Apple Carrot Bread — This apple carrot bread tastes like carrot cake that’s been infused with apples. It’s a no mixer recipe that goes from bowl to oven in minutes!
Apple Carrot Bread Recipe
This is carrot cake that’s been infused with apples and baked as a loaf. So it’s not cake anymore. It’s bread. Therefore you can have more and definitely can have it for breakfast.
Baking with both carrots and apples not only adds chewy texture and natural sweetness, but they also add so much moisture that it’s impossible to have a dry loaf. I adapted the basic ratios from my Cream Cheese-Filled Pumpkin Bread, a personal and fan favorite, to make way for grated carrots and apples.
I grated the carrot and apple by hand using the coarsest blade on a box grater. It literally takes two minutes and I’d spend much more time washing food processor parts than quickly doing it the old-fashioned way.
It’s an easy, no mixer recipe that goes from bowl to oven in minutes. The batter is very thick and that’s by design. The carrots and apples release juices while baking and if you start with a thin batter, it’ll turn too soupy during baking.
It’s soft, tender, uber-moist, dense enough to be satisfying, but still light. The cinnamon and nutmeg really shine and add so much wonderful, rich, depth of flavor to the carrots and apples. The carrots dominate and the bread has a more pronounced ‘carrot cake’ taste than apple.
It was so flavorful and moist that I didn’t even need butter. Although a browned butter glaze can do no wrong if you’re so inclined.
What’s in Apple Carrot Bread?
For this carrot apple bread recipe, you’ll need:
- Egg
- Light brown sugar
- Coconut oil
- Granulated sugar
- Sour cream
- Vanilla extract
- Cinnamon
- Gound nutmeg
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder and baking soda
- Salt
- Grated apples
- Grated carrots
Can I Substitute the Coconut Oil?
I used melted coconut oil so there’s no butter to cream and no mixer to dirty. Oil keeps bread softer and springier than butter, and I prefer the taste.
Coconut oil adds a nearly imperceptible undertone that’s sweeter and more fragrant than canola or vegetable oil, but substitute with them if you’d like.
What Are the Best Apples for Apple Bread?
Any apple will work for this carrot apple bread recipe! I used a large Fuji apple, but Gala and Honeycrisp would work as well.
How to Make Carrot Apple Bread
This carrot apple cinnamon bread couldn’t be easier to make! Simply whisk together the egg, sugars, melted coconut oil, sour cream, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg, then fold in the remaining ingredients.
Turn the batter into a greased 9×5-inch loaf pan and bake until the top is golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Once the bread is out of the oven, let it rest in the pan for about 15 minutes before removing it to finish cooling on a wire rack.
Can I Make This in a Smaller Loaf Pan?
I baked the bread in a 9×5-inch pan because I was concerned that the moisture-heavy ingredients crammed into an 8×4-inch pan would take forever to cook through and a larger pan felt safer. In retrospect, an 8×4-inch would probably have been fine. The shorter height of the bread didn’t effect our inhaling of it in one day.
Can I Double This Recipe?
Yes, simply double the ingredients and bake in two loaf pans. I’ve also had readers report success doubling the recipe and baking it in a metal 9×13-inch pan or a metal bundt pan.
Can I Freeze Carrot Quick Bread?
Absolutely! This apple carrot bread recipe is great for freezing. Wrap in a few layers of plastic wrap and a layer of foil, then freeze for up to three months.
Tips for Making Carrot Loaf Bread
When mixing together the batter, make sure the sour cream and egg are at room temperature. If they’re both still cold, the melted coconut oil will partially resolidify and you’ll wind up with chunks of oil running through the batter.
When baking the bread, you may need to tent the pan with a sheet of foil draped loosely over it at the 35-minute mark if you feel the tops and sides will become too browned before center cooks through.
Baking times will vary based on moisture content of carrots, apples, climate, and oven variances. You need to bake the carrot bread until done; watch your bread, not the clock and don’t worry if it takes longer to bake than the baking estimates provided.
When serving this apple cinnamon bread, I highly recommend slathering it with Homemade Honey Butter or Cinnamon-Sugar Butter, or drizzling it with a Vanilla Bean Browned Butter Glaze. It’s delicious as is, of course, but these extra toppings really take it up a notch.
