The Best Moist Cinnamon Apple Bread Recipe for Cozy Fall Baking

This irresistibly moist apple bread recipe is generously studded with tender chunks of fresh apple, beautifully spiced, and crowned with a delightful cinnamon sugar topping. It’s a remarkably quick and easy dessert or breakfast treat, perfectly designed to celebrate the bounty of fall’s favorite fruit! Prepare to impress your family and friends with this comforting, aromatic loaf that brings the essence of autumn to your table.

There’s a special magic in the air when autumn arrives, and for many home bakers, it’s the most inspiring time of the year. The crisp air and vibrant colors signal a return to heartwarming flavors and comforting aromas filling the kitchen. From classic apple dumplings brimming with sweet fruit to rich pumpkin bread and the delightful crunch of homemade apple crisp, fall baking offers an abundance of delicious possibilities. This season truly invites us to embrace coziness, and nothing quite embodies that feeling like a freshly baked loaf of apple bread.

This particular apple bread recipe is an absolute standout and quickly becomes a cherished favorite. It’s not just a simple bread; it’s a symphony of seasonal flavors. Each slice is infused with the sweet crispness of fresh apples, the warm embrace of cinnamon sugar, and a carefully selected blend of aromatic spices that evoke the very essence of autumn. To ensure every single piece of apple is perfectly seasoned and distributed throughout the loaf, I take an extra step: I first gently toss the finely chopped apples in a mixture of rich brown sugar and fragrant cinnamon. This pre-treatment not only enhances the apple’s flavor but also helps prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the pan, ensuring a beautiful, even distribution in every bite.

While ground cinnamon undoubtedly takes center stage in this easy apple bread recipe, providing that quintessential fall warmth, we don’t stop there. Ground nutmeg and allspice are also thoughtfully incorporated into the batter, adding complex layers of flavor that elevate the bread from good to truly exceptional. These spices complement the apples and cinnamon beautifully, creating a depth of taste that’s both comforting and sophisticated. Before the bread even enters the oven, it receives a final touch of indulgence: a generous drizzle of melted butter, followed by a sprinkle of extra cinnamon sugar. This topping not only creates a wonderfully crisp, golden crust but also adds an extra burst of sweet, spicy goodness that makes each bite unforgettable.

Imagine starting your day with a warm, thick slice of this exquisite apple bread, perhaps gently toasted, served alongside your morning cup of tea or coffee. The aroma alone is enough to brighten any day. It’s the perfect treat for a quiet moment of indulgence, a delightful accompaniment to a brunch spread, or a satisfying snack any time. Beyond personal enjoyment, a homemade loaf of this apple bread makes for an incredibly thoughtful and appreciated gift. Wrap it up beautifully and share the warmth and comfort with a loved one – it’s a simple gesture that speaks volumes, perfectly capturing the generous spirit of the season. This recipe is designed for both ease and exceptional flavor, making it accessible for bakers of all skill levels to create something truly special.

Essential Ingredients for Perfect Apple Bread

This no-frills recipe delivers an incredible depth of apple and cinnamon flavor without requiring a long list of obscure ingredients. Simplicity is key here, allowing the star flavors to truly shine. I’ve provided the precise measurements you’ll need in the comprehensive recipe card below, but let’s highlight the main components you’ll want to have on hand and discuss why each plays a crucial role in creating the ultimate apple bread:

