This Easy and Quick Vegan Apple Bread Recipe is absolutely mouthwatering. It's healthy, vegan, gluten-free friendly and no one will ever guess! You only need a handful of simple and wholesome ingredients like oats, applesauce, and cinnamon. And, the result is a fluffy, tender, and pillowy soft of cinnamon spiced apple bread that everyone in your home will love. Option to top this delicious bread with vegan cinnamon cream frosting to make it an extra special treat.

Ingredients
- Apple Sauce: To give this healthy apple bread recipe a delicious apple flavor, we use unsweetened apple sauce.
- Butter: To keep this recipe vegan, we use vegan butter. If you are not vegan or dairy-free, feel free to use regular butter in this recipe.
- Vanilla: Vanilla pairs perfectly with the apple cinnamon flavors of this recipe.
- Maple Syrup: Maple syrup is how we naturally sweeten this delicious vegan apple bread recipe.
- Milk: To keep this recipe dairy-free, we use almond or oat milk.
- Baking Powder and Baking Soda: Gives us that fluffy bread texture.
- Cinnamon: Apples and cinnamon are a match made in heaven!
- Oats and Oat Flour: Are naturally gluten-free and healthier alternatives to flour. In this recipe, we use quick oats and oat flour. If you don't have quick oats, feel free to pulse regular old fashioned oats in a food processor to break them down a bit.
How to Make Vegan Apple Bread
This easy vegan apple bread recipe is so simple.
Step 1: Start by preheating the oven and greasing a metal loaf pan.
Step 2: Mix the wet ingredients. Then, add the baking powder, baking soda, and spices. Mix well. Add the oats and oat flour and then mix until a apple bread recipe forms (this will be similar to banana bread texture).
Step 3: Pour the batter into the loaf pan. Bake and then allow it to cool completely before serving.
Serving Options
You can enjoy this delicious and healthy vegan and gluten-free apple bread recipe several ways. The first option is to enjoy it plain and unfrosted. Don't let the word "plain" fool you, it's delicious on its own. Another option is after transferring the apple bread batter into the loaf pan, line the top of the batter with granny smith (more tart flavor) or honey-crisp (more sweet flavor) apple slices and bake.
Either of these serving options are delicious on their own or served warm with a little vegan butter on top.
Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
For a sweeter treat, turn this vegan and gluten-free apple bread into an apple cake by adding cinnamon cream cheese frosting on top. Here's what you'll need:
- Cream Cheese: I used vegan cream cheese to keep this recipe vegan and dairy-free. Regular cream cheese will work if you aren't vegan or dairy-free.
- Butter: Use vegan butter to make this cream cheese frosting perfectly creamy.
- Powdered Sugar: Powdered sugar sweetens the cream cheese icing.
- Cinnamon: For an extra apple spice
The Best Apples To Use for Apple Bread
This is an easy and quick apple bread recipe, so we use store-bought unsweetened applesauce. If I were making apple sauce for this recipe from scratch, I would use honey-crisp for a sweeter applesauce or granny smith apples for a more tart applesauce.
How To Freeze Apple Bread
Bake the apple bread until it's completely cooked and you can insert a toothpick and it will come out clean. Then, allow the vegan apple bread to cool completely. Once it's cool, wrap it in plastic wrap and freeze for 60-90 days.
Tips For The Best Apple Bread
- Mixing: Be careful not to over-mix your batter. Over-mixing can lead to bread becoming overly dense.
- Baking Dishes: Use a metal baking dish. Metal conducts heat more evenly than glass or ceramic. I recommend a 9x5 inch loaf pan. If you don't have a loaf pan, you can also use a round or square metal cake pan. If using a round or square cake pan, bake for 25-30 minutes as opposed to the full 30-40 minutes.
- Baking: Don't over-bake this apple bread recipe or it will become hard. You will know it's done when you can insert a toothpick into the center and it comes out clean.
- Serving: If you are serving your apple bread warm, I recommend spreading a little vegan butter on top. It's heavenly!
Other Vegan Bread Recipes
- Gluten Free Banana Bread
- Best Gluten-Free Pumpkin Bread
- Vegan Chocolate Banana Bread
- Moist Vegan Cornbread with Maple Syrup
- Vegan Chocolate Banana Bread
- Apple Cinnamon Rolls
Apple Bread Recipe
Ingredients
Gluten Free Vegan Apple Bread
- 1 cup unsweetened apple sauce
- ½ cup melted vegan butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ¾ cup maple syrup
- ½ cup unsweetened almond or oat milk
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ cup quick oats
- 2 ¼ cup oat flour
Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing
- 2 oz vegan cream cheese
- 2 tablespoon softened vegan butter
- ¾ cup powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Mix together the apple sauce, butter, vanilla, maple syrup, and oat or almond milk. Add baking powder, cinnamon, and baking soda. Mix.
- Add the oats and the oat flour and mix until combined. Pour the batter into a 9x5 loaf pan that has been sprayed with baking spray. Option to top with apple slices or skip if topping with the cinnamon cream cheese frosting.
- Bake for about 30-40 minutes (depending on the type of loaf pan you use and the temp. of your oven)
- To make sure it's done, do a tooth pick test. Serve immediately topped with cinnamon cream cheese icing!
Notes
Nutrition
The recipes on Peanut Butter and Jilly can easily be adapted to fit a vegan lifestyle, a gluten-free lifestyle, or both depending on the ingredients you use. Please review the ingredients lists carefully and refer to our recommendations in the Notes of the recipe card to make this recipe compatible with your needs. Nutrition information provided is an estimate, and will vary based on specific brands of ingredients used and cooking methods.
Candice says
Can this be made without the butter?
JillianGlenn says
you can try using more apple sauce or oil in place of the butter!
Ryan says
So good!!! I subbed the butter for more applesauce, and made cinnamon apples for the topping!! Will definitely make again!! Thank you!
JillianGlenn says
Thanks for trying my recipe, Ryan! Love your healthy swaps!
Quincy says
Replaced maple syrup with stevia extract (put a little less flour to compensate for consistency).
Added finely chopped apples because why not!
Added roughly chopped pecans on top.
Delish! Thank you so much for the recipe!
JillianGlenn says
Hi Quincy! Thank you for trying my recipe. I love your swaps and I'm so glad you liked it!
Nicole says
I made this with honey instead of maple syrup and it was so good!!! My hubby wanted son loved it!
Jillian Glenn says
Honey sounds amazing in this! Thanks for trying my recipe and sharing your review!
Melissa says
Can I use coconut flour ??
Jillian Glenn says
Hi there, Coconut flour is not a 1:1 substitute. I'd recommend using the flour that the recipe recommends for best results.
Alana says
Can you substitute regular flour in place of oat ? I don’t need it to be gluten free but it sounds amazing !
Jillian Glenn says
Hi there! Oat flour is delicious whether you're gluten free or not! It brings moister and richness to the recipe. I do think regular flour would work in place of the oat flour here - but may not be quite as rich 🙂
Kim says
I’m curious about the almond milk.. there are many varieties to choose from… unsweetened? Low-fat?.. etc
Jillian says
Great question! Any kind will work but I use unsweetened low-fat almond milk.
Stephanie says
How about almond flour?? What is the conversion when using that instead of oat flour?
Jillian says
Hi Stephanie, I have not tested this recipe with almond flour. I would imagine you would need to at least double up on the almond flour amount .... let me know!