Apple Pumpkin Bread is a delicious quick bread recipe made with pumpkin and fresh apples! The crumbly cinnamon and sugar streusel on top adds the most amazing texture and flavor to this delicious pumpkin bread recipe.
Pumpkin Bread is a MUST as soon as fall comes around, and I have several favorite pumpkin bread recipes I like to make. One of my favorite pumpkin bread recipes actually has two types of pudding in it, and of course, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread is always a favorite too.
One of my favorite fall recipes has always been an Apple Pumpkin muffin recipe that my mom would make every year. I decided to turn that muffin recipe into a bread recipe, and oh my heavens. It’s amazing! This recipe makes two large loaves and I fully intended to give one of them away to a neighbor. And then I started eating it. We all just kept cutting off another slice and within 24 hours, both loaves were gone!
How to make the best Apple Pumpkin bread recipe:
There are a couple of tips that will help you to get the perfect pumpkin bread every time!
- Make sure to use the right bread pans! The recipe for this Apple Pumpkin Bread is written for regular sized bread pans which are 9.5″X5″. If you are using smaller pans, that’s fine! But make sure to adjust the cooking time and check on the bread regularly.
- I don’t like to use glass pans. For some reason, my bread never cooks very well. If you use non-stick pans, you won’t want to use any cooking spray, but if you are not using non-stick pans, make sure to use a baking spray like this one or line the pans with parchment paper so your bread doesn’t get stuck to the pan! There is nothing worse than making a beautiful loaf of bread and having the whole thing fall apart when you try to get it neatly out of the pan!
- Make sure to test the middle of the bread at the end of the cooking time – I like to use one of these for that! If your bread is still gooey in the middle, bake for a few more minutes. If the edges and the top are starting to look too brown and the middle isn’t done yet, go ahead and put some foil over the bread for the last few minutes of baking until the bread is done in the center. This will prevent the outside from burning, but still allow the middle to cook all the way through.
- Also, make sure that you don’t over mix the batter. You can blend the wet ingredients well and the dry ingredients as much as you want when they are separate, but once you put them together, you want to mix just enough to combine them. One way to avoid over mixing is to use a wooden spoon – you don’t need to use an electric mixer!
What apples can you use to make Apple Pumpkin Bread?
My favorite type of apple for baking (and eating!) is the Honeycrisp variety. These apples are very crunchy and they hold up well during the baking process. Sometimes the Honeycrisp apples are really expensive, but Fuji apples work really well too so that is a great alternative. You just don’t want to use a soft apple (like Red Delicious) because generally the flavor isn’t as strong and the softer apples tend to get mushier when baked.
Is Apple Pumpkin bread healthy?
Yes, there are several ways that you can make the Apple Pumpkin Bread recipe a little bit healthier.
- Go ahead and leave out some of the sugar. Maybe start with 1/2 cup and see if it’s still sweet enough. You could probably leave out a whole cup of sugar, especially if you still add the streusel on top for sweetness.
- Another easy change would be to leave the streusel off the top, although I absolutely love the texture that it adds to the bread.
- You can also swap out some or all of the oil with applesauce. This doesn’t change the taste very much but the consistency will be a little bit different. If you don’t want to change the consistency, but you don’t want to use vegetable oil, you can use coconut oil. This will add a slight coconut flavor but it’s hardly noticeable with the strong pumpkin flavor in the bread.
- Another thing you can do is replace some or all of the flour with wheat flour.
Apple Pumpkin Bread ingredients:
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 Tbsp. pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 cup pumpkin
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 cups apples, peeled and chopped (Honeycrisp and Fuji apples work best – I used 2 medium apples)
NOTE: I love the texture, consistency and flavor of the chopped apples, but my kids are a little bit pickier about having pieces of apple in their bread. One thing that I have done in the past is grate the apples instead of chop them up. This way, you can still use the apples in the recipe, but the pieces will be a lot less noticeable for anyone in your family that might be a little pickier about food texture issues!
CINNAMON SUGAR STREUSEL TOPPING:
- 2 Tbsp. flour
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
- 4 Tbsp butter, cold
Instructions on how to make Apple Pumpkin Bread:
- Mix the flour, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, salt and baking soda in a mixing bowl and set aside.
- In a separate bowl, mix the eggs, pumpkin and oil until well blended.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and mix just until combined. Gently fold in the chopped apples.
- Divide the batter in half and then pour the batter into two bread pans.
- STREUSEL TOPPING: Mix the flour, cinnamon and sugar together and then cut in the butter until mixture is crumbly. (I cut the butter in with a knife and fork, and then used the back of the fork to smash everything together and mix it better. You can also use a pastry cutter like this one if you’ve got it!)
- Sprinkle the streusel topping mixture over the batter and then bake at 350° for 55-60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle of the bread comes out clean. Let cool in the bread pans for about 20-30 minutes before removing from pans. Finish cooling on wire racks.
NOTE: You can also make this recipe into Apple Pumpkin Muffins instead of bread – the recipe is the same. Just divide the batter into 24 regular sized muffin cups and bake at 350° for 35-40 minutes.
Love pumpkin? So do we! Try some of our other favorite pumpkin recipes!
