This easy apple cinnamon bread recipe will quickly become your new favorite fall breakfast or dessert! It’s soft, fluffy, moist, healthier than apple cake, and tastes just like grandma used to make!
If you know and like banana bread, then you’ll love this apple bread recipe aka the apple version of banana bread! It’s a healthy vegan apple loaf cake that is not only great as a snack for a cozy afternoon coffee and tea party, but also for breakfast! Your kids will love it too.
Grandma’s Old-fashioned Apple Loaf Cake made Vegan & Healthy
Granny’s apple bread recipe is a classic among her apple cinnamon streusel cake and many other yummy treats that I have already veganized. To make it, you only need a few simple staple ingredients that you may have already in your pantry and don’t have to buy extra. All you have to do is combine the wet and dry ingredients, fold in apples, and bake! It couldn’t be simpler!
The beauty of the apple bread is that it becomes nice and moist and aromatic thanks to the apples. Of course, this apple bread is made without dairy, butter, or eggs, so it’s naturally vegan and healthier. On the one hand, the diced apples give the cake some bite and on the other hand, they make it incredibly moist. If you use unpeeled apples, the bread gets a nice intense apple flavor.
If you follow the tips and tricks below, your moist apple bread is guaranteed to turn out perfectly!
These kind of apples are best for baking bread and cake:
- Boskop
- Jonagold
- Cox orange
- Honey Crisp
- Fuji
- Gala
- … but in general you can use any apple variety you like!
Ingredients for Vegan Apple Bread
- Apples: As the most important ingredient you should of course have apples at home. But here you can also use pears or other fruits, such as plums. You can grate the apples or cut them into small cubes.
- Flour: All-purpose or spelt flour or gluten-free flour is recommended. Whole wheat flour, oat flour or buckwheat flour work too, but the bread will be more dense. You can also mix light and dark flours.
- Baking powder & baking soda: This combo makes the bread soft and fluffy!
- Maple syrup: Here you can of course also use another alternative, such as brown sugar, raw cane sugar, coconut sugar, agave syrup or date paste.
- Plant milk: I always prefer soy milk for baking, but you can also use almond milk, hazelnut milk, oat milk or cashew milk.
- Applesauce: You can also use mango puree or any other fruit puree or dairy-free yogurt instead.
- Neutral oil: Alternatively, you can use butter-flavored canola oil, sunflower oil, avocado oil, or liquid coconut oil.
- Lemon juice: or sub orange juice or apple cider vinegar as an alternative.
- Vanilla extract: or ground bourbon vanilla.
- Cinnamon
- Salt
How to make Apple Bread from scratch
As always, I recommend checking out the recipe video and these step-by-step instructions first. Then, you can find the full recipe with the exact measurements in the recipe card below!
Step 1: Make the batter
First, combine flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a bowl. Then pour maple syrup, applesauce, non-dairy milk, oil, vanilla extract and lemon juice into the dry ingredients and stir briefly to form a batter. Finally, fold in the diced apples.
Step 2: Bake the bread
Now transfer the batter into a baking pan and smooth it out. Then put it in the oven and bake! As soon as a toothpick comes out almost clean (after about 50-60 minutes), the bread is ready. Then let cool and dust with powdered sugar if desired. Slice and enjoy!
Tip: You can easily make powdered sugar yourself by finely grinding conventional sugar.
Apple Bread for breakfast or healthy Apple Cake for dessert
You can either enjoy the apple cinnamon bread with yogurt, nut butter or jam for breakfast or you can decorate it with a whipped cream or cream cheese topping and pomegranate seeds to serve it as a sweet snack or dessert. Otherwise, you could also drizzle icing glaze or Vegan Caramel Sauce on top of the bread. A scoop of vanilla ice cream is also delicious with this!
A simple recipe for Apple Muffins
This recipe makes it possible to bake 16 muffins or cupcakes. The baking time is then about 20-25 minutes. If you like, you can also add chopped walnuts or raisins to the batter. For toppings, you can opt for sliced almonds or cinnamon streusel / crumbles.
Can I use other fruits?
Yes, of course! Feel free to try the bread recipe with other seasonal fruit, like pears or cranberries. Bananas also work wonderfully. You can find a recipe for a delicious chocolate banana bread here. When substituting fruit, make sure it’s not too watery or the apple loaf cake will be soggy.
Which plant milk is the best for the recipe?
Those who know my blog know that I prefer soy milk for baking vegan cakes and desserts. The binding properties of soy lecithin are best for vegan baking as it makes a great egg replacer.
