Vegan Apple Pie Bread

This vegan apple pie bread is rich, dense, and full of sweet apples and cinnamon spice flavor. All your favorite apple pie flavors in an easy to make bread with just 8 healthy ingredients! Gluten free and fruit sweetened.

So it’s no secret that I’m a cake girl when it comes to dessert, over pretty much anything else. Don’t get me wrong, I love pretty much anything sweet (so long as it’s vegan, of course). But if it comes down to choosing between cake and something like pie, I’m going with cake every time.

For the longest time, I thought I hated pie. Something about soggy bottom crust (what a gross trio of words), too crispy outer crust, and sickly sweet filling kinda just turned me off, to the point that I’d rather have nothing than pie. Fortunately, last year around thanksgiving I gave pie another chance. I’m SO happy I did, because we ended up with three absolute gems: apple crumb, pumpkin, and chocolate pudding.

I don’t mean to like, pat myself on the back too much here, but those pies legit BLEW MY MIND. I mean, chocolate pudding pie?! The stuff my chocoholic dreams are made of. I may or may not be drooling just thinking about it.

ANYWAY, this excessively long, rambling intro does have a point – I like pie a lot more than I thought I did. Turns out I just prefer a more chewy, cookie-like crust, and of course, vegan + healthy ingredients.

This vegan apple pie bread is inspired by that caramel apple crumb pie recipe, because I’m still letting apple have its moment in September before all things pumpkin explode here on the blog. We’ve had simple and quick overnight oats, a more dessert-appropriate 4 ingredient apple crumble, and today, we’re making apple pie bread! All the classic apple pie flavors you love in a simple, one bowl, 8 ingredient bread.

Ingredients for vegan apple pie bread

• Rolled oats: You’ll leave some whole for the crumb topping, and blend some to flour consistency, which will hold the bread together. Because it’s the only grain in the recipe, the oat flour will give the bread quite a dense, rich texture – it’s not light like a cake, but hearty and satisfying.
• Cinnamon: the warming spice bring out the classic fall flavor and goes so well with apples.
• Applesauce: unsweetened applesauce gives a bit more apple flavor and helps keep the bread moist and soft.
• Medjool dates: you’ll make date paste by blending the dates (make sure to remove the pits first) with hot water. Dates give the bread its natural, caramel-like sweetness, totally from fruit.
• Ground flaxseed: you’ll make flax eggs, which helps thicken the batter and hold the bread together.
• Vanilla extract: a little vanilla complements the apple and cinnamon flavor.
• Nondairy milk: the liquid brings the batter together. I always use unsweetened almond milk, but any nondairy milk should work.
• Apple: you’ll chop it into very small pieces and mix into the batter, which ensures you get apple in every bite.

Tips for making vegan apple pie bread

• Measure the rolled oats before blending into flour. I always list the amount of oats used BEFORE they’re blended for flour. So in this case, you’ll measure out 2 cups of whole, rolled oats, then put those 2 cups into your blender to make flour.
• Peel the apple or leave the skin on, depending on your preference, then chop into small pieces. Apple goes in the bread batter as well as the crumb topping. I used two small apples altogether, and it’s totally up to you whether you peel them or not (I did). Either way, dice them into small pieces so that they aren’t still crunchy after baking.
• Let it cool completely. Let the vegan apple pie bread cool for at least 30 minutes before carefully turning it out of the pan, then let it sit and cool completely before slicing. It is pretty soft and gooey as is, but will firm up during the cooling process. If you slice too early, you’ll have a mess.

This vegan apple pie bread is rich, dense, and full of the addictive fall combination of apples + cinnamon. All the apple pie flavor you love, without the multiple steps and time required to make an actual pie. It’s perfect for breakfast, a snack, or dessert! Also, if you want to take it to a whole other level, slather on some peanut butter or a drizzle of vegan yogurt. SO good.

I can speak from experience when I say that if you have an apple pie-loving husband (or friend/family member) in your house, this bread definitely won’t last long.

Xo,

Sara