Apple Fritter Bread – A Farm Farm Bistro Favourite

This easy-to-make Apple Fritter Bread is a fantastic combination of our favourites – apples & cinnamon – in a sliceable loaf, perfect for with afternoon coffee, as dessert as is or with ice cream, or, let’s be honest, even for breakfast!

I love apple fritters of all kinds. The big apple fritter doughnuts with luscious chunks of apple and the apple rings coated in fritter batter and fried. But the challenge is, they are all deep-fried. And while I like a deep-fried treat, I don’t like deep-frying at home all the time. So when I heard about the Country-style Apple Fritter Bread trend going around, I was all over finding, testing and working out a recipe that would give me all the flavour and textures I want, but in a baked version.

After the live apple tasting and work I did with Ontario Apple Farmers, I was also getting regular requests for my apple fritters from the staff at the farm. But I didn’t want to be standing over a pot of oil deep-frying them. So, I needed to find an apple treat that would make us all happy.

Found one! This Apple Fritter Bread is outstanding! There were a number of recipes floating around the internet and after some tweaks and testing, this combines the best of those and some tricks I’ve learned making apple fritters to create what has become an absolute favourite here.

In fact, this bread is so good, be prepared to make a second batch the next day.

Yield: 2 8x4 loaves, 1 9x5 loaf or 16 Muffins

Farm Farm Bistro Apple Fritter Bread

The Farm Farm Bistro Apple Fritter Bread is an easy, flavourful treat that is practically good for you!

This is a very easy recipe even though there are multiple mixtures to prepare. However it uses a bunch of small bowls, so make sure you have 3-4 ready to use.

Depending on the size of your loaf pan this will make either 2 8x4 loaves or 1 9x5 loaf or 16 muffins.

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Ingredients

Apple Mixture

• 2 apples
• 2T brown sugar
• 1t cinnamon

Flour Mixture

• 1.5c flour
• 1.75t baking powder
• 1/2t salt

Brown Sugar Mixture

• 1/4c brown sugar
• 1t cinnamon
• 1/4t nutmeg

Fritter Batter Base

• 2/3c sugar
• 1/2c butter
• 2 eggs
• 1.5t vanilla
• 1/2c milk (substitute 1/2c apple cider for extra flavour punch)

Apple Fritter Bread Glaze

• 2c icing sugar
• 1/2t cinnamon
• 1/4t nutmeg
• 1/4c apple cider (but you can use milk if you don't have cider)

Instructions

Prep

1. preheat oven to 350°
2. line loaf pan with parchment paper
3. get out your bowls, you'll need - apples in one 2-cup bowl, flour mixture in another 2-cup bowl, brown sugar mixture in a 3rd small bowl (1/2 cup), and finally a 4-cup bowl for the batter. (Yes this is a bowl intensive recipe)

Make the Apple Mixture

1. prep apples - apples can be used with our without peel (I like the peel because it's extra flavour and nutrients)
2. dice apples - cut into anything from a fine dice to 1/4" chunks, depending on your preference. I prefer the chunks, but there's no need to be fussy. (Bigger than 1/2" make it harder to fully incorporate into a uniform loaf)
3. add 2T brown sugar and 1t cinnamon to the apples. Set aside.

Make the Flour Mixture

1. mix flour, baking powder and salt together. Set aside

Make the Brown Sugar Mixture

1. combine 1/4c brown sugar with 1t cinnamon and 1/4t nutmeg. Set aside.

Make the Glaze

I usually make the glaze while the Apple Fritter Bread is baking, but you can prepare it ahead of time if you want (and the recipe reads better if I put this here in prep),

1. make your glaze by combining icing sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and apple cider. You can use milk or apple juice or even rum instead of cider if you don't have any cider available. Each gives you a rich glaze with different flavours.

Make the Fritter Batter

1. in another bowl, cream 2/3c sugar and butter together
2. add 2 eggs and vanilla to the butter-sugar mixture and mix thoroughly. (if you can mix until it's almost fluffy, that's great, but I often do this by hand... so mixed thoroughly will do)
3. mix the milk and flour mixture to make a thick batter. (You can add them slowly alternating wet and dry, or just dump them all together depending on your mood. Honestly, I usually dump.)

Assemble

Next is the fun part of adding the cake to the pan, layering and swirling (who doesn't love swirling!)

Layering your Apple Fritter Bread

1. add 1/3 of the batter to the bottom of your pan
2. layer on 1/3 of the apple mixture
3. top with 1/3 of the brown sugar mixture
4. at this point, you can leave the loaf and you'll get a more definitive layered loaf. Or you can swirl the layers a bit to get more mixture in the loaf. Both are good.
5. Repeat steps 13 to 16 2 more times, finishing with the brown sugar layer.

Bake Time at 350°

1. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean.
2. Depending on your pan size, your bake times are approximately
   9x5 loaf pan = 50-60 minutes,
   8x4 loaf pan = 30-40 minutes,
   Muffins = 15-20 minutes

Glazing

1. when done baking, rest on a rack for 5-10 minutes before glazing.
2. let glaze set for 10 minutes before serving.

Notes

In my experience, one batch of Apple Fritter Bread lasts about 24 hours. It's THAT good.

I've included lots of variation in here, because that's the fun part of baking. And makes the 2nd batch interesting and allows you to customize a bit for your own palate and family.

You can use apple cider, apple juice or milk as the liquid in every step of this.

For the glaze you can substitute any liquid too, just make sure it tastes good with apples - so milk, cider, apple juice, or go boozy with rum, bourbon or calvados.

One of the great things about this quick bread is that with some minor tweaks, you can easily turn this base recipe into a number of different sweet breads and loaves. And you all know how much I like “little tweaks” that result in brand new recipes.

Apple Fritter Bread Variations:

Oatmeal Apple Fritter Bread

Add 1/3 of a cup of small flake rolled oats to the brown sugar mixture.

Lactose-Free Apple Fritter Bread

Substitute apple cider or almond milk for the milk in the batter recipe, using the same amount of liquid.

Pear-Fritter Bread

Substitute pears for the apples one-to-one, and remove the nutmeg.

Apple Nut Coffee Cake

Add 1/2c of nuts (walnuts, pecans, pistachios) to the apple mixture.

Less-Sugar Apple Fritter Bread Options.

It’s fairly easy to drop the sugar in this recipe using one, or all of the following approaches:

1. don’t glaze the cake – it’s lovely as is, without the glaze. In fact, about 50% of the time, I make it without the glaze myself.
2. reduce or eliminate the brown sugar mixture – it makes for a nice apple loaf cake which is noticably less sweet.
3. substitute another sweetener like honey or maple syrup – this approach is more about avoiding refined sugar, rather than to reduce the sweetness.

I hope you give this recipe a try and let me see your results. Drop a comment below and tag me @lexnger #unsweetenedca if you post on Instagram.