This truly is the BEST Caramel Apple Bread ever! Moist, soft and tender cinnamon-spiced bread studded with fresh apples, a brown sugar streusel, and lots of caramel!
It’s official: I’m a book hoarder.
It’s become really bad, you guys. While I wrote my first 2 books, I didn’t have time to read at all. My stack of magazines – which usually was plowed through within a few days – was back-piled for months. And I still bought novels and memoirs, thinking that I’d get around to reading them but never did.
They don’t tell you that writing a book is all-consuming, because it is!
So now I’m done writing and I continue to buy novels and memoirs and have my usual magazine subscriptions and I still have no time to read it all. It’s gotten to the point where it takes me forever and a day to finish reading a smaller novel, and I consider it a personal triumph when I finish a Cosmopolitan magazine.
Every month, I check out the books Cosmo recommends and without fail, I buy them all. Have I read any of them? NO. Because I’m hoping by osmosis I’ll be able to speed-read them one day… or something.
Don’t worry, though – I’m going on vacation next month and plan to pack a duffel filled with books and Christmas magazines I still haven’t read since last Christmas.
ANYWAY, I have still been ordering/reading cookbooks and came across an old employee cookbook from my mom’s work. In it was a recipe for Caramel Apple Bread which I initially made many years ago, but I realized that the photos needed updating and I wanted to bring this bread back to the foreground because it is SO. GOOD.
This bread is super fluffy, soft, and tender with a moist crumb. It’s studded with chopped apples, lots of cinnamon spice, and even has brown sugar streusel ribbons throughout. Plus, there’s caramel. Lots of it. A lot of so-called ‘caramel apple breads’ only have caramel drizzled on top. Not this bread! It has caramel on top and in the batter which imparts such a wonderful, buttery flavor.
I may be behind on reading, but don’t let yourself get behind on baking because you need this bread!
*from my mom’s employee cookbook
The Best Ever Caramel Apple Bread
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2-3 tsp ground cinnamon depending on how spicy you like it
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp ground cloves
- 2 cups peeled and coarsely chopped apples I used Granny smith and Gala
- 1/2 cup caramel sundae sauce
- FOR THE STREUSEL:
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 4 Tbsp brown sugar
- 4 Tbsp all-purpose flour
- 4 Tbsp cold butter cut into cubes
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. Liberally grease an 8" or 9" loaf pan with cooking spray; set aside.
- Cream the butter and granulated sugar together with an electric mixer in a medium bowl until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, dissolve the baking soda into the lemon juice - mixture may fizz and bubble up, this is okay. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla until combined and pour the egg mixture into the butter mixture, beating well.
- Add in the flour, salt, and spices until just barely combined - do NOT over mix. There should be lots of flour spots still throughout the batter. Fold in the apples and mix until just barely combined again. Over-mixing will lead to a tough bread or a bread that sinks in the middle once baked.
- In another medium bowl, whisk together the dry streusel ingredients. Using 2 forks or a pastry cutter, cut the cold butter into the streusel mixture until you achieve coarse crumbs. Spread HALF of the apple bread mixture into the prepared pan. Top with HALF of the streusel and a drizzle of caramel (about 1/4 cup). Repeat layers.
- Bake for approximately 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center of the bread comes out clean or with moist - not wet - crumbs. Cool completely before serving. Just before serving, drizzle with more caramel sauce.
Moist, tender Caramel Apple Bread that is sure to be a hit wherever you take it!
Have a super sweet day!
xo, Hayley
cakespy says
And here I’ve been eating regular bread sans apples or caramel, like a jerk. Time to remedy that! looks awesome 🙂
sandy says
I’m baking a bunch of different sweet breads for gift baskets this Christmas. I’m making the usual pumpkin bread, banana bread, blueberry bread. But I’m adding strawberry bread and caramel apple bread. Your recipe looks awesome! And so I will be baking it this Thursday. I’ll let you know how it turns out. Merry Christmas!!
Carolyn Vick says
Could you please explain why you dissolve the baking soda in the lemon juice rather than the usual way it is done, dry and wet mixed separately then put together? I have never seen this before so I am curious as to the why. Looking forward to hearing from you. Can’t wait to try.
thedomesticrebel says
Hi Carolyn! When you mix baking soda with an acid, it produces carbon dioxide which helps baked goods rise. Also, sometimes adding baking soda to a baked good creates a strange flavor when the recipe is heated (in this case, baked in an oven) so lemon juice can help neutralize that. Hope this helps!
Carol says
Mine turned out awful. Even though I added Apple cider. Where was the moisture supposed to come from?
Diane M. Bethea says
Carol made a very good point above, and I’m waiting for your response to it. Why IS there no liquid added to this?? Now that she’s brought up that point, I’m afraid to make it — afraid I’ll be wasting my ingredients.
thedomesticrebel says
Hi Diane, that is correct – there is no liquid added to this bread because it doesn’t need it.
Marilyn Tolan says
Am confused about the ban. Soda mixture. Do you put the egg mixture in with the back soda mixture, or add the 2 separately? I’m about ready to make it pls answer and TY
thedomesticrebel says
Hi Marilyn, I see how that could be confusing – going to edit the directions. It should work either way.
Marilyn Tolan says
How long until you remove it from the pan
thedomesticrebel says
Hi Marilyn, I like to wait until completely at room temperature.
Marilyn Tolan says
FYI. Unless youngsters than I, Don’t try to get it out of a glass loaf pan. It’s still awesome tasting, but next time I’ll leave it in the pan.
KS says
This does not create a batter like every other quickbread I have made for the past 20 years. its a crumbly dough. no way this is right.