This sourdough apple loaf is an excellent addition to the breakfast menu. Made with goodness of tart granny smith apple, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger with touch of sourdough discard.
Little bit history of using apple in quick bread.
Apple has been a popular ingredient in quick bread recipes for years, and its use can trace back to the tradition of making various fruit breads and cakes.
Early American Cooking: In colonial America, apples were a widely available fruit, and they are used in a variety of recipes, including baked goods.
Apple-based breads and cakes made in homes, especially during the fall when apples were in season. These early recipes served as precursors to the modern apple quick bread.
19th Century Cookbooks: Apple recipes, including those for apple bread, began to appear in American cookbooks in the 19th century.
These recipes often called for simple ingredients like apples, flour, sugar, and spices. Apples are not only used for their flavor but also for their ability to add moisture and sweetness to baked goods.
Depression Era: During the Great Depression in the 1930s, when resources were scarce, quick bread recipes gained popularity because they were economical and did not require yeast.
Apples, being affordable and readily available, and incorporated into these recipes to make them more flavorful and nutritious.
Post-World War II Era: After World War II, there was a surge in the popularity of quick and easy recipes, and apple bread continued to be a favorite. With the advent of electric mixers and more accessible ovens, baking at home became easier and more common.
Modern Variations: Today, there are countless variations of apple quick bread, including those with added ingredients like nuts, raisins, and spices. Few recipes use applesauce or grated apples to infuse moisture and flavor, while others incorporate diced or sliced apples for texture and sweetness.
In summary, the use of apples in quick bread recipes has a long history in American and Western cooking.
Apples were a versatile and accessible ingredient that added flavor, moisture, and sweetness to these baked goods. Over time, the tradition of making apple quick bread has evolved and now addition of sourdough starter/ discard makes it more versatile, with various recipes and variations emerging to suit different tastes and preferences.
Here are few apple recipes you can try ,Easy Cranberry Apple Muffins Sourdough Apple Oatmeal Muffins #MuffinMonday, Apple Pie Sourdough Bread
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How to make this sourdough apple loaf
You need the following ingredients to make sourdough apple loaf..
- All purpose flour: I have made the apple loaf with all-purpose flour; you can use whole wheat flour or any other whole grain flour.
- Sourdough starter: I used bread flour: rye flour 70-30% sourdough starter combo. If you don’t have one in hand, make one use this recipe.
- Salt: Will add flavor to the dough and it controls the rate of fermentation well.
- Apples: Granny smith apples used in this as they retain the shape after baking.
- Sugar: Both granulated sugar and brown sugar in this recipe
- Spices: Apples go well with cinnamon, nutmeg , ginger, and vanilla extract so I used that.
- Butter: I used unsalted butter. If you use salted butter remove the salt from the recipe.
- Leavener: This recipe uses both baking soda and baking powder as apple slices tend to make heavy loaf
- Eggs: adds moisture content to quick loaf
- Milk: Tend to make soft quick bread.
See recipe card for quantities.
Instructions to make this sourdough apple loaf
First mix in all the dry ingredients such as flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and spices .
Dry ingredients
Wet ingredients
Dough with apple brownsugar cinnamon mix
Place into oven at 350 fahrenheit and bake
Then cream the butter and granulated sugar and gradually add eggs and sourdough starter and milk and vanilla extract.
Then incorporate dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
Finally fold in apples with brown sugar and cinnamon including its juices.
Bake and enjoy
Variations to sourdough apple loaf
Sourdough apple loaf can be made with additon of dryfruits and nuts like raisins and pecans instead of apple.
Instead of chopped apple slices you can use grated apples too in this recipe.
You can also swap butter with butter- oil combo.
This is slightly sweet apple loaf increase amount of sugar for more sweetness.
Storage
This sourdough apple loaf will stay fresh at room temperature for about 2 days. Refrigerate the loaf for a week in an airtight container. If you want more storage time. Slice them and freeze.
Top tip
You need to use apples that retain the shape after baking like granny smith or pink lady .
If you want, you can use apple pie spice mix instead of adding individual spices.
Both sourdough starter and discard will work for this recipe.
FAQ
Can I make this apple loaf with brown sugar only? yes you can make this sourdough apple loaf with brown sugar.
I have made with sourdough apple loaf for this month bread bakers event.
BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page.
We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient
.
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Sourdough Apple Loaf
Equipment
- loaf tin
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups /219g all-purpose flour
- ½ cup sourdough starter /discard
- 1 teaspoon / 3g baking powder
- ½ teaspoon /2g baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened.
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup brown sugar I used light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups 200g/ apple peeled, cored, and chopped apples (about 1 large apples)
- ½ cup milk
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C) and grease a 9x5-inch (23x13 cm) loaf pan.
- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, ground ginger and ground nutmeg. Set it aside.
- In a small bowl add apple, brown sugar and ½ teaspoon cinnamon and mix well and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together the softened butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. You can use an electric mixer for this step.
- Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla extract.
- Then add milk and sourdough starter/ discard and mix well.
- Gradually add the dry ingredient mixture to the wet ingredients, mixing until just combined. Do not overmix.
- Gently fold in the chopped apple-cinnamon brown sugar mixture ( reserve 2 tablespoons apple mixture for the topping).
- Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and spread it evenly.
- Bake in the preheated oven for about 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, with a few moist crumbs attached.
- Remove the apple loaf from the oven and let it cool in the pan for about 10-15 minutes. Then, transfer it to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Once the apple loaf has cooled, you can slice it and enjoy!
Video
Nutrition
This is Swathi ( Dr. Ambujom Saraswathy Ph.D) from Zesty South Indian Kitchen who loves to explore cuisines from all over the world. Whenever possible I try to to give an Indian touch to several of the world cuisine, and has weakness for freshly baked bread. All the recipes you see here are created by me and approved after taste-test by my family.
Anonymous says
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Anonymous says
This worked exactly as written, thanks!
Donna H says
Made your Sourdough Apple Loaf this morning. It has cooled and just had a slice. Excellent! I added walnuts to the apples and baked as directed. This recipe is a keeper! Looking forward to making more of your recipes. Need to use my discard!
DeeDee says
Do you have any other recipes with sourdough and using monk fruit sugar? Could this recipe sub with white monk fruit sugar and brown monk fruit sugar?
Swathi says
Yes you can add brown monk fruit sugar to this recipe. I have only tried Sourdough banana bread with monk fruit sugar.
Linda says
Thank you for this recipe. Both my sister and I have each made this recipe a multiple of times since finding the recipe about six weeks ago. We sometimes add craisins and walnuts, or walnuts and more apple. It has become a favorite of our families. It tastes like fall!
Sneha Datar says
What a deliciously baked bread!
Karen's Kitchen Stories says
I'm always looking for ways to use up sourdough. Too often I have to toss it out! This is fabulous.
Radha says
I love the flavor profile of this bread! This can be a great one for our breakfast!
Kari says
How much brown sugar? It’s not included in the ingredient list but is used in the directions.
Swathi says
1/3 cup( 67g Brown sugar)
Kelly says
It looks just delightful! Always happy to have more sourdough discard recipes.
Wendy Klik says
Yes please, and a refill on my coffee too while we visit.