The Best Gluten-Free Vegan Apple-Apple Bread
Aahhh Fall. The second the air starts to turn crisp in the evening and there is the chill in the morning breeze something just SCREAMS pumpkin, apples and wood fires to me. It may be the fact I’ve lived most of my life in Maine and the seasons are an eternal reminder that everything in life has a phase, and sometimes as they come and go they are even more brilliant than the ones that have past.
This year has not disappointed yet. The cool crisp air crept in slowly as the leaves seemed to cautiously say bye to summer and start the process of changing from their deep greens to vibrate yellows, golds, oranges and reds. The smell and taste of fall was upon us. Apples hang heavy on the trees and scatter the ground. Ponds have the most beautiful reflection of the seasons colors as the crips blue sky and bright sun reflect everything on the calm that has set across the water.
For a minute you feel as though you are in a fairytale, life seems to stop and the memories of childhood seem to dance around you as the leafs swirl up and sway in the gentle breeze as if you are in a Disney movie. The smells of apple cider and pumpkin pie loom in my mind and quickly strike my urge to be in the kitchen.
There is something so special about sharing the memories from my childhood with my children, in our own kitchen, with the apples we’ve picked from their Grandma’s orchard and pumpkins from the local farm. We prepare the fruits with care and an understanding from where they came from while we give thanks for mother-nature’s bounty.
Growing up we picked apples from my grandparents trees and sat outside under the falling leaves as we ate them, peeled them, cut them up and ground them into cider. Today, we take our children to my mother-in-laws beautiful farmhouse with a sprawling orchard and collect apples for these very same things. The memories that are being made are something they will cherish forever.
As we collect and prepare the apples for baking I don’t actually reach for the book full of my grandfathers best recipes or my husbands Nana’s recipes … instead, I pull out my spiral bound notebook and get to work creating new recipes, largely based off the classics from Gramps and my husband’s Nana, but that work for our home: gluten free, wheat free, dairy free, egg free and all nut free.
After a few different attempts – believe me, we fully prepared, baked and sampled (just sampled lol) a couple. They were either too moist or too dry, not flavorful enough or just not ‘the best they could be’ until we settled on this gluten-free Apple Apple Bread we share with you today!
Ready for your house to smell like fall and your bellies to be warmed?! … Dive in to this delicious Gluten-Free, Vegan Apple Apple Bread.
It’s warmed the bellies of kids, adults and gluten-free vegan-skeptics alike, over here!
Enjoy!
Xxoo
Ash
The Best Gluten Free, Wheat Free, Vegan Apple Apple Bread
Ingredients
Mix together in a medium to large bowl:
- 1 ½ Cups GF All purpose flour blend
- 1 ½ Cups GF Oat Flour *grind organic rolled oats into flour
- 2 Tsp Baking Powder Gluten Free
- ½ Tsp Salt
- 1 Tsp Cinnamon
- ¼ Tsp Nutmeg
In a separate bowl toss:
- 1 Cup Diced apples (peeled and cored)
- ½ Tsp Cinnamon
- 1 Tb Maple Syrup
In a two-cup glass measurer (or similar) mix together:
- ½ Cup Apple Sauce
- ¼ Cup Vegetable Oil
- ½ Cup Soy Milk or non-dairy milk of choice
- ¼ Cup Maple Syrup
Instructions
- Mix wet ingredients well and pour into the dry ingredients you had set aside. Mix together with a wooden spoon until just combine.
- Fold in the tossed apples until just mixed into the batter.
- Once the batter is mixed just enough and there is no flour-mixture showing, you will pour into a greased loaf pan and place in the oven at 375° Fahrenheit for 15 minutes. Then drop the oven to 350° without opening the oven and set timer for 45-55 minutes.
- Make sure after 15 minutes at 375° you drop the oven to 350° for the remaining 45-55 minutes. If you do forget to drop the temperature make sure you check your bread at the 40 minute mark. The bread will dry out quicker at the higher temp without fully cooking the middle. The change in temperature does help the cooking process, allowing the apples and apple sauce to solidify within the bread instead of sinking to bottom, but without drying out the whole loaf.
- Once timer goes off test the bread with sharp knife or toothpick. If it comes out clean, remove from oven and let cool for 5-10 minutes in the pan. Remove from pan and let cool to room temperature before cutting into in. Enjoy!
Notes
- When using gluten-free flour make sure it is a blend and not one specific flour - it is OK if the blend has xanthemgum in it
- Oat flour, you can purchase oat flour already ground or if you have rolled oats simply put them in a grinder or blender with 'dry food' attachment and blend until a fine powder.
- If using a tin loaf pan your bread will cook faster than clay or glass, check your bread at the 40 minute mark.
