Celebrate apple season with this delicious treat: a country apple fritter bread spiced with cinnamon with a sweet glaze drizzled all over. It's a fabulous gift and an absolutely delicious addition to your holiday table!
Love autumn baking? Me, too! Try my apple crumble cake, super moist pumpkin bread, and apple butter babka bread.

Easy Autumn Apple Quick Bread
If y'all don't know, I like to do the Oprah thing: I. Love. Bread.
Any type of bread, but I especially love a quick bread recipe around fall and the holidays since they're easy to give out as gifts! We find ourselves lucky to live on the outskirts of a small town, and they are very holiday-forward.
The weekly farmers' market in town square has stall from one of the local Amish communities that makes some absolutely delicious apple fritter bread for sale this time of year along with the fresh apple cider they pass out to everyone.
After a few tips from a sweet lady over apple cider, I have a seriously great recipe for an easy and delicious apple fritter loaf.
What exactly is it? Apple fritter bread is a sweet dessert bread filled with the classic fall flavors of apples and cinnamon!

It literally tastes just like fried apple fritters, minus the hot oil. Full of fresh apple chunks I absolutely love the caramelized apple layer on top of the bread, and we have cinnamon sugar apples swirled throughout the sweet bread itself.
If you are a novice at making homemade bread and want an easy autumn recipe that's a fabulous hostess gift for Thanksgiving, you're not going to be disappointed in this delicious amish apple fritter bread.
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Why You'll Love this Easy Apple Fritter Bread Recipe
- No Fancy Equipment Required - No need to cream granulated sugar and butter until light and fluffy, or cook up an apple pie filling, this apple cinnamon bread is a very easy recipe!
- Simple, Fresh Ingredients - Classic baking ingredients, fresh apples, and plenty of warm spice is all you need.
- Fabulous Make Ahead Recipe - Make this bread up to 2 days before Thanksgiving or another occasion or freeze it months ahead and thaw!
- Comforting Fall Flavors - if you like apple fritters and apple pie, you're going to be obsessed with this apple bread recipe. The warm cinnamon and the tart granny smith apples, then the brown sugar brings a slight molasses flavor, it's all comes together so well!
Equipment
- Mixing bowls - what else will we be mixing in?!
- Wire rack - cool your apple loaf completely on a wire rack, it allows airflow all around.
- Small pitcher - use this to pour the powdered sugar glaze over your delicious apple bread.
- A Loaf Pan - use a 8x4, 9x5 or the one I'm using, the Nordicware Harvest Bounty.
- Nonstick baking spray - use this to prepare your pan or use homemade magic cake release.
- Cake Tester - I love this cake tester so much! It changes colors when your cake is ready.
Ingredients
Full ingredients, measurements, and printable instructions are in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
- All Purpose Flour.
- Pure Vanilla Extract - use the good vanilla, as Ina Garten says.
- Light Brown Sugar - brown sugar is made with granulated sugar and molasses, which gives our batter a deeper flavor
- Fresh Apples - tart apples work really well to balance out the sweetness, but use your favorite baking apple otherwise.
- Vegetable Oil - I don't like using butter in these types of recipes. Why? Butter hardens up when it is refrigerated, and the same happens in baked goods that need to be stored there.
- Ground Ginger and Cinnamon - a little cinnamon and ginger goes a long way in this recipe.
- A Large Egg - just like everything else, you want your egg at room temperature!
- Baking Soda - especially if you're running into the fall/holiday season as you read this: get fresh baking soda (and baking powder!)! They both lose potency over a lifespan of about 6 months. Can't remember the last time you bought that baking soda? Get a new one, that old one may ruin your baked goods.
- Sour Cream - this is what keep the bread (which is more like a cake, really) super moist!
- Powdered Sugar - needed for the glaze.
- Whole Milk - if you don't have whole milk, cream or non-dairy milk will work fine for the glaze.
How to Make the Best Homemade Amish Apple Fritter Bread

Step 1 | stir together ginger, chopped apples, brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.

Step 2 | Whisk together all the wet ingredients in a large mixing bowl until smooth.

Step 3 | whisk in dry ingredients until the flour mixture almost completely combined with the wet ingredients.

Step 4 | gently fold in most of the cinnamon and apple mixture until the dry ingredients are completely combined.

Step 5 | you're going to take the remaining apple mixture and make a layer on the top of your apple fritter bread. This particular loaf pan (the Nordicware Harvest Bounty Loaf Pan) is upside down, so the top of the bread is under the batter, then flipped once baked.
If you have a regular loaf pan, do this step after your pour in the batter.