• Apples: The foundation of our apple bread! For the best results, I personally prefer to use sweeter baking apples that maintain their structure beautifully during baking. Varieties like Honeycrisp or Fuji are excellent choices, offering a delightful balance of sweetness and firmness. If your palate leans towards a more tart profile, Granny Smith apples are another fantastic option; their bright acidity provides a wonderful contrast to the sweet bread and spices. Whichever apple you choose, ensure it’s firm and crisp.
• Sugar: We utilize both granulated sugar and brown sugar in this recipe, each serving a distinct purpose. Granulated sugar provides straightforward sweetness and contributes to the bread’s tender crumb. Brown sugar, with its molasses content, adds a richer, deeper flavor profile and is vital for retaining moisture, ensuring our bread is wonderfully moist. It’s used both in the bread batter and for that irresistible cinnamon sugar topping. If you ever find yourself without brown sugar, don’t fret! You can easily make your own at home using just granulated sugar and a touch of molasses – a handy trick for any baker.
• Spices: The heart of fall’s warmth! This recipe calls for a trio of essential spices: ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, and ground allspice. Cinnamon is the dominant flavor, infusing the bread with its comforting aroma. Nutmeg adds a sweet, slightly pungent warmth, while allspice provides a complex blend of clove, nutmeg, and cinnamon notes, tying all the flavors together harmoniously. Ensure your spices are fresh for the most vibrant taste.
• Sour Cream: This ingredient is a secret weapon for achieving a truly tender and moist bread. The fat and acidity in sour cream work wonders, breaking down gluten development slightly and adding richness without making the bread greasy. If sour cream isn’t available or preferred, an equal amount of plain Greek yogurt can be used as a suitable substitute, offering a similar tang and moisture. Just make sure it’s plain and unsweetened.
• Milk: Whole milk is my top recommendation for this recipe. Its higher fat content contributes significantly to a moist, soft, and rich crumb, enhancing the overall texture and flavor. However, if whole milk isn’t readily available, don’t hesitate to use 2%, 1%, skim milk, or even your favorite non-dairy milk alternative. While the texture might be subtly different, the bread will still turn out delicious. Ensure all your cold ingredients, especially milk, eggs, and sour cream, are at room temperature before mixing. This helps them combine more smoothly with the butter and sugars, resulting in a more uniform and tender batter.

Step-by-Step Guide: How to Make Apple Bread

Crafting this delicious apple bread is a rewarding process, broken down into a few manageable parts. While there are distinct stages, each step is designed to be straightforward and easy to follow, even for novice bakers. Let’s walk through the basic steps together, ensuring you achieve a perfectly moist and flavorful loaf every time:

Prepare the Cinnamon Sugar Apples

The secret to flavorful apples throughout your bread starts here. This simple step ensures the apple chunks are not only sweet but also beautifully spiced, preventing them from being bland or sinking during baking.

1. Begin by preparing your apples. Peel them if you prefer a smoother texture in your bread, then finely chop them into small, uniform pieces. Aim for about 1/4 to 1/2-inch dice. Consistency in size helps them cook evenly.
2. Transfer the chopped apples into a medium-sized mixing bowl. Add the specified amount of packed brown sugar and ground cinnamon.
3. Using a spoon or your hands, gently stir the apples until every piece is thoroughly coated in the fragrant cinnamon sugar mixture. This step not only infuses the apples with flavor but also draws out some of their natural juices, which we’ll address in a later step. Set the bowl aside while you prepare the quick bread batter. This resting period allows the flavors to meld beautifully.

Craft the Velvety Batter

This section focuses on creating the rich and tender base for your apple bread. Proper mixing techniques are crucial here to ensure a light and airy texture.

4. In a large separate mixing bowl, combine all your dry ingredients: the all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ground allspice, and salt. Use a whisk to thoroughly combine these ingredients, ensuring the leavening agents and spices are evenly distributed throughout the flour. This prevents pockets of unmixed ingredients in your final bread.
5. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or using a large mixing bowl with a handheld electric mixer), cream together the softened unsalted butter with both the brown sugar and granulated sugar. Beat on medium-high speed for about 3 to 4 minutes. This step is essential; you’re incorporating air into the mixture, which contributes significantly to the bread’s light and fluffy texture. The mixture should become noticeably lighter in color and take on a fluffy consistency. Don’t rush this part – patience here pays off!
6. Add the large eggs to the creamed mixture one at a time, beating well after each addition until just combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula after adding each egg to ensure everything is fully incorporated. Then, add the sour cream (or Greek yogurt) and pure vanilla extract, mixing until just combined. Be careful not to overmix at this stage; we want to keep the batter tender.
7. Now, it’s time to combine the wet and dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredient mixture to the wet ingredients in two separate increments, alternating with the milk. Begin by adding about half of the dry ingredients, mix briefly until mostly incorporated, then add all of the milk, mix again, and finally add the remaining dry ingredients. Mix until just combined. This method helps prevent overmixing the flour, which can lead to a tough bread texture, and ensures a smooth, uniform batter.
8. Return to your cinnamon sugar apples. By now, they will have released a fair amount of juice into their bowl. This excess liquid is delicious but can make your bread too dense or soggy if added to the batter. Using a slotted spoon, carefully scoop the cinnamon-sugar-coated apple chunks into the prepared batter. Take care to leave as much of the excess liquid as possible behind in the apple bowl.
9. Gently fold the apples into the batter using a spatula until they are just evenly distributed. Overmixing at this stage can also develop gluten too much, so a gentle hand is key. You want the apples throughout the batter, but without excessive stirring.