- Pumpkin Spice Cake Balls
- Pumpkin Spice Caramels
- Pumpkin Pie Dip
- Pumpkin Pretzels
- Crockpot Pumpkin Apple Butter
- Pumpkin Gingersnap Cookies
- Pumpkin Pudding Cookies
- Pumpkin Poke Cake
- Layered Pumpkin Ice Cream Dessert
- Skinny Pumpkin Cheesecake
AVOID SUNKEN BREAD
The easiest and best way to avoid sunken bread is to use a cooking thermometer to check the inside of the loaf. Fully cooked bread will register 200°F on a thermometer. My all-time favorite thermometer is the Thermapen. It’s super fast and incredibly durable. Another great cooking thermometer is the ThermoPop which is a more basic version that works just as well!
APPLE PUMPKIN BREAD
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 Tbsp. pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 2 eggs lightly beaten
- 1 cup pumpkin
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 cups apples peeled and chopped (Honeycrisp and Fuji apples work best - I used 2 medium apples)
CINNAMON SUGAR STREUSEL TOPPING:
- 2 Tbsp. flour
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
- 4 Tbsp butter cold
Instructions
- Mix the flour, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, salt and baking soda in a mixing bowl and set aside.
- In a separate bowl, mix the eggs, pumpkin and oil until well blended.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and mix just until combined. Gently fold in the chopped apples.
- Divide the batter in half and then pour the batter into two bread pans.
- Sprinkle the streusel topping mixture over the batter and then bake at 350° for 55-60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle of the bread comes out clean. Let cool in the bread pans for about 20-30 minutes before removing from pans. Finish cooling on wire racks.
STREUSEL TOPPING:
- Mix the flour, cinnamon and sugar together and then cut in the butter until mixture is crumbly. (I cut the butter in with a knife and fork, and then used the back of the fork to smash everything together and mix it better. You can also use a pastry cutter like this one if you've got it!)
Video
Notes
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Can you freeze Pumpkin Apple Bread?
You can definitely freeze this pumpkin bread recipe! Just make sure to let the bread cool completely and then wrap tightly in plastic wrap or foil before placing in a large freezer Ziplock bag. It is easier to freeze (and store) smaller loaves, so if you know you want to freeze the Pumpkin Apple Bread, you may want to consider making smaller loaves so you can fit 2-3 loaves in each Ziplock bag.
More amazing quick bread recipes that we love:
- Easy Banana Bread
- Sweet Coconut Quick Bread
- Best Zucchini Bread recipe
- Easy Lemon Quick Bread
- Yogurt Banana Bread recipe
- Dutch Apple Quick Bread
- Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Quick Bread
- Caramel Banana Nut Bread
- Best Ever Pumpkin Bread
- Lemon Buttermilk Quick Bread
- Caramel Apple Quick Bread
- Cinnamon Raisin Quick Bread
- Peppermint Chocolate Quick Bread
- Cranberry Orange Quick Bread
- Cinnamon Roll Quick Bread
- Best Zucchini Bread
Apple Pumpkin Bread is a delicious pumpkin bread recipe made with pumpkin and fresh apples! This quick bread recipe is even more amazing with a cinnamon sugar streusel on top!
Catherine Baez Sholl says
Wow, this pumpkin bread looks so moist and flavorful!
April J Harris says
What a wonderful cake! I love the idea of combining apple and pumpkin. Pinning to two boards on Pinterest. Thank you for sharing, and for being a part of the Hearth and Soul Link Party. Hope to see you again this week. Have a great week ahead!
wilhelmina says
This bread turns out so moist and delicious! A go-to recipe, for sure!
Karli says
The streusel topping is my favorite part! Solid recipe. Thanks!
Laura says
Super tasty bread! I didn’t have enough pumpkin pie spice so I winged it with apple pie spice and additional spices that make up pumpkin pie spice to equal the whole 1 Tbsp. Also, I must’ve let the butter get too warm so my struessel topping was not very crumbly. I added about 3/4 cup oats to solve that problem and it came out delish! Will definitely make this again!! Thx.
Katie says
Lovely recipe. I made modification, of course. Some based upon your suggestions.
I used 100% whole wheat flour and only 1/2 C of sugar. Instead of pink lady/fuji apples, I used granny Smith. I used a bundt cake pan.
It came out brilliantly. Thank you for sharing your recipe. It’s exactly what I was looking for.
Jessica says
You’re so welcome Katie!
Coley says
I’m wondering if you’ve ever made any of your loaf recipes in either a copper loaf pan or a stoneware four mini loaf pan, the latter of which was just given to me and I’ve never used! I’ve used my copper one before and it cooks loaves wonderfully and I imagine your loaf recipes would transfer to the stoneware with maybe a little more time. I just love any of your other recipes I’ve tried so want to try this in the stoneware.
Anna says
Can this be made into donuts?
Nellie says
Never tried donuts, but I’ve made muffins lots of times with the recipe. Please let us know if you experiment – we would love to hear how it turns out!
Kay says
PLEASE don’t rate recipes if you haven’t made them. 5 stars with a comment “oh wow – this looks great” is meaningless! Make it – then rate
Julie Brown says
I tried this recipe this rainy afternoon and let me tell you it hits the spot with a good cup of coffee. I made one loaf of bread and 5 large muffins. I stuck strictly to the recipe. Trying to decide how to incorporate walnuts my next go-round. I used a Honeycrisp apple which was large enough to give me two cups. 35 min bake on muffins and 45 min for loaf.This really is a must try, must keep recipe!
Sophie says
I have made this in the fall for the last 2 years and everybody is obsessed!
Jessica says
So glad to hear Sophie! : ) We’re obsessed too!
Victoria Mackall says
I just made this bread and it is heavenly!! I followed the recipe exactly as given and I will never change a thing. Thank you so much for sharing.