Of course, you can use any plant milk you prefer, such as almond milk, oat milk, or cashew milk. No matter what dairy-free alternative you use, the apple bread is sure to come out and taste wonderful.
How can I store and freeze apple bread?
You can store the moist apple bread in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Of course, you can also freeze the bread. It will keep for about 3 months in the freezer.
Before eating, bring it to room temperature or simply heat it up briefly in the microwave so that it becomes really fluffy, soft and moist again! If you don’t have a microwave, simply reheat the vegan apple loaf cake in the oven.
This Vegan Apple Bread recipe is:
- Egg-free
- Dairy-free
- Refined sugar-free
- Quick and easy to make
- Moist
- Flavorful
- Budget-friendly
- Fruity
- Delicious
- Perfect for breakfast and dessert
- The healthy alternative to apple cake
- The apple version of banana bread
More easy vegan bread loaf cake recipes to try
- Vegan Banana Bread
- Chocolate Banana Bread
- Pumpkin Bread
- Chocolate Pumpkin Bread
- Cranberry Orange Bread
- Marble Zebra Cake Loaf
- Lemon Cake
- Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
- Chocolate Zucchini Bread
- Coconut Loaf Cake
- Date Nut Bread
- Fruit & Nut Bread
- Hazelnut Cake
If you try this vegan apple cinnamon bread recipe, feel free to leave me a comment and a star rating! And if you take a photo of your fruity bread and share it on Instagram or Facebook, please tag me @biancazapatka and use the hashtag #biancazapatka because I love seeing your creations! Happy baking! 🙂
Apple Cinnamon Bread (Apple Version of Banana Bread)
Author:You do not have a fitting cake pan at hand right now? Try my Cake Pan Conversion Calculator!
Ingredients
- 2 cups (250 g) all-purpose or spelt flour or gluten-free flour, *see notes
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1-2 tsp cinnamon
- 100 ml maple syrup or other syrup or sugar to taste
- ½ cup (120 g) applesauce or mashed banana or dairy-free thick yogurt
- ½ cup (120 g) plant milk e.g. soy, hazelnut, cashew, or almond milk
- ⅓ cup (60 ml) neutral oil e.g. butter-flavored canola oil, sunflower oil, avocado oil, or liquid coconut oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp lemon juice or orange juice or 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 2 (180 g) apples 6.3 oz diced
Topping (optional)
Instructions
*Note: Check out the recipe video + tips + step-by-step pictures above!
- Preheat the oven to 356 °F (180 °C). Prepeare a 9-Inch (23-cm) silicone loaf pan (or grease a regular loaf pan and line with parchment paper).
- In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and sugar.
- Add maple syrup, applesauce, plant milk, oil, vanilla extract and lemon juice and and stir until just combined. Then fold in the diced apples.
- Transfer the batter into the prepared baking pan and smooth it out. Bake for about 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out almost clean (with a few moist crumbs attached).
- Allow to cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes. Then remove and let cool completely on a cooling rack.
- Dust with powdered sugar and enjoy!
Notes
- Flour: Instead of all-purpose or spelt flour, you can use a gluten-free flour blend 1:1. Whole wheat or buckwheat flour will also work, but this will make the bread denser. You can also mix light and wholegrain flours.
- Extras: Feel free to add chopped nuts or raisins to the batter. As a topping, you could sprinkle sliced almonds on top.
- Muffins: This recipe yields 16 muffins. Baking time is about 20-25 minutes.
- Storage: the bread will keep, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 5 days and can be frozen for up to 3 months. Bring to room temperature before eating or simply reheat briefly in the microwave to make it really fluffy, soft and moist again!
- Helpful tips, notes on ingredients, serving suggestions and more information about the recipe are mentioned in the blog post above!
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Want to know if these can be made into mini muffins or sized in round and square pans as well? Trying to be careful since our oven is a bit slow . Using therma pro pop pen to be sure it bakes evenly. Any idea about temps as far as lowering to 25 lower for gf baking or to adjust leavening? Thanks! First time doing this since over a year post surgical gi . Making this fir a thank you gift fir my tutor. Got me oven my ptsd of math after no one else had! Hope you’ll let me know. Thanks!
Yes, you can also make muffins or use a round or square pan. The baking time depends on the pan and size. You can test with a skewer or toothpick once the top is no longer liquid and turns golden-brown. Apple muffins will take around 25 minutes.