Apple Bread

Last updated on February 23, 2019 by Liza Hawkins

This delicious apple bread is simple to make and so good. No peeling apples and a secret ingredient to add tons of flavor and keep it moist!

I got a mixed box of apples, peaches and plums from a local farm a couple weeks ago, and it was filled to the brim!

Two different kinds of apples, the juiciest peaches EVER and little plums that my kids adored.

Back to those apples, though.

In our house, zucchini bread is a staple.

My daughter LOVES zucchini bread “sandwiches” in her lunchbox, filled with a generous slather of plain cream cheese.

I love warming a piece in the toaster, and eating it with melty butter. Mmm…

In the box, there were a few different apple varieties, two of which were green—a little tart, a little sweet.

Perfect for baking.

So, when I sliced the final bit of our last zucchini bread loaf, I thought I’d try my hand at making a different kind of bread.

Yes, that’s right: apple bread!

Instead of shredded zucchini, I used shredded apples—skins and all. A box grater is easy to use for the task, but if your food processor has a shredding attachment, that’d be even simpler!

(You can see little flecks of the skins peppered throughout the bread.)

I also used a jar of a homemade apple butter spread given to me by Kauffman’s Fruit Farm & Market, not too far away from us, in Pennsylvania.

Kind of like a secret ingredient—deeper flavor than applesauce, but useful in the same way to help keep the bread moist.

I baked my loaves for about fifty minutes, which leaves the center slightly underdone.

I’ll take a little “underdone” instead of “overdone” any day (though, I’m not offended if you want to bake yours for another ten to fifteen minutes … I’d start testing for doneness at fifty-five minutes).

Melt in your mouth…

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Yield: 2 loaves

Apple Bread

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes

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Ingredients

• 5 apples, shredded
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 8.5-ounce jar of apple butter
• 1 cups canola oil
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 325°F.

Use non-stick spray (or butter) to coat 2 large loaf pans.

Use a whisk to combine the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl, and leave a little bit of a well in the center.

In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and oil until they turn a creamy color, then add the sugar and vanilla and use a hand mixer to beat the ingredients for a minute or two.

Add the wet mixture to the dry and mix for 1 minute. Add the jar of apple butter, and then continue mixing with the hand mixer until it's just combined. The batter will be very thick!

Add the shredded apple to the batter, and using the mixer on low, gently incorporate the two. The moisture from the apples should loosen up the batter and make it easier to mix.

Pour the batter into your prepared pans about half-way, and then bake them for about an hour (or until the top springs back when you press gently with your finger, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean).

Let the loaves cool for about 15 minutes in the pan, and the remove them. Continue letting them sit on a rack until they've cooled completely.

Notes

Sometimes I use a variety of pans instead: tube pan, muffin tins, cake pans, etc., instead of just loaf pans. If you plan on freezing these, wrap them tightly in plastic wrap once they've cooled, and then put them into freezer zip top bags.