Fluffy and moist vegan apple bread that comes together in one bowl using only 8 ingredients! The bread can easily be made gluten-free and refined sugar-free too.
This vegan apple bread is adapted from my very tried and tested Apple Crumble Cake and Vegan Apple Muffins.
Why you'll love this recipe
TASTE/TEXTURE: This bread uses grated apples rather than roughly chopped apples which creates a tender 'melt-in-your-mouth' texture. The bread is moist and almost cake-like!
DIFFICULTY: Like most quick breads, this vegan apple bread is easy to make and great for beginners! Alternatively, you may like my vegan banana blueberry bread or vegan zucchini bread.
OCCASION: Enjoy an undecorated slice of apple bread for breakfast or top it with frosting and caramelized apples for afternoon tea or a gathering!
Ingredients you'll need
This quick bread uses only common pantry ingredients including:
Notes about the ingredients
All-purpose flour for the fluffiest vegan apple bread! This bread can be made gluten-free (see a picture of the gluten-free version later in this post). The gluten-free flour quantities are detailed in the notes of the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Brown sugar or coconut sugar provides depth of flavor to this bread. For bread that is less sweet, I recommend coconut sugar. Alternatively, this recipe works with a granulated sugar replacer such as erythritol!
Apple that has been coarsely grated or finely chopped. The apple kind of 'melts' away and makes the bread very moist! I recommend using a sweet snacking apple such as a Fuji, Gala or Honey Crisp.
Baking powder and soda. We're using double baking agents to make sure the vegan apple bread is fluffy and bakes in the middle. Quick breads can still be fluffy without eggs!
Apple cider vinegar (optional). When an acid is added to a cake batter, it creates a more tender crumb. Alternatively, you can use lemon juice or white vinegar or simply omit it.
A complete list of ingredients, quantities and instructions are in the gray recipe card at the bottom of this post.
How to prepare vegan apple bread
To prepare the batter, all you need to do is mix the dry ingredients, add the wet ingredients and mix.
My top tips for making the batter are:
- Use grams to measure the ingredients. Apples vary a lot in size and flour and brown sugar can be under or over-measured when using cups.
- Your apple shouldn't be too juicy after you grate/chop it. If it leaks any juice, add a little extra flour (details are in the notes of the recipe card at the bottom of this post).
- Don't overmix the batter. I often 'fold' my cake batter to prevent this from happening! A few lumps are fine, as long as they aren't lumps of flour!
Oven baking tips
This vegan apple bread takes around 50 minutes to 1 hour to bake. However, the amount of time will depend on how hot your oven runs and whether it has any hot spots!
If you check your bread at the 30 to 40 minute mark and it's browning quickly on top, cover it loosely with aluminum foil.
Some ovens have very strong top heating elements and will brown the apple bread too quickly or make the surface crack too much. If you know that your oven does this, I recommend covering your loaf pan with aluminum foil at the beginning of baking (or place a baking tray on the top rack above your apple bread). Towards the end of baking, if your bread isn't golden brown on top, remove the foil or tray and allow it to brown.
On the other hand, make sure your oven isn't too cool otherwise your bread will be too dense!
Making caramelized apples for the topping (optional)
I love topping my vegan apple bread with caramelized apples because it adds flavor and is also very pretty!
My top tips for caramelizing the apples are:
- The longer you cook the mixture, the softer and more caramelized the apple pieces will be.
- Once you add the sugar, don't walk away from the stove because sugar burns easily!
Other topping suggestions
The vegan apple bread is delicious by itself with no toppings!
However, before baking, you can top the bread with:
- rolled oats
- pumpkin seeds, just like my vegan pumpkin bread
- crumb topping, either a plain cinnamon crumble or pecan crumble
- chopped apple. I recommend covering your loaf pan with aluminum foil as the apples may burn.
I topped my bread with a soft cream cheese icing and caramelized apples. Alternatively, you can top it with:
- simple sugar glaze, like my lemon olive oil cake
- vegan buttercream, from my ginger cake (minus the coconut)
- coconut yogurt (like below)
Customizing this recipe
I recommend replacing the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour or spelt flour and using coconut sugar instead of brown sugar.
