Vegan Apple Bread

This incredibly soft, fluffy and moist vegan apple bread is made with only 8 ingredients and comes together in one bowl! It's delicious enjoyed by itself or with a soft dairy-free cream cheese frosting and caramelized apples. This bread can easily be made gluten-free and refined sugar-free too.

Course Breakfast, Dessert

Cuisine American, Vegan

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 55

Total Time 1 10

Servings

Calories 191

Author Anthea

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients

2 ½ cups (315g) all-purpose plain flour (note 1 for gluten free)
1 cup (200g) packed brown sugar coconut sugar or granulated sugar (note 2)
3 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt

Wet Ingredients

1 x (~180g) medium-sized apple grated very coarsely OR chopped finely (note 3)
1 cup (240g) dairy-free milk room temperature
½ cup (110g) 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 (60g) 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 (15g) vegan butter 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 just combined. Pour the batter into your prepared loaf pan and smooth the top.
Bake the apple bread for 50 minutes to 1 hour or until done. Check the bread at the 35 minute mark and if it's browning quickly on top, loosely cover it 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 moist crumbs are fine. (note 4)
Let the apple bread rest in the pan for at least 10 minutes the transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Make the 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 so if you'd like a firmer icing, double the amount of butter and add more sugar, to taste.

Make the 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:

When the apple bread has cooled down, 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. Or store individual slices of the undecorated apple bread in the freezer for up to 1 month.

Notes

Gluten-free apple bread: Substitute the flour with 1 1/2 cups (150g) almond flour and 1 cup (160g) gluten-free all-purpose flour (or fine white rice flour). Alternatively, this bread works well with King Arthur's gluten-free measure for measure flour by itself. Your batter will be thicker and I recommend baking the bread for 65-70 minutes. I don't recommend using Bob's Red Mills 1:1 gluten-free flour.
This amount of sugar creates a mildly sweet apple bread. To make the bread less sweet, use 3/4 cup (150g) of 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, add an extra 3 tablespoons (25g) of flour to the batter.
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, tent your loaf pan with aluminum foil at the beginning of baking to prevent it from burning.
The apple bread is wonderful by itself. Alternatively, you can top the bread with a simple buttercream, icing such as from my lemon olive oil cake recipe or coconut yogurt. See the post above for more suggestions.

Nutrition