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This easy dutch apple bread recipe will be a huge hit with your family. If you’re growing a bunch of baking apples or you’re headed to the orchard to pick them this cinnamon apple bread with its crispy brown sugar topping is one of the best ways to use fresh apples!
This apple quick bread has everything you love in three fabulous layers. A soft tender quick bread full of cinnamon apples is topped with crumbly brown sugar streusel topping and baked up to perfection. Then it’s drizzled with vanilla cream icing for the ultimate fall bread recipe.
Whether you’re baking for your family or for friends they’re going to love this sweet and seasonal Dutch Apple Bread. You could make this into smaller loaves to share with friends. Or serve it for brunch with coffee! This bread fits in everywhere and is the perfect way to say I love you!
easy apple bread ingredients
One of the best things about this recipe is that you don’t need any special ingredients, well beyond the apples anyway, they’re the only thing that’s special here! You need basic ingredients for this quick bread, such as:
Bread ingredients:
- Softened or room temperature Butter
- white Sugar
- Eggs
- Vanilla extract
- all-purpose flour
- Salt
- Baking powder
- Cinnamon
- Nutmeg
- Baking apples–you need firm apples for this bread recipe-think granny smith apples, pink lady apples, Honeycrisp apples
- Pecans
Streusel ingredients:
- Cold butter
- Flour
- Brown sugar
- Cinnamon
Icing Ingredients:
- Butter
- Milk
- Vanilla
- Powdered sugar
Tools needed to make this bread
The best part of this recipe is that you don’t need ANY special tools for this bread.
- Large mixing bowl
- Medium mixing bowl
- Small mixing bowl
- Bread pan
- Cooling rack
- Whisk
- Mixer, either a stand mixer or hand mixer
- Spatulas or wooden spoons
- parchment paper
Best Apples for this easy apple bread recipe
You know I have things to say about the best apples for baking! You have to know what kind of apples to get or else you’re going to end up with soggy messy bread. Or Dutch Apple Pie. Or Apple Pie Cookies.
Here’s a great write up about different kind of apples. I refer to it again and again. I think you might find it handy as well.
Baking apples are SO important in this recipe. You can’t use any mushy mealy soft apples. If you’re at the store ask the produce manager which of their apples are the best for baking. Likewise, if you’re at an orchard and ask them to send you in the direction of the baking apples.
You have to start with a firm baking apples such as a Granny Smith, a Gala, Pink Lady, or even a Honeycrisp. These are all apples that hold up their shape when you bake with them. But likely you’ll find more apples that fit the bill out in the stores or orchards!
See those big pieces of apples in the bread? That’s what you’re looking for when the apples are baked.
Soft apples have their place in the world! They make wonderful apple sauces, they can be nice for small kids to eat as they are not crispy or crunchy, and they’re generally easy to eat. I also, and this is the rebel in me, add 1-2 softer apples to my apple pies. I love the contrast of the softer apples as they melt into the filling. But that’s me!
How to store your apple bread
You can store this apple bread uncovered for the first 12 hours. After that, you should store it loosely covered with aluminum foil or plastic wrap on a plate in a cabinet. You can put it in an airtight container or bag if you need to but that will hasten the bread getting soggy.
You know we love other fall-forward easy recipes!
- Apple Tart
- Apple Pie Cookies
- Apple Cinnamon Baked Doughnuts
- Apple Pie Dessert Board
- Caramel Apple Doughnuts
- Easy Pear Martini
Easy Dutch Apple Bread
This easy apple bread recipe makes a loaf with 3 layers of deliciousness. The bottom is the apple bread layer, then a streusel layer, and finally comes the vanilla cream icing!
Ingredients
Streusel
- 3 Tablespoons cold butter
- 1/3 cup of all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 tsp cinnamon
Apple Bread
- 1/2 softened room temperature butter
- 1 cup white sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup milk
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1 1/2 cup peeled and chopped crisp baking apples, use baking apples such as honeycrisp, granny smith or pink lady, or other firm apples
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans
Vanilla Cream Icing
- 1 TBSP melted butter
- 1 TBSP milk
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- preheat the oven to 315°
- grease a 9x5 loaf pan, you can also line it with parchment after greasing, set aside
- make the streusel: mix the cold butter, flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon together until crumbly set aside in the refrigerator
- For the bread: cream butter and sugar in a large bowl on medium speed together until light
- beat in the eggs, and vanilla
- once they're incorporated beat in the milk, then set the bowl aside
- in a medium bowl mix the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg
- then stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients
- stir in the apples and the chopped pecans
- scrape into the prepared baking pan and level gently
- sprinkle with the cold streusel
- baked in the preheated oven for 60-70 minutes
- when a toothpick comes out clean it's baked through
- leave to cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes in the pan, then gently ease it out of the pan and cool completely before icing
- make the icing by mixing the melted butter, milk, and vanilla together
- stir in the powdered sugar until smooth
- drizzle the icing over the cooled loaf and let it set up before slicing
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