This applesauce bread recipe is delicious & easy to make. It combines sweet applesauce with slightly tangy cranberries in order to create a wonderful snack or dessert. As you probably know, applesauce bread is a type of sweet “quick bread”. Quick breads use baking soda and/or baking powder as a leavening agent (versus sandwich-type breads that use slow rising yeast). Quick breads are usually a sweeter muffin-like “bread” that is often eaten as a dessert. Other types of sweet quick breads include banana bread, cornbread, strawberry bread, pumpkin bread, etc.
Moist & Delicious Applesauce Bread
Applesauce is often used as an easy substitute if someone has run out of bananas and is unable to make a banana bread. The lack of available bananas encourages people to try out applesauce bread recipes (which are very similar to banana breads… well except the banana part!). Moreover, since applesauce usually comes in a sealed container, it can be stored for far longer than fresh bananas. Therefore, applesauce is often more readily available as a pantry “backup” ingredient versus driving to the supermarket for bananas… in the middle of a snowstorm. Of course, people tend to forget about any missing bananas… after they discover how good applesauce bread tastes!
This applesauce bread recipe should take you roughly 10 minutes to prepare and clean up. Please be aware that this is an oven-baked recipe. It is not made with a bread machine. For more quick bread ideas, please visit our section on Easy Quick Bread Recipes. You will also find a printable and “pin-able” recipe at the bottom of this page. If you liked this recipe, please leave a comment below and give us a 5 star rating.
A Key Ingredient – Applesauce
Ingredients – Easy Applesauce Bread Recipe
- 8 Tablespoons – Unsalted Butter (softened)
- 2 – Large Eggs
- 1 1/4 Cups – Applesauce
- 2 Cups – Flour (all purpose flour)
- 1 Cup – White Granulated Sugar
- 1/4 Cup – Dark Brown Sugar
- 1 1/2 Cups – Cranberries (frozen or fresh)
- 1 Teaspoon – Vanilla Extract
- 1 Teaspoon – Baking Soda
- 1 Teaspoon – Baking Powder (aluminum free)
- 1/2 Teaspoon – Salt
Servings – Roughly 12 slices
- Equipment required for this recipe – Measuring cup & spoons, mixing bowl, long wooden spoon, 9 by 5 bread pan, oven mitts, silicon spatula, cooling rack and an oven.
Stir Cranberries into the Applesauce Bread Batter
Instructions – Easy Applesauce Bread Recipe
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
- Soften butter in a microwave.
- Stir eggs, applesauce and butter together.
- Mix in remaining ingredients (except the cranberries). Stir until the batter is fully mixed.
- Add the cranberries after the batter has been completely mixed. Make sure the cranberries are evenly spread throughout the batter.
- Grease bread pan (if necessary).
- Pour finished batter into a nonstick bread pan. Smooth out the top of the batter within the bread pan.
- Bake in the oven for 65-70 minutes or until golden brown.
- Take out of oven and let the applesauce bread cool down in the bread pan for 10 minutes. Do not remove the applesauce bread from the bread pan during this 10 minute cool down period. Use oven mitts as the bread pan will be very hot coming out of the oven.
- After 10 minutes, remove the applesauce bread from the bread pan. Place the applesauce bread on a cooling rack in order to completely cool. This cool down may take 1-2 hours. Gently slide a silicon spatula between the applesauce bread and the bread pan walls if the bread is stuck in the pan.
Pour Applesauce Bread Batter into Bread Pan
If you liked this recipe, please leave a comment below & give us a 5 star rating. The recipe comment section is located at the bottom of this page. Your comments help us to improve & clarify our recipe instructions. Moreover, it is ALWAYS great to hear from someone who has enjoyed our recipes!
Reference Sources
- Wikipedia, Applesauce, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_sauce
- Wikipedia, Cranberry, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cranberry
- Wikipedia, Dried Cranberry, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dried_cranberry
- Wikipedia, Quick Bread, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quick_bread
Tips – Easy Applesauce Bread Recipe
- The tips below are designed to help quick bread “novices” and/or people with limited baking experience.
- Applesauce breads tend to have only a mild apple flavor. If you want more of apple flavor, you can try using a “chunky” applesauce. The applesauce chunks provide localized areas of concentrated apple flavor.
- You can use fresh or frozen cranberries for this recipe. I like to use frozen cranberries because they retain their shape better (as they are less likely to rupture during the mixing & baking). In addition, fresh cranberries are often harder to find in the supermarket (versus frozen cranberries).
- If you use frozen cranberries, they do not have to be thawed before baking this applesauce bread. They can be added directly to the batter and will thaw during the baking process.
