Apple Bread

Apple Bread Ingredients

Our combination of common pantry staples with your fresh apples, creates an easy-to-make, decadent apple and cinnamon bread that’s just too good to resist.

All-Purpose Flour: Gives the bread structure with the perfect texture for slicing beautiful slices.

Granulated and Brown Sugar: Both brown and granulated sugars are used in this recipe to give the bread a tender, moist texture with the very best flavor.

Ground Cinnamon: No apple recipe would be complete without it! We add a generous amount to pack the bread with fall flavor.

Baking Soda and Baking Powder: Give the bread lift when baked, creating a moist and tender, sliceable muffin-like bread.

Vegetable Oil: Helps make the bread tender without adding any flavor that would mask the lovely apple-cinnamon perfection of this sweet bread.

Sour Cream: Adds to the tenderness and moistness of the bread while also adding a rich depth of flavor to make the cinnamon and apple notes sing.

Apple: We chose Granny Smith apple for our recipe, as it has a juicy, slightly sour flavor and crisp texture that goes so well with the sweetness of the sugar and the spiciness of the cinnamon. But it’s not the only variety that will work! Check out our how to bake with apples article to find other apples that bake up well in our bread.

How to Make Apple Bread

It’s easy to make a spectacular apple cinnamon bread with a little know how. Check out these helpful tips from our Test Kitchens:

Prepare the Pan

Grease only the bottom of the pan, so the batter can climb the sides evenly without any unattractive, hard, crusty ridges.

Stir the Dry Ingredients Together

For an accurate amount of flour, measure it by spooning into a dry measuring cup and leveling it off, rather than scooping the cup into the flour. Pack your brown sugar and level it off before adding it to the bowl. Mixing the dry ingredients first before adding the wet ingredients ensures you won’t over mix the batter, giving the bread the best appearance and texture.

Beat the Wet Ingredients with the Eggs

Use a whisk to break up the eggs and mix them with the sour cream and oil. Mixing these separately from the dry ingredients first, keeps you from over mixing the batter so your bread will bake up with the best appearance and texture.

Stir in the Apple

We call for finely chopping the apple to evenly distribute it throughout the batter, so that you get that fresh apple flavor in every bite! Keeping the pieces small, also ensures that they won’t fall to the bottom of the bread when baking.

Slice it When Cool

Homemade apple bread smells so delicious, you’ll be tempted to eat it as soon as it’s cool enough for your fingers to grab some.! Resist tasting it while it’s warm, if you want to have slices that don’t crumble.

Using a serrated bread knife, use a light sawing motion to cut slices from the completely cooled loaf. You can slice up the entire loaf (and reassemble it before wrapping for storage) to grab slices quickly or you can keep the loaf whole and slice as you need them. If your loaf was overbaked, with edges that are a little crunchy, try turning the loaf on its side to make slicing easier.

How to Store Leftover Apple Bread

Fresh apple bread is a great one to bring to a party or to give as a hostess or thank- you gift! You can make it up to several days in advance with these tips. The taste will actually get even better, when the flavors have a chance to mingle. For the best apple bread, wrap the completely cooled loaves in plastic wrap or foil, and store using one of the methods below:

Room Temperature Storage: Store at room temperature up to 4 days.

Refrigerator Storage: Refrigerate loaves up to 1 week. You can slice it before storage or slice as you need.

Freezer Storage: Place the wrapped loaves in a freezer-safe storage bag, and freeze 2 to 3 months. (You can pre-slice the loaves before freezing, if you like.) Thaw the loaves overnight in the refrigerator.

Apple Bread Variations

There are so many wonderful variations of apple bread, you can make it different every time. Try any of these top-rated recipes next time you find yourself craving the sweet deliciousness of homemade apple bread or want to bake with your fresh-picked apples:

Easy Cake Mix Apple Bread turns a cake mix into a delicious apple bread with shredded apple, cinnamon, and ginger.

Praline Apple Bread is a rich apple bread loaded with pecans topped with a sweet brown sugar glaze.

Apple Banana Bread is a great way to use up overripe bananas or sneak extra fruit into something your family will eat. This apple bread cleverly also includes the goodness of banana, cereal, and yogurt in addition to apples.

Apple Spice Muffins is apple bread in a muffin form. With homemade apple and cinnamon flavor sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, these are almost impossible to resist.

Applesauce Cake Loaf is apple bread that starts with chunky applesauce and packs in flavor with raisins, nuts, cinnamon, and cloves. Try for a delicious change of pace.