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Carrot Apple Bread
Ingredients
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup light brown sugar, packed
- ⅓ cup liquid-state coconut oil, canola or vegetable may be substituted
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup cup sour cream, lite is okay; or Greek yogurt may be substituted
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- pinch salt, optional and to taste
- ¾ cup grated carrots, about 1 large peeled and trimmed carrot
- ¾ cup grated apples, I used 1 medium unpeeled Fuji; try Gala, Honeycrisp or similar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Spray one 9×5-inch loaf pan with floured cooking spray, or grease and flour the pan; set aside. (I haven’t tried the recipe in an 8×4-inch pan and cannot comment on how long it will take to bake, but use an 8×4 pan if you prefer a taller loaf.)
- In a large bowl, add the the first eight ingredients, through nutmeg, and whisk to combine.
- Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, optional salt, and fold with spatula or stir gently with a spoon until just combined; don’t overmix.
- Add the carrots, apples, and fold gently to combine.
- Turn batter (it’s very thick, this is what you want) out into the prepared pan, smoothing the top lightly with a spatula.
- Bake for about 45 to 52 minutes (I baked 50 minutes) or until the top is golden, the center is set, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, or with a few moist crumbs, but no batter.*
- Allow bread to cool in pan for about 15 minutes before turning out on a wire rack to cool completely before slicing and serving.**
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Easy Quick Bread Recipes:
Cinnamon Spice Applesauce Bread with Honey Butter — Applesauce keeps this bread so soft & moist! It’s like apple spice cake, disguised as ‘bread’ so you can have extra!
Cinnamon and Spice Sweet Potato Bread — Eating your vegetables via soft, moist bread is the best way! My favorite way to eat sweet potatoes!
Apple Fritter Bread — The bread tastes as decadent as the apple fritters of my childhood, no deep frying required and it’s more like cake disguised as bread.
The Best Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread — This pumpkin chocolate chip bread is truly the best homemade pumpkin bread you’ll ever make. It’s moist, packed with chocolate chips, and tastes like fall!
Blueberry Zucchini Bread — This blueberry zucchini bread is a quick, no-mixer recipe that’s sweet, but not too sweet. Each bite is bursting with fresh blueberries!
Pumpkin Banana Bread — Soft, moist, fluffy and so much better than another loaf of plain banana bread.
Snickerdoodle Bread — Between the cinnamon-sugar on top, cinnamon in the batter, and the cinnamon chips, the bread is full of wonderful and prominent cinnamon flavor without being overpowering.
Originally published November 9, 2014 and republished on Friday, March 13, 2020 with updated text.
Just wanted to say that I love your recipe for this bread! Been making it for the past few months and it’s honestly such a great repeat recipe for me to use up apples/carrots and milk. I often just use buttermilk in replacement of the Greek yogurt/sour cream because I have that readily available instead and I don’t really taste/feel the difference so that works for me.
Thanks for sharing =)
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it’s on regular rotation for you and that you’re able to just use buttermilk to replace the sour cream/Greek yogurt. I love when people improvise with what they have on hand and just figure it out and roll with it! Whenever I call for buttermilk in a recipe, I get 20 questions, but can I just use Greek yogurt? So lately I write my recipes with Greek yog in mind…haha!
I cant wait to try this- it looks wonderful! My question is — do you think it would freeze well? This would be a great food gift for Christmas!
Most breads and quickbreads freeze quite well and this one would be fine to freeze.
oh annnddddd how long do I cook them if I do them like muffins??
Haven’t tried so not sure but most muffins are 22-24 minutes, generally speaking, but this batter is very moist so may take longer, not sure b/c I haven’t tried.
Sold!!! I’m making this today!! Looks absolutely delicious:)! Can I make them like muffins and is it possible to freeze them?
I made this last night and it is delicious!! So moist and flavoursome. I’d like to try using wholemeal flour next time. Do you have any tips for this?
You loved it as is; as you said so moist and flavorsome so honestly I wouldn’t change a thing then. Whole-wheat based recipes tend to be drier and the flavor changes and you would likely need to compensate in other areas of the recipe with liquid/dry ingredients and I haven’t tested it so can’t say for sure. I’d just leave things alone since you have a winner :)
This recipe is one of the most intriguing finds I have at Pinterest!