Assemble, Bake, and Enjoy

The final steps bring all your hard work together, culminating in a golden, fragrant loaf ready to be savored.

9. Prepare your loaf pan. Lightly grease a 9×5-inch loaf pan and line it with parchment paper, allowing some overhang on the longer sides. This parchment paper sling will make it incredibly easy to remove the baked bread from the pan. Turn the prepared batter into this loaf pan. If needed, use an angled spatula or the back of a spoon to gently spread the batter out into an even layer, ensuring consistent baking.
10. Prepare the glorious cinnamon sugar topping. Pour a couple of tablespoons of melted butter evenly over the top of the batter in the pan. Then, in a small bowl, quickly combine the granulated sugar and a teaspoon of ground cinnamon. Sprinkle this aromatic cinnamon sugar mixture generously over the melted butter. The butter acts as a “glue,” ensuring the topping adheres beautifully during baking, creating a delicious, slightly crispy crust.
11. Place the loaf pan in your preheated oven set to 350ºF (175°C). Bake for approximately 60 to 70 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the very center of the bread comes out clean or with only moist crumbs attached. Every oven is different, so start checking around the 60-minute mark. If you notice the top browning too quickly during the last 20-25 minutes of baking, loosely tent the loaf with aluminum foil to prevent over-browning.
12. Once baked to perfection, remove the bread from the oven. Allow the bread to cool in the loaf pan for about 15 minutes. This crucial resting period allows the loaf to firm up slightly before you attempt to remove it, preventing it from breaking. After 15 minutes, use the parchment paper overhang to carefully lift the bread out of the pan and transfer it to a wire rack to finish cooling completely. While it’s tempting, resist the urge to slice into it immediately! Cooling completely allows the internal structure to set and the flavors to fully develop, resulting in the best possible texture and taste.

Frequently Asked Questions About Apple Bread

More Apple Recipes To Try This Season!

If you’ve fallen in love with the comforting flavors of this apple bread, you’ll be thrilled to discover more delightful ways to enjoy apples in your baking. Here are some additional apple-infused treats that are perfect for any occasion, especially during the cozy fall months:

• Caramel Apple Upside-Down Cake: A showstopper dessert with tender apples caramelized on top.
• Classic Apple Pie: The quintessential American dessert, featuring a flaky crust and a sweet, spiced apple filling.
• Apple Crisp For Two: A scaled-down version of the beloved crisp, perfect for a cozy date night or small indulgence.
• Mini Apple Pies: Adorably portioned individual pies, ideal for parties or a personal treat.

Video Tutorial

For a visual guide to mastering this delicious apple bread, watch our step-by-step video tutorial. It’s perfect for seeing each process in action, from preparing the apples to mixing the batter and achieving that perfect cinnamon sugar topping.

Apple Bread

5 from 3 ratings

Prep Time: 35 minutes mins

Cook Time: 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Total Time: 1 hour hr 45 minutes mins

This unbelievably moist apple bread is bursting with tender chunks of fresh apple and topped with a glistening cinnamon sugar crust. It’s an easy, quick-to-prepare dessert or breakfast loaf that’s absolutely perfect for celebrating the delightful flavors of fall and making the most of autumn’s beloved fruit!

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Ingredients

Servings: 10 slices

Cinnamon Sugar Apples

• ▢ 1 ½ cups finely chopped apples (200 grams)
• ▢ 2 tablespoons packed light or dark brown sugar (25 grams)
• ▢ ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Apple Bread

• ▢ 2 cups all-purpose flour spooned & leveled (250 grams)
• ▢ 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ▢ ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ▢ 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
• ▢ ½ teaspoon salt
• ▢ ½ cup unsalted butter softened (115 grams)
• ▢ ½ cup packed light or dark brown sugar (100 grams)
• ▢ ⅓ cup granulated sugar (70 grams)
• ▢ 2 large eggs at room temperature
• ▢ ½ cup sour cream or plain Greek yogurt (120 grams)
• ▢ 1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• ▢ ½ cup whole milk (120 ml)

