely diced apple
- 2 cups flour (spelt, white, or oat)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 cup milk of choice
- 3 1/2 tbsp oil or applesauce
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- You can either just add the cinnamon with the dry ingredients, or mix it into 2 tbsp of the milk and swirl that into the loaf right before baking (for a visual, see the recipe video above).Preheat oven to 350 F. Stir dry ingredients very well. Add remaining ingredients to form a batter, smooth into a greased 9×5 pan, and bake 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the apple bread comes out mostly clean. Let cool. I like to cover with a cloth overnight and serve the next day, because the flavor and texture are even better. Leftovers can also be sliced and frozen. If desired, frost with your favorite icing or the simple glaze recipe written out earlier in this post.View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
Sweet Quick Bread Recipes
Haha! I was just looking at your pumpkin banana bread recipe when I decided to browse your breakfast category and saw this. I made your apple muffins (baked them in a jumbo muffin pan) a month ago and they were delicious! Also, I finally tried your ultimate chocolate fudge pie. I died. That was by far the best recipe I’ve ever tried. Of course it is has to be made into 6 servings, because 8 is just too small:) One question; do you use a spelt starter for your recipes? I bought a bag of Arrowhead Mills organic spelt flour and tried to make your banana muffins (which I’ve had multiple success with using all purpose) but the spelt version turned dense and did not rise AT ALL. Is it just the brand or are you using a half and half mix? Thanks for this recipe and all of them.
Thank you so much for trying all of those recipes! 🙂
Katie uses all spelt flour (not a mix) and hasn’t really found it to be dense so I’m not sure! We’ve definitely found whole wheat flour to be dense, and spelt is much lighter. (Katie uses Bob’s Red Mill.)
Just started to make this but can’t find the temp that the oven should be at. Looks delicious!
Oh sorry about that! Should be 350 F. We are fixing now.
Is there supposed to be applesauce in the ingredients? It says ‘oil or additional applesauce’ but there’s no entry for applesauce as a key ingredient.
No other applesauce if not using the low fat version. We just updated it to make the directions more clear!
It’s still in the description
Hi there!
What kind of oil did you use and what kind of sugar? I know there’s lots of options but curious which ones you like for this recipe.
Thanks!
Susan
Vegetable, coconut, or canola all work. We used sunflower oil for the bread in the photos. Katie made the loaf multiple times, with a few different sugar options, but I think the one in the photos is either white sugar or Sugar In The Raw.
I used a light olive oil and coconut sugar. Turned out delicious!
So, it is Monday morning and I already ate half of the apple bread. So delicious. The cross between a cinnamon bun and apple fritter is spot on! I had no intention of baking when I woke up today, then I saw the recipe in my in box. It was worth it!
Oh wow thank you so much for making it! 🙂
(Katie)
Do you let the loaf cool in the pan or do you take it out and leave it on a cooling rack?
Cool in pan is best, because it will firm up as it cools so this way you won’t run the risk of it falling apart as you go to move it.
I tried making this yesterday and baked for 55 min at temp. Pick came out fairly clean, as described in recipe. I took your advice- left it overnight to firm up! But it’s still very very moist this morning- incredibly delicious, but very moist (to the point that the knife isn’t clean when it cuts through). Did I use too much apple? Has anyone else experienced this?
I added an extra 1/2 cup apple and this did not happen. what I noticed is that the bread didn’t seem to cook completely evenly, and I think it may be because of the swirl. maybe that is why the instructions are to take out of oven when the toothpick is “fairly clean.” I took it out of the oven when the toothpick came out clean in much of the cake but still had a little cake on it in other parts.
Looks amazing but is there a way to make it added sugar free? Like would stevia work as a 1 to 1 in this recipe?
Stevia is much sweeter than sugar (if I remember correctly, it is 300× as sweet as sugar), so please don’t use stevia as much as sugar would be used, it would make the loaf awfully sweet!
I used Swerve in place of the sugar and it was very good.
Made the Apple bread, loved the fact that it didn’t have as much sugar as most receipes. Added 1 cup of nuts which I will cut back to 1/2 next time. Moist and delicious!
Gluten free work? Anyone know?
Is it acceptable to make oat flour for this recipe by throwing old fashioned oats in a food processor? Second question: would whole wheat flour work or would it be too heavy? Thanks!
I added a tsp of pumpkin spice into the dry ingredients, and swirled half a tsp of cinnamon in the milk – it worked great! Delicious and spicy!