Some readers have successfully substituted the oil with unsweetened applesauce. However, I haven't tested this myself so am not 100% how it'll turn out.
Unfortunately, a liquid sweetener such as maple syrup won't work well in this recipe. The apple bread is already packed with fruit and a liquid sweetener will make the bread too dense.
For a round cake, I recommend using my apple crumble cake recipe. For muffins, try following my vegan apple muffins recipe. All the recipes are very similar but have little tweaks so they bake well in certain pans!
Yes, to the batter, you can also add:
- Raisins
- Cranberries
- Walnuts or pecans, just like carrot cake
- Vegan chocolate chips
More vegan apple desserts
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Vegan Apple Bread
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups (315g) all-purpose plain flour, (note 1 for gluten free)
- 1 cup (190g) packed brown sugar, coconut sugar or granulated sugar (note 2)
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Pinch of salt, optional
Wet Ingredients
- 1 x (~180g) medium-sized apple, grated very coarsely OR chopped finely (note 3)
- 1 cup (250g) dairy-free milk
- ½ cup (120g) neutral flavored oil
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar, optional
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, optional
Cream Cheese Icing (optional, see note 5 for alternatives)
- ¼ cup (60g) vegan cream cheese, room temperature
- ½ cup (50g) powdered sugar / icing sugar, or to taste
- 2 tablespoons (20g) vegan butter, room temperature
Caramelized Apples (optional)
- 1 x (~180g) medium-sized apple, cubed
- 1 tablespoon (30g) vegan butter, oil or water
- 2 tablespoons (25g) packed brown sugar, or coconut sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Grease or line an 8-inch (20 cm) loaf pan with parchment paper.
Make the Vegan Apple Bread:
- Add all the dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl. Mix until there are no lumps. Add all of the wet ingredients to the bowl and mix until combined. Pour the batter into the loaf pan and smooth the top.
- Bake the apple bread for around 50 minutes to 1 hour or until it is done. Check the bread at the 35 minute mark and if it's browning quickly on top, loosely cover the bread with aluminum foil. The bread is ready when you can insert a toothpick in the center and there's no wet batter on it, though some crumbs on your toothpick are fine. (note 4)
- Allow the apple bread to rest in the pan for at least 10 minutes. Remove it from the pan and allow it to cool on a wire rack.
Cream cheese icing (optional)
- Add all the icing ingredients to a small bowl and mix until smooth. This icing is quite soft at room temperature but if you'd like a firmer icing, double the amount of butter and add more sugar, to taste.
Caramelized apples (optional):
- Add the apples and butter to a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Saute until the apples are almost tender and slightly golden brown.
- Add the sugar to the saucepan and gently mix the apples while they caramelize. If the apples stick to the saucepan, add a dash of water. The longer you cook the apples, the more caramelized they will be.
Serving the apple bread:
- Optional: When the apple bread has cooled, dollop the cream cheese frosting (or desired frosting) on top and top with caramelized apples. Slice and serve!
- Store the apple bread in an airtight container at room temperature for 1 day or in the fridge for 4 days. The apple bread (without decorations) freezes for up to 1 month.
Notes
- To make gluten-free apple bread, substitute the flour with 1 ½ cups (150g) almond flour and 1 cup (160g) gluten-free all-purpose flour (or fine white rice flour).
- This amount of sugar creates a mildly sweet apple bread. For a less sweet bread, I recommend using ¾ cup (140g) brown or coconut sugar.
- This bread will be too moist if you grate the apples too finely. Ideally, the grated apple shouldn't leak any juice. If your apple is extra juicy, use an extra 3 tablespoons (25g) of flour in the recipe.
- The baking time will hugely depend on your oven. If it takes longer than 1 hour to bake, that's absolutely fine. If your oven has strong heating elements on top, I recommend tenting your loaf pan with aluminum foil at the beginning of baking. Alternatively, place a rack at the top of the oven (above your apple loaf) and an empty baking tray on the rack. This will prevent your loaf from burning.
