Apple Cinnamon Bread

Today I have my Apple Bread recipe with Cinnamon and Maple sugar. It is studded with chunks of fresh apple and with the addition of applesauce it is ultra moist! Pour a cup of coffee and enjoy the taste of fall in each bite! 

Is there anything more cozy in the fall than the smell of warm cinnamon apple bread baking? (Hint: The answer rhymes with the word “Go”.) That’s right, there is nothing more cozy! So, if you are wanting to feel all the feels of fall, and taste all the yumminess that is this apple studded, maple-sweetened moist and tender loaf, then read on. I’ve got all the deets for baking success ahead!

Ingredients For This Apple Bread Recipe

Here are the ingredients you’ll need to make this recipe. Full amounts are in the recipe card below. Note: feel free to double this recipe. 

Maple sugar, natural cane sugar or brown sugar

• I prefer to use maple to sweeten my recipes whenever possible. We make our own maple syrup here at our home in Vermont, and I even wrote an entire cookbook about cooking and baking with maple, so you could say I am quite passionate about it! 
• Maple Sugar is granulated sugar made from maple syrup. To make it, the maple syrup is boiled to the hard ball state, then stirred while it is cooling. I make several batches in the spring during sugaring season, and store it in our freezer. You can buy it online here. It tastes like the essence of maple and imparts a distinct maple flavor into this bread. And the smell of it while it bakes is intoxicating! 
• If you cannot find maple, or prefer a less expensive option, evaporated cane juice works well, and adds a lovely crunch to the topping. Brown sugar works too, but make sure you use light or golden as dark makes this bread way too dark. 

Cinnamon

We use a lot of cinnamon in this house, so I always keep it on hand. As always, make sure your spices are fresh. After time they lose their scent to a degree, so they aren’t as powerful.

Egg

Use one large egg for this recipe. It’ll be blended in with the wet ingredients. The egg helps to hold the bread together and it contributes to the texture as well. 

Applesauce

To reduce the amount of added fat and sugar I added a cup of applesauce. It adds moisture and replaces some of the fat to make this lower in calories and less heavy.

Avocado oil or organic canola oil

I prefer to use avocado oil in my recipes. I purchase it in large containers at Costco, and it is quite affordable. It has a preferable monounsaturated fat profile and it withstands high heat. If you like to use canola oil, I recommend buying organic canola so you can be assured that it comes from a non-GMO source. Another neutral cooking oil would work fine too. 

All-purpose flour

To help this bread rise properly, and give it a tender crumb I used 1 cup of all-purpose flour. It also helps the color of the bread. Both whole-wheat flour and maple sugar darken the bread, and using some white flour helps keep it from browning too much.

Whole-wheat flour

To add a bit more nutritious fiber, I used 3/4 cup whole wheat flour. If you can find it I recommend white whole-wheat flour. It is made from hard white wheat which is lighter in color and taste than the red wheat used for regular whole-wheat flour. It has less pronounced wheat flavor too.

Baking powder, Baking soda and Salt

So the bread rises properly, use a blend of leavener and a bit of salt to balance the sweetness, and bring out the flavors. If your baking soda is clumpy, run it through a strainer to make sure there are no lumps of soda in the batter. 

Apples

• For this recipe I used firm sweet apples. I recommend a variety like Gala, Cortland or Golden Delicious.
• For baking I prefer not to use a crisp apple like granny smith or Honey Crisp because they do not soften well as they bake.
• Conversely, Macintosh are not recommended because they soften too much while baking. 

How To Make Apple Cinnamon Bread

Here’s the Cliff’s Notes version of how to make this recipe. First of all, you’ll need four things:

1. The Apples
2. The Cinnamon sugar
3. The Dry Mix
4. The Wet Mix 

Once you have all four of those components, you’ll do the following:

1. Combine the wet and dry mix.
2. Add in the apples.
3. Put half the batter in the loaf pan and sprinkle on half of the cinnamon sugar.
4. Add the rest of the batter and then swirl the batter to make a cinnamon swirl.
5. Smooth the top, sprinkle on the remaining cinnamon sugar and bake!

It sounds complicated but it is actually simple, so I’ll walk you through it. 