Step 6 | pour the bread batter into your prepared loaf pan and give a few careful drops onto your countertop to let any big bubble rise to the surface and pop. If you're using a regular loaf pan, top your batter with the remaining chunks of apple now.
Bake in your preheated oven for 50-55 minutes or until a cake taster poked into the center comes out clean with few crumbs, and let cool in the pan for at least 2 hours before removing from the pan onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Whisk together the glaze ingredients to a smooth consistency and drizzle over your apple fritter bread before slicing and serving.
Variations and Pro Baking Tips
- You can make this an apple cake by using a 6 cup bundt pan, bake until the internal temperature of the cake is 200 degrees F (I learned that trick from I Am Baker!). So make sure you have a thermometer handy.
- Use your favorite baking apples. Baking apples are those that can hold up to heat and cooking without turning to mush: my personal faves are Empire, Pink Lady, Granny Smith, and Honeycrisp.
- Make a yummy streusel crumble to top your bread instead of the cinnamon sugar apples.
- This recipe works in an 8x4 inch loaf pan, a 9x5 inch loaf pan, and in the 10.1x5.7x3.2 loaf pan I used.
- Ran out of brown sugar? I have a DIY brown sugar recipe that works wonders!

Storage, Freezing, and Thawing Instructions
Let the apple fritter bread cool completely to room temperature before wrapping the cooled bread in plastic wrap and placing in a gallon-sized zip top or airtight container. It'll last for two days on the countertop or for 1 week in the fridge.
To freeze: Once the bread is completely cooled down, wrap it in many layers of plastic wrap, then put it in a freezer-safe zip-top bag. It'll stay good for up to 3 months.
To thaw: let the bread thaw on the counter overnight until it is room temperature and ready to eat.
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📖 Recipe

Amish Apple Fritter Bread
Celebrate apple season with this delicious treat: a country apple fritter bread covered in a sweet glaze. It's a fabulous gift and an absolutely delicious addition to your holiday table!
Ingredients
- 3 medium baking apples, peeled and chopped
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- 1 heaping teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- ⅓ cup white granulated sugar
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- ¼ cup full-fat sour cream, room temperature
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoon milk
Instructions
Make Apple Fritter Bread
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare your loaf pan with nonstick spray or cake release.
- In a medium mixing bowl, mix the chopped apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, and ginger together. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the egg, granulated sugar, vegetable oil, sour cream, and vanilla extract until well combined.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and kosher salt, then add it to the bowl of wet ingredients. Use a rubber spatula or wooden spoon to mix the in dry ingredients until almost completely mixed in.
- Fold in ¾ the amount of the apple-cinnamon mixture into the batter, then pour into your prepared loaf pan.
- Top the apple fritter bread with the remaining apple chunks and bake for 50-55 minutes, or until the internal temperature is 200 degrees F.
Make the Powdered Sugar Glaze
- In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and milk until it comes to a smooth consistency.
- Pour the glaze over the fritter bread generously before serving.
Notes
Variations and Pro Tips
You can make this an apple cake by using a 6 cup bundt pan, bake until the internal temperature of the cake is 200 degrees F. So make sure you have a thermometer handy.
Use your favorite baking apples. Baking apples are those that can hold up to heat and cooking without turning to mush: my personal faves are Empire, Pink Lady, Granny Smith, and Honeycrisp.
This recipe works in an 8x4 inch loaf pan, a 9x5 inch loaf pan, and in the 10.1x5.7x3.2 loaf pan I used.
Storage, Freezing, and Thawing Instructions
Let the apple fritter bread cool completely to room temperature before wrapping in plastic wrap and placing in a gallon-sized zip top. It'll last for two days on the countertop or for 1 week in the fridge.
To freeze: Once the bread is completely cooled down, wrap it in many layers of plastic wrap, then put it in a freezer-safe zip-top bag. It'll stay good for up to 3 months.
To thaw: let the bread thaw on the counter overnight until it is room temperature and ready to eat.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 193Total Fat: 6gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 19mgSodium: 169mgCarbohydrates: 33gFiber: 1gSugar: 24gProtein: 2g
All nutrition facts are estimations. Please see a physician for any health-related inquiries.

Eden Westbrook is the recipe developer, writer, and photographer behind Sweet Tea and Thyme. A classically trained chef, Eden has inspired home cooks into the kitchen with cultural comfort foods, easy family-friendly eats and sweets, and glorious spreads for date night and entertaining since 2015.
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