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
Hi and thanks for the fabulous recipe… I love your cake recipes and have never had a fail…. which milk do you use in the recipe? I thought about using Rude Health unsweetened Almond Milk (UK brand) or will it be too heavy… Finally, do you know how much 2 cups of flour weighs in grams? Big thanks.
Hi Nina, it’s around 240g, and Katie uses almond milk so that should be fine 🙂
Me too!
This looks so good!! I would like to try it, but I’m trying to cut back on sugar, and was wondering if you or anyone else reading this has tried using date sugar (or rather date powder?) instead of other sugars? I’ve heard it’s a healthier option than some other sugars. But am unsure if it would work in this recipe. Thank you in advance! Your recipes always look amazing. 🙂
We don’t see why date sugar would not work. Be sure to report back if you try it 🙂
Can you use wheat flour?
You can use regular all purpose flour. We have not tried it with whole wheat flour and think that would yield a very dense result but if you’re used to whole wheat baked goods then maybe you would still like it. Be sure to report back if you experiment!
Excellent! Followed the directions exactly. I made it without the frosting. Great for breakfast!
Hi!Can we use brown sugar or erythritol instead of sugar? And can we use half almond flour and half oat flour? Thank you!
Sorry we haven’t tried so really can’t say. Be sure to report back if you experiment with anything other than what we’ve tried!
I am entirely new to gluten free baking substitutes. Can I use Bob Red Mill gluten free mix (mostly rice flour). I can’t use oats for this.
The apple loaf came out great. I used 1/2 c sugar instead of 3/4 c and was plenty sweet (white sugar). Subbed 1/2 c whole wheat flour. I might add the cinnamon to the batter next time, and more of it.
Thank you so much for making it!
This apple bread is 5-star absolutely delicious! I’ve made it many times and it always comes out perfectly. To further enrich the nutrition (fiber and omega-3) I’ve recently added 2 flax eggs (2 tbls ground flaxseed mixed with 5 tbls of warm water) with excellent results. I usually mix a combination of flour for fun – spelt, oat and whole wheat pastry flour. Instead of oil I’ve used applesauce or banana and increased the cinnamon to 1 tsp (added to the flour) and an additional 1 tsp mixed with the 2 tbls of oat milk swirled into it. Sometimes I’ve added a lemon glaze (1/2 c powered sugar with 1+tbls lemon juice and zest) – incredible! When out of vanilla I’ve subbed almond extract. The cake is aromatic, moist, a satisfying crumb and a big hit! Thank you so much for this and all your wonderful recipes!
Thank you so much! Your version sounds delicious 🙂
(Katie)
Hey Alison, I will try your version since I’m looking to decrease the sugar! Did you find the whole wheat flour required more baking or yielded a more dense bread?
I doubled the amount of cinnamon based on another comment (I put half with the dry ingredients and the other half in the swirl), but the end result was still a bit bland. The one thing I did that was different from the video is add the apples at the end, so perhaps they didn’t get the cinnamoney goodness mixed in properly. I just didn’t consider the apples to be part of the “dry ingredients” to be mixed together first. I may make it again with even more cinnamon and possibly some other spices.
I had 4 apples I needed to use before they went bad.I made this apple bread that is so good.Hubby does not like cinnamon but he took a bite that I offered and said oh this is good.
The cinnamon is perfect amount.I used apple sauce in place of oil.Thanks for the yummy recipe.
Thank you so much for making it!
I used maple syrup as sweetener. I ended up having to add more flour to thicken the batter. Next time, I will reduce the almond milk. I made them in mini loaves and cooked them 30-35 minutes. Yum!
Tasted great! I actually substituted banana instead of most of the sugar.
Hey Melinda, do you remember if you used just one medium banana, or 3/4 cup of mashed banana? Thanks so much!
I always do a 1:1 ratio when subbing banana for sugar.
I always do a 1:1 ratio when subbing banana for sugar. I’m guessing I used one banana and then used sugar for the rest to make it 3/4 cup total.