350°
55 – 65 mins
BackgroundToday is Michael’s birthday (or it was when I wrote this) and to celebrate, we’re making Apple Bread! Apple bread is a lovely combination of apples, banana bread, and cake – three of Michael’s favorite things. I’ve never made apple bread before but, with it being apple season, I thought I’d take a gander to see if apple bread was a thing. I am happy to report that it is, in fact, a thing and further, it’s a delicious thing!
This apple bread is a lot like banana bread but with an appley cinnamoney flavor rather than a bananaey flavor. It makes a tasty sweet treat or an excellent grab and go breakfast. My favorite part about this bread is the topping. I am a sucker for a streusel and you better believe it’s going on the next loaf of banana bread that comes out of our oven! As an added bonus, this recipe is lower in fat because it replaces some of the fat with apple sauce. Mmmm….
Recipe
- 3 Cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1 ½ Cups Sugar
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- 2 Eggs, Beaten
- 4 oz Unsweetened Applesauce
- ⅓ Cup Vegetable Oil
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 3 Medium Gala Apples
- ⅓ Cup All-Purpose Flour
- ⅓ Cup Sugar
- 4 Tbs Cold Butter, Cut into Small Cubes
- Preheat the oven to 350° and spray 2 8” x 4” glass loaf pans with nonstick cooking spray.
- Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, baking soda and cinnamon together in a large bowl.
- Add the eggs, applesauce, oil, and vanilla and mix until just combined. The batter will be very thick.
- Peel and core the apples. Dice one of the apples into 1” cubes, shred the other two apples on a box grater, and fold into the batter.
- In a separate bowl, mix the flour and sugar for the topping together and cut in the butter using the back of a fork. It should get crumbly and will hold together if you press on it.
- Divide the batter evenly between the two loaf pans and sprinkle on the topping. Bake at 350° for 50 minutes – 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Let the bread rest in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
Tips and TricksIf you’re like me and don’t keep applesauce on hand, the single-serve cups of applesauce that are meant for lunches are 4 oz each. You can use what you need and save the rest for future loaves.
Feed the FreezerApple bread, like banana bread freezes beautifully! Stash the second loaf in the freezer for future you to enjoy.
Fun FactsJohn Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed, was in to helping animals as well as being in to planting apple trees. He once purchased a horse that was about to be put down in order to save the horse’s life.