Cinnamon Sugar Topping

• ▢ 2 tablespoons unsalted butter melted and slightly cooled (30 grams)
• ▢ 3 tablespoons granulated sugar (40 grams)
• ▢ 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

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Instructions

 

• Preheat your oven to 350°F (180°C). Prepare a 9×5-inch loaf pan by spraying it generously with nonstick cooking spray. Then, line the pan with parchment paper, ensuring you leave a sufficient overhang on the long sides; this will act as a sling for easy removal of the baked bread. Set the prepared pan aside.
• To make the cinnamon sugar apples: In a large mixing bowl, combine the finely chopped apples with the packed brown sugar and ground cinnamon. Stir everything thoroughly until the apple pieces are completely coated in the sweet, spicy mixture. This step ensures every bite of your bread is infused with apple and cinnamon flavor. Set this bowl aside to allow the apples to macerate slightly.
• To make the apple bread batter: In a separate large mixing bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients: the measured all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, allspice, and salt. Whisk well to ensure all the leavening agents and spices are evenly distributed. Set this dry mixture aside.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large mixing bowl using a handheld electric mixer, cream together the softened unsalted butter, packed brown sugar, and granulated sugar. Beat on medium-high speed for 3 to 4 minutes until the mixture becomes notably light in color and fluffy. This aeration step is crucial for a tender crumb.
• Add the large eggs to the creamed mixture one at a time, mixing until just combined after each addition. Be sure to stop and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula to ensure even mixing. Once the eggs are incorporated, mix in the sour cream (or plain Greek yogurt) and the pure vanilla extract until just smooth. Avoid overmixing.
• Now, gradually incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Add half of the dry ingredients, mix until partially combined, then add all of the milk and mix briefly. Finally, add the remaining dry ingredients. Mix on low speed until everything is just combined, being careful not to overmix the batter. Overmixing can lead to a tough bread.
• At this point, the chopped apples will have released a few tablespoons of flavorful juice into their bowl. It’s important to prevent this excess liquid from ending up in your bread batter, as it can make the bread dense or soggy. Use a slotted spoon to scoop the chopped apples out of their mixing bowl and gently transfer them into the prepared bread batter, ensuring you leave behind as much of the juice as possible.
• Once all of the cinnamon-sugar-coated chopped apples have been added to the batter, gently fold them in with a spatula until they are just evenly distributed. Again, be very careful not to overmix, as this can negatively impact the final texture of your bread.
• Pour the entire batter into your prepared loaf pan. Using an angled spatula or the back of a spoon, gently spread the batter around to ensure it forms one even layer in the pan. This promotes uniform baking.
• To make the cinnamon sugar topping: Evenly pour the slightly cooled melted butter over the top of the bread batter in the pan. The butter helps the topping adhere.
• In a small mixing bowl, combine the remaining granulated sugar and ground cinnamon until well mixed. Then, carefully and evenly sprinkle this fragrant cinnamon sugar mixture over the melted butter on top of the bread batter.
• Bake the bread in your preheated oven for 60 to 70 minutes. The bread is done when a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with only moist crumbs attached. To prevent the top from browning too much during the final stages of baking, loosely tent the loaf with aluminum foil for the last 20 to 25 minutes of the baking time.
• Once baked, remove the loaf from the oven. Allow it to cool in the pan for 15 minutes. This cooling period is crucial for the bread to firm up. After 15 minutes, carefully lift the bread out of the pan using the parchment paper overhang and transfer it to a wire rack to cool completely. Resist the urge to slice it warm; allowing it to cool fully ensures the best texture and flavor. Slice and serve when fully cooled.

Notes

Storage Instructions: To maintain its delicious moisture and freshness, your baked apple bread should be wrapped tightly with plastic wrap or stored in an airtight container at room temperature. It will remain wonderfully fresh for up to 4 days.

Freezing Instructions: This apple bread freezes exceptionally well! Once completely cooled, wrap the loaf tightly with several layers of plastic wrap, then place it inside a large freezer bag (removing as much air as possible) or an airtight freezer-safe container. It can be stored in the freezer for up to 3 months. When you’re ready to enjoy it, thaw the bread overnight in the refrigerator. For the best taste and texture, bring it to room temperature (or gently warm it) before slicing and serving.

Cuisine: American

Course: Dessert, Breakfast, Snack

Author: Danielle Rye

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