- The apple bread is wonderful without any decorations! Alternatively, you can top the bread with a simple buttercream made by whipping 100g vegan butter and 200g powdered sugar, a simple sugar icing such as from my lemon olive oil cake recipe or coconut yogurt. See the post above for more suggestions.
Nutrition
This post was originally published in October 2019 and has been updated several times since then.
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Hi, great recipe! I like adding some cocoa and more spices, it's delicious:)
Do you think I can make this cake in the bigger cake pan?
That's great to hear San! Yes, this cake will work in a bigger round cake pan or a bigger loaf pan. My apple crumble cake is almost the same recipe in an 8-inch round cake pan so if you use an even larger one, it'll just be thinner :).
Omg, this is seriously the best and easiest cake recipe I ever tried!!! The cake turned out sooo moist and fluffy, I already baked it twice and everyone who tried was super stoked! I used the Gramm measurements and topped it with an icing I made from apple juice, icing sugar and ground cinnamon- delicious!!! Thanks again for the recipe!
Aw what a compliment!!! I'm so so happy that you enjoyed this cake. I fell in love with your icing on Instagram and want to try it next time! Thanks so much for your feedback Lissi x
Made this vegan apple cake for a charity bake sale. Also made it gluten free. Used hald gluten free flour and half ground almonds, also added a hand full of desiccated coconut. I didn’t try it by my colleagues loved it,
That's great to hear Lesley, thank you so much for letting me know!
Excellent recipe. Struggled with other vegan cakes but this is fabulous. I used Spelt flour and 100g brown stevia granular sweetener instead of sugar - was spot on!
Thank you!
Aw, I'm glad that you had success with this recipe Sue! And it's wonderful that you enjoyed it with brown stevia sweetener too. Thanks for your feedback :).
I made this today and it was very good. I added some fresh ginger and nutmeg because I love spices. I’ll add this recipe to my collection. Thank you for the recipe
I love the sound of the extra ginger and nutmeg, yum! Thanks so much for your comment Cassia!
It was easy to make and super Tasty. I used spelt flour as an alternative. Next Time i want to use less sugar. Thank you!
That's wonderful that you enjoyed this with spelt flour Silvia :). Thanks so much for letting me know!
Thank you for this recipe, so easy, simple handy ingredients and smells amazing. Will definitely be making this my go-to apple loaf/cake.
I'm so glad you enjoyed this recipe Nikki! Thanks so much for your feedback 🙂
We have to be gluten-free. So just wondering....in many of your recipes you say to substitute with a gluten-free flour. Just which gluten free flour blend do you use? (I have most all of the !) Being gluten free and vegan both is a toughy with recipes. THANKS
Hi Patricia! The gluten-free flour blend I use includes maize, tapioca, rice flour and xantham gum. It's a common (and cheap) one from my supermarket in Australia and works well when combined with almond flour. With this apple bread, I know that combination works :). Alternatively, a few of my readers have successfully used Bob Red Mills 1:1 flour with many of my recipes. I hope that helps!
Hello!
I’ve made this one already and it was outstanding!!
I’m making another batch, but realized I’ve ran out of my DF milks. I have canned coconut milk. Have you ever used the white thick coconut milk in your recipes?
Also have you made this Recipe into muffins before? If so how much time did you bake for?
I'm so glad you enjoyed this! Yes, I've baked with the white thick coconut milk. It depends on the fat percentage but I usually use roughly 1-2 tbsp of the thick white cream to 1 cup (240g) water (and mix it before using it in a recipe). If I use the liquid canned coconut milk, I use 2-4 tbsp. It doesn't sound like much but it shows how diluted drinkable coconut milk is!
And yes, I'm actually making this recipe into muffins right now haha! I made 10 muffins and baked it for around 30 minutes. But if you make the standard 12, you'll probably only need to bake it for 20-25 minutes. Hope that helps!