- If you want an even sweeter applesauce bread, you can use dried cranberries instead of the fresh/frozen cranberries. Companies often add extra sugar to the dried cranberries during the manufacturing process. According to Wikipedia, “most commercially produced dried cranberries contain added sugar”.
- Be careful when removing this quick bread from the bread pan. Since it is stuffed with cranberries, it can be fragile especially if all of the cranberries are on one side of the quick bread (less “bread” holding the quick bread together at that section). Also cranberries can stick to the bread pan as they bake in the oven. Many bakers like to line their bread pan with baking parchment paper in order to reduce the sticking issue and to reduce any potential “breakage” when removing a quick bread from the bread pan.
- Optional – If you don’t have cranberries, you can use blueberries as an alternative and make an applesauce blueberry bread.
- If your family loves cranberries, you should also try our recipes for Pumpkin Cranberry Bread, Cranberry Banana Bread, Cranberry Banana Muffins, Cranberry Bread (with Dried Cranberries), Cranberry Bread (with Fresh Cranberries) and Cranberry Chocolate Chip Cookies.
- This doesn’t happen often but if the top of the applesauce bread looks too moist or under cooked, you should try the “toothpick test”. Gently push a toothpick (or long wooden skewer) into the top of the bread and see if any batter sticks to the toothpick. If batter is sticking to the toothpick then it hasn’t completely cooked. Place the bread pan back into the still hot oven for another 2 or 3 minutes. Make sure to wear oven gloves because the bread pan will be very hot. After the 2 or 3 minutes, remove the bread pan and test the bread again with a tooth pick.
- If you have a problem with an applesauce bread recipe, please make sure that you are following the recipe exactly (i.e. using the correct oven temperature), using the correct amounts of ingredients (i.e. don’t eyeball the measurements versus using a measuring cup or accidentally add a tablespoon when a teaspoon is called for), using the correct ingredients (i.e. baking soda/powder versus yeast or all purpose flour versus bread flour), etc. Please don’t “wing” things with recipes.
- In addition, you should always try to use relatively fresh baking soda & powder for the best results. For example, using baking soda from an open container (that has been deodorizing your refrigerator for months) may lead to subpar results. Old & hard baking soda/powder may lead to rising problems and/or leave small bitter clumps in your applesauce bread.
- For other sweet & delicious quick bread recipes (i.e. pumpkin bread or cornbread), please visit Bread Dad’s main Quick Bread Recipes section.
If you liked this recipe, please leave a comment below & give us a 5 star rating. Your comments help us to improve & clarify our recipe instructions. The recipe comment section is located at the bottom of this page. Moreover, it is ALWAYS great to hear from someone who has enjoyed our recipes!!
Related Recipes
- Easy Banana Bread Variations
- Chocolate Chip Cranberry Cookies
- Cranberry Banana Bread
- Cranberry Banana Muffins
- Cranberry Bread with Fresh Cranberries
- Pumpkin Cranberry Bread
Applesauce Bread Recipe (with Cranberries)
Ingredients
- 8 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter (softened)
- 2 Eggs (large)
- 1 1/4 Cups Applesauce
- 2 Cups Flour (all purpose flour)
- 1 Cup White Granulated Sugar
- 1/4 Cup Dark Brown Sugar
- 1 1/2 Cups Cranberries (frozen or fresh)
- 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 Teaspoon Baking Powder (aluminum free)
- 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
- Soften butter in a microwave.
- Stir eggs, applesauce and butter together.
- Mix in remaining ingredients (except the cranberries). Stir until the batter is fully mixed.
- Add the cranberries after the batter has been completely mixed. Make sure the cranberries are evenly spread throughout the batter.
- Grease bread pan (if necessary).
- Pour finished batter into a nonstick bread pan. Smooth out the top of the batter within the bread pan.
- Bake in the oven for 65-70 minutes.
- Take out of oven and let the applesauce bread cool down in the bread pan for 10 minutes. Do not remove the applesauce bread from the bread pan during this 10 minute cool down period. Use oven mitts as the bread pan will be very hot coming out of the oven.
- After 10 minutes, remove the applesauce bread from the bread pan. Place the applesauce bread on a cooling rack in order to completely cool. This cool down may take 1-2 hours. Gently slide a silicon spatula between the applesauce bread and the bread pan walls if the bread is stuck in the pan.
Notes
Nutrition
If you liked this recipe, please leave a comment below & give us a 5 star rating. Your comments help us to improve & clarify our recipe instructions. Moreover, it is ALWAYS great to hear from someone who has enjoyed our recipes!!!