Prepare The Apples, Preheat Oven and Prep Loaf Pan

• The reason I like to do all these things in the beginning is that with quick breads, time is of the essence. Quick breads are leavened with chemical leaveners (baking soda and baking powder) which become active as soon as the wet and dry mix are combined.
• To get the most airy, fluffy rise out of these types of leaveners, it’s best to not waste time after the two are combined. That’s why having your oven hot, your pan prepped and the apples ready to stir in is important!
• Simply coat your pan with cooking spray or brush it with oil or rub with butter. Then set the oven to 350 degrees F. Note: before you turn on your oven, arrange the rack in the center. 

To Prep The Apples

Peel the apples and cut them into a small dice. My pieces were about 1/3 to 1/2-inches cubed. Any larger and the bread is difficult to slice! 

Make Cinnamon Sugar

Use 2 tablespoons of the sugar and 1 teaspoons of cinnamon to make a cinnamon sugar blend. This will go into the loaf in the center and over the top. Set that aside for a minute. 

Mix Wet and Dry Ingredients Separately

I used two bowls: a large for the wet and a medium for the dry.

Make Batter

Add the dry mix to the wet mix and stir until they are just combined. 

Add in the apples and stir until there are no longer any dry streaks in the batter. 

Assemble the loaf

1. Scoop half of the batter into the bottom of the loaf pan. 
2. Top with half of the cinnamon sugar.
3. Add the rest of the batter in an even layer.
4. Using a knife, swirl the cinnamon sugar in the center of the bread.
5. Smooth out the top and then sprinkle on the rest of the cinnamon sugar. 

Bake The Bread 

• Bake the apple bread in the center of the oven, where the heat is most even. As it rises, it is important to not fuss with it too much as that can cause the loaf to collapse before the structure has baked through and set up.

How To Know When It Is Done

• Press Test: To test to see if the bread is baked through first, before removing it from the oven, gently and quickly press your fingertips down on the top of the bread to see if it springs back. If it is not, you can quickly close up the oven and let it keep baking for three to five more minutes. 
• Toothpick Test: If the bread passes the press test, then you can remove it to the top of the stove (or rack) and do a toothpick test. If there is wet batter on the toothpick the bread will need another minute or two. 

To Cool and Remove From Pan

• Let the apple cinnamon bread cool for 10 minutes in the pan.
• Run a knife along the edges of the pan before turning it out. I use clean oven mitts to do this so that I don’t have to completely invert the bread (and loose much of the cinnamon sugar topping.) 
• Set the bread on a cooling rack and let it cool at room temperature for about an hour before slicing. I like it best when it is a little bit warm. Note the bread does fall apart slighly more when it is warm, so if clean slices are important to you, wait until it is completely cool.

Tip: Use a sharp serrated knife to cut this bread. The apple chunks can make it tricky to get a nice even clean cut.

Steps To Make This Apple Cinnamon Bread Recipe

Storage Instructions

Leftovers: To store unsliced bread: Wrap completely cool bread in two layers of plastic wrap or aluminum foil. Keep at room temperature for two to three days. 

To Freeze: You can freeze the entire loaf of bread by wrapping in two layers of foil. Then transfer to a gallon Freezer re-sealable plastic bag. Press any excess air out of the bag before freezing. Remove from the bag to thaw at room temperature.

Reheat: For best texture, reheat thawed bread. Wrap in foil and heat at 300 degrees for 20 minutes before serving. 

More Apple Baking Recipes

Apple Streusel Muffins with Greek Yogurt are a great lunchbox snack or portable breakfast.

These Low Sugar Apple Upside-down Muffins are a fun snack for the kiddos too. 

Another snack idea is to make these Apple Chips from Momables.com. 

My Maple Apple Cake is one of my all-time favorite dessert recipes. It gets more and more moist by the day! 

My Cranberry Apple Crumb Pie with Maple is probably my favorite pie of all time. And I really love pie!

And of course classic double crust Apple Pie is hard to beat too! 

Do not miss my Apple Crisp recipe. You’ll be so glad you tried it! It is on The Best Of list here at Healthy Seasonal Recipes! 

If you’re wanting something more minimal, you could forego the topping and just make Cinnamon Baked Apples. 

This Tarte Tatin looks amazing too! You had me at brown butter and love the addition of shredded apple in the cake part too. 

If you’re looking for even more Apple ideas, check out these 50 Apple Recipes To Try This Fall. 

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