Apple Cider Bread
This apple cider bread is easy to make and tastes delicious. It’s made with hard apple cider, fresh apples, and apple butter so it’s loaded with flavor. The texture is similar to yeast bread without having to use yeast and it smells amazing while it bakes.
I made a thick and crusty apple cider yeast bread the other day. This bread is prepped in five minutes and then ready to go in the oven.
It takes about an hour to bake and will fill your kitchen with a fresh-baked bread smell. It tastes amazing warm. The top crust layer is thick and crunchy, with a sweet buttery finish. The bread itself is mildly sweet and studded with tender cooked apple chunks.
Ingredients
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Granulated sugar
- Apple butter – you can use applesauce but your bread will have a little less of an apple flavor.
- Hard apple cider – you must use hard cider for this recipe to work.
- Finely diced apples
- Melted butter
The key ingredient to the bread is a hard apple cider. If you’ve ever made beer bread, it’s the same concept, using the yeast from the beverage to create a yeast bread texture.
For this bread, I used Wild Washington Apple Cider, but you can use whichever one you prefer. I added fresh apples and some apple butter to bring out the apple taste. This bread tasted delicious, especially paired with the hard ciders.
For the apples, Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, Pink Ladies, or Fuji apples would work well.
I didn’t add spices, but I think ground cinnamon, nutmeg, and/or cloves would be nice in the bread, too.
Recipe Steps
Preheat oven to 350°F and grease a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan.
Combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, apple butter, and cider in a large bowl. Mix with a wooden spoon until the ingredients are just combined. The batter will be sticky. Stir in the apples.
Brush two tablespoons of melted butter in the bottom of the prepared pan. Transfer the batter mixture to the pan and spread it into an even layer. Pour two tablespoons of melted butter over the top of the bread batter.
Bake the bread for one hour or until the top is golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Cool the bread on a wire rack before slicing and serving.
I love this apple cider bread recipe, and I may have eaten about half the loaf within a few minutes after I took these photos. It’s so easy I can see myself making it quite often, especially during the cooler months.
For this bread, I used the Wild Washington Apple Cider, but you can use whichever one you prefer. I added fresh apples and some apple butter to bring out the apple taste. This bread tasted delicious, especially paired with the hard ciders.
More Recipes to Try
Apple Cider Bread
Ingredients
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 6 tbsp granulated sugar
- 2 tbsp apple butter, you can use applesauce but your bread will have a little less of an apple flavor
- 1 1/2 cups hard apple cider, you must use hard cider for this to work
- 1 cup finely diced apples
- 2 tbsp plus 2 tbsp melted butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.
- In a medium bowl, add flour, baking powder, sugar, apple butter, and cider. Mix with a large wooden spoon until ingredients are combined. Be careful not to overmix. The batter will be sticky and not completely smooth. You want to mix until everything is incorporated and there are no flour chunks, about 20ish strokes. Stir in diced apples.
- Add 2 tbsp of melted butter to bottom of the baking pan. Scoop the bread batter into the pan, spreading evenly across. Pour remaining 2 tbsp of melted butter evenly across top of bread batter. Bake about 60 minutes. Top of bread should turn a golden brown and toothpick inserted should come out clean.
How would this recipe be different using self rising flour? I made some beer bread the other day and have some left over but want to try using a local cider instead of beer.
I have not tested it with self rising flour. It should be similar, just leave out the baking powder
Does not have sufficient apple taste.
did you use apple butter? Apple butter has a very concentrated and intense apple flavor which should provide the apple flavor in the bread.
A few things about this recipe. I changed it up a bit to fit my needs. I rarely use real butter for something I will eat since I am lactose intolerant. I used half Spanish olive oil and half Earth Balance butter spread. I also added about a haf cup more of diced apples. I used 1 teaspoon cinnamon more to the apple butter because I thought it just was not cinnamon-y enough for me. I also added raw sugar instead of white sugar and sprinkled some raw sugar on top before baking. I used a granny smith hard apple cider. It smells wonderful baking in the oven.
i’m glad you got it to work!
Sounds delicious, and if I can find hard cider locally (upstate NY) I will try it, but you said it was a yeast bread. Where’s the yeast?
the yeast is in the cider!