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This easy, one-bowl Spiced Apple Bread Recipe is made with a nut-free blend of oat flour and coconut flour and stuffed full of apples and raisins. Ready in under an hour, it’s a must-make treat for fall!
Moist, sweet, and perfectly spiced, this apple cinnamon bread is gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, Paleo, and loved by everyone, gluten-free or not!
Gluten Free Apple Bread
I make this apple spice bread every fall along with apple pie and my gluten free apple galette. It’s the perfect weekend (or weeknight) baking project, especially after a day of apple picking. Combined in one bowl, it’s easy enough for littles to get involved, too!
Simple and healthy, it’s perfectly spiced with just the right amount of sweetness. Trust me. It’s one of those gluten-free recipes that nobody will even know is gluten-free at all. The bonus is that it’s nut-free, too.
I make this recipe on repeat all season long, and I have a feeling you will as well. It’s the perfect quick breakfast, snack, or dessert, and makes for a great gift for friends and family. Plus, it leaves your whole home smelling amazing and is way better than any fall scented candle.
So, what are you waiting for? Gather up your ingredients, and let’s get baking!
Ingredients NeededIngredients Needed and Substitutions
*Scroll down to the recipe card for the full recipe and ingredient list!
- Raw Sugar: This is totally optional, but we really like the crunch and extra sweetness this gives the bread!
- Raisins: Soaked in water, these stay soft and add extra sweet flavor and a slightly chewy texture.
- Eggs: These act as a binder, holding the bread together. We haven’t tested this apple cinnamon bread with egg substitutes and can’t guarantee your results if you do.
- Coconut Sugar: We prefer to use coconut sugar instead of regular sugar or brown sugar because of its lower glycemic index.
- Coconut Oil: We love the subtle coconut flavor this adds to the bread, but avocado oil or melted butter will also work.
- Oat Flour and Coconut Flour: We use a combination of flours to keep this quick bread gluten and nut-free while keeping it soft and moist. We don’t recommend substituting any other flours for this recipe, but we do have plenty of bread recipes on the site that use a different variety of flours!
- Baking Soda and Baking Powder: These act as leaveners, helping create a soft, fluffy texture. Make sure they’re fresh, or your bread won’t rise!
- Spices: Salt, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, and nutmeg create a sweet, warm taste that just screams fall. If preferred, you can substitute ground ginger with freshly grated ginger instead.
- Apples: The star of the show! Use sweet apples, and and grate them finely so they fold evenly into the batter.
The Best Apples For Apple Cinnamon Bread
For the best flavor, use apples that have a good balance of sweet and tart flavors with a fairly firm texture that won’t break down into mushy while baking. I like Honeycrisp and Fuji apples, but Gala apples and Granny Smith apples are popular options as well. Feel free to experiment to find what you like best!
How to Make This Apple Spice Bread Recipe
- Cool: Allow the apple bread to cool completely. Then, slice, and enjoy!
- Prepare: Preheat your oven to 375ºF, and grease an 8×5 baking dish. Then, line it with a parchment paper sling, and set it aside.
- Soak the raisins: Add the raisins to a heat-proof bowl, and cover them with hot water. Set the bowl aside.
- Whisk the wet ingredients: Add the eggs, coconut sugar, coconut oil, and vanilla to a large bowl, and whisk until smooth.
- Add the dry ingredients: Next, add the oat flour, coconut flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg to the bowl of wet ingredients. Use a spatula to mix until smooth. Then, drain the raisins, and gently fold them into the batter.
- Transfer: Pour the bread batter into the prepared baking dish, smoothing the top. Sprinkle the raw sugar on top if desired.
- Bake: Transfer the baking dish to the oven, placing it on the middle rack. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the bread comes out clean and the bread gently springs back when touched.
How To Measure Oat Flour
If you have an electronic kitchen scale at home, it’s best to use it here to measure. Oat flour can be tricky to measure as it can be easily compacted, even straight from the bag.
The same goes for coconut flour. A small difference in measuring can impact a recipe because coconut flour is such an absorbent flour. Therefore, we’ve included the weight in grams in the recipe card below to make measuring easy.
Any electronic kitchen scale can switch between grams and ounces, and grams are more precise. So, we’re offering that. If you don’t have a scale lightly packing the oat flour into the cup measurement gets you as close to the correct measurement as possible. For coconut flour use the spoon and level method, scooping it in the tablespoon and leveling it off.
Baking Tips and Tricks
- Let the bread cool slightly before cutting. Like any quick bread, cutting the bread too soon after taking it out of the oven with result in a bread that tastes too moist at first. Then, it will become too dry later as all the steam has escaped from the bread when it was hot. To present this, let it cool until the bread is no longer warm to the touch, about 3-5 hours.
- Measure carefully! As mentioned above, oat flour and coconut flour can be tricky to measure. So, you’ll want to use a food scale, and carefully measure the rest of the ingredients as well.
- Measure the apples. We love the idea of being able to just grate 3 apples and not worry if it will affect the final bread. However, the truth is adding too much or too little apple can impact this recipe depending on how large the apple is. We measured this by weighing out the whole apple and used about 1 pound of apples, which for us was about 3 medium-large apples. If you have 3 very large apples or 3 very small apples, it might drastically change the amount of grated apples you add in. If possible, weigh the apples first!