This looks sooo yum! I’m gonna make this at one of the “coziest” – moments of my life! Thanks…
Did I miss a list of nutritional values? I’m watching carbs/sugar
Hi Averie, I made this loaf today. It is so jam-packed with flavor and super soft. TBH, I was interested in making the mimi’s cafe bread (the one they give for free) but this bread hit the craving. Thx so much! :) plus kitchen smelled awesome when it was in oven.
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! I don’t think I’ve ever had the Mimi’s Cafe Bread! I don’t think I’ve ever been to Mimi’s Cafe but glad this hit the spot!
Hmm, despite all the great reviews/comments, sadly this recipe was a flop for me. I made a few substitutions/additions, but none out of the ordinary (e.g., whole wheat flour, applesauce for coconut oil, addition of chopped pecans, muffins instead of bread). Ended up extending the baking time/temperature but it was still not muffin consistency by the end. Could the applesauce have thrown this off completely since there was already moisture from the apples/carrots? Better luck next time I guess…
Thanks for trying the recipe and with all due respect, you changed quite a bit. Subbing applesauce for oil is not necessarily a swap that will always work. Sometimes it may, sometimes it won’t. Also, whole wheat flour has FAR less gluten then AP flour and so you likely won’t get a nice, soft, fluffy texture – plus it absorbs more water/moisture than AP flour so things can end up drier. And then on top of it, baking as muffins rather than a loaf can also confound things, as can adding nuts.
I suggest making the recipe *Exactly As Written* until you know what you’re dealing with and then making swaps if you choose. However, I and others who’ve made the recipe AS WRITTEN love it as is, and personally I think that if you try it as written, you’ll love it won’t want to change a thing.
The standard for changing any recipe is to change only one thing at a time; you changed so many things, it’s not the same recipe at all, so there’s no way it could have worked well.
I’ve been cooking and baking since I was eight years old (55 years’ experience now), and when he taught me to cook, Dad said to NEVER change more than one ingredient until I knew how it was going to work. I’ve seen that same advice in virtually every major cookbook over the last five and a half decades–don’t change more than one thing, or you won’t have a clue what went wrong or right.
I made this into muffins…my 2 and 5 year old loved them!! I did too. I usually have all these ingredients on hand which is great so I’m about to make another batch. Thanks for another great recipe :)
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you as muffins and that your kids loved them!
H there, This bread looks very yummy! Can I sub almond flour for the all purpose flour? Thanks!
No you can’t sub and expect the same results, i.e. for the recipe to work.
You probably could use almond flour in the bread some how, some way…but that would involve developing a new recipe since almond flour is a made from nuts rather than it being a grain like AP flour and doesn’t behave at all the same way in baking.
I really want to make this but I want to do it as cupcakes. Any suggestion for baking time? Thanks!
Usually with cupcakes and muffins, 20-25 minutes is a good guess BUT it really depends on the batter, oven, etc. Just keep an eye on them!
Wow!! This bread came out so great!!! I added cranberries, and it’s awesome!!
OK so this bread is so good. And if you DO NOT make the vanilla bean glaze then you are truly missing out. I made this yesterday and everyone wants seconds and thirds. I’m going to have to make another one. Gold thing it only needs one or two carrots and apples. I have some fresh picked organic carrots and juicy honeycrisp apples. Mm mmmm thank u soooo much!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! Love that you added the glaze AND love that you’re making a second loaf today. I wish I had fresh picked organic carrots and juicy honeycrisp apples just laying around :)
i made this lovely carrot Apple bread and it taste delish and my kitchen smelled so good. I added an apple flavored yogurt and a little almond extract as well. I also squeezed all the juices out of the carrots and apples before added it to the batter. Delicious!!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! Love the idea of apple flavored yogurt and almond extract (which I wish I could bathe in….I love almond extract!!)
Thanks for the recipe.
I’m making it now.
I didn’t have any oil on hand & substituted apple sauce.
I also added walnuts.
Loved the simplicity of this recipe.
Glad you’re a fan of the recipe!