- Avoid overmixing. Be careful to combine the ingredients just until the bread batter is well combined. Continuing to mix can result in a dense, dry batter.
- Bake it correctly. Bake until the bread springs back lightly and there are no wet crumbs on a toothpick when it’s inserted into the middle of the bread. If you have an instant-read thermometer it should read about 200 degrees when measured from the middle of the apple bread.
FAQs
This bread is plenty flavorful all on its own. However, it’s also amazing served cold or warm topped with butter, nut butter, apple butter, or jam.
Once cool, you can store leftover apple cinnamon bread covered in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. Or, store it in the fridge for up to 1 week.
Yes! Wrap the baked apple loaf tightly in plastic wrap followed by aluminum foil, or transfer the bread to a sealable bag. It will stay fresh in the freezer for up to 2 months. If freezing slices, place pieces of parchment paper between each slice to prevent them from clumping together. Defrost at room temperature when you’re ready to serve.
More Quick Bread Recipes To Try
- Gluten Free Pumpkin Bread
- Gluten Free Banana Bread
- Gluten-Free Lemon Poppy Seed Bread
- Healthy Carrot Cake Loaf
- Paleo Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips
- Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Gluten-Free Spiced Apple Bread
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup raisins
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup coconut sugar
- ⅓ cup coconut oil melted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1-1/4 cups 150 grams oat flour (see note)
- ½ cup 48 grams coconut flour
- 1-½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1-1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger or 1” piece fresh ginger, grated
- Pinch nutmeg
- 3 peeled apples grated (16 ounces whole apple)
- 1 tablespoons raw sugar optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375ºF and grease a 8×5 baking dish and line it with a parchment paper sling. Set aside.
- Add raisins to a heat proof bowl and cover with hot water. Set aside.2/3 cup raisins
- Whisk together eggs, coconut sugar, coconut oil and vanilla extract in a bowl until fully combined.3 eggs, 1 cup coconut sugar, ⅓ cup coconut oil, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Add in oat flour, coconut flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg and mix with a spatula until smooth.1-1/4 cups 150 grams oat flour (see note), ½ cup 48 grams coconut flour, 1-½ teaspoons baking soda, 1 teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon salt, 1-1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, ½ teaspoon ground ginger, Pinch nutmeg
- Drain the raisins. Fold in raisins and apples to the batter.3 peeled apples
- Transfer batter to the prepared baking dish and smooth over the top. Sprinkle raw sugar on top, if desired.1 tablespoons raw sugar
- Bake in the middle rack for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean and the bread gently springs back when touched.
- Let the bread fully cool before slicing into it.
Notes
- We found store-bought oat flour to be work the best in this recipe because it is very fine. Homemade oat flour can work in a pinch but it may not produce exactly the same results as store-bought.
- Like any quick bread, cutting the bread too soon after taking it out of the oven with result in a bread that tastes too moist at first, and then later, one that is dry as all the steam has escaped from the bread when it was hot. Let it cool until the bread is no longer warm to the touch, about 3-5 hours.
- Store leftover apple cinnamon bread covered in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. Or, store it in the fridge for up to 1 week.
- Freeze leftovers for up to 2 months. To do so, wrap the baked apple loaf tightly in plastic wrap followed by aluminum foil, or transfer the bread to a sealable bag. If freezing slices, place pieces of parchment paper between each slice to prevent them from clumping together. Defrost at room temperature when you’re ready to serve.
Could I leave the raisins out without drastically altering the results? Or could I add more apple or to ensure a moist result?
You can leave out raisins.
So yummy – changed the recipe up a little as I didn’t have the correct flour. I used 1cup chickpea flour (instead of oat flour) and almond flour (instead of coconut flour) and skipped the raisins. So moist and yummy! Will be making again
What type of coconut oil should be used – refined or unrefined?
I’ve made this two times and will be making it again tomorrow. I use a monk fruit sweetener in place of sugar, but other than that, I follow the recipe, and it’s perfect!
Oh so happy that sub works! Great to know!
Looks so good! Could this be made into muffins?
With adjusted baking times I don’t see why not!
Substituted with flax eggs and recipe works great! Delicious! Will definitely be making it again.
Thanks so much for sharing!
I forgot to say that I added a cup of chopped walnuts, as we love nuts in everything! So yummy!
We LOVE this recipe! So delicious! I’ll be making it again for sure! It’s a little crumbly, so may try muffins next time. But the taste is perfect!
We loved this recipe. Allergy friendly and the ingredients are easily adaptable. I used honey and ghee instead of coconut sugar and coconut oil. AND I made muffins instead of bread, baked for about 20 minutes! My children enjoyed them too! The combo of oat flour and coconut flour is a winner! I’m thinking of using the base of this recipe with carrot or zucchini. Thanks Lexi!
Thank you for another great recipe ?
The bread came out moist and had a great crispy crust.
I’ve made this recipe a few different times now and it’s excellent. The texture is perfect.