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Welcome fall with this delicious loaf of Sourdough Apple Bread. Made with sourdough discard and three kinds of apple — apple cider, applesauce, and freshly grated apples, this recipe is packed with incredible flavor and the perfect amount of fall spice.
Whether you enjoy a slice for breakfast or as a quick afternoon snack, you’ll love how moist, tender, and full of apple flavor this sourdough discard apple bread is. My kids gobble it up for breakfast and even bring it in their lunchboxes for a sweet treat.
If you love baking with apples, be sure to check out my favorite sourdough apple recipes for fall , a roundup of cozy, tried-and-true apple bakes perfect for apple season.
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Why You’ll Love Sourdough Apple Bread
- Full of Apples: This sourdough apple bread is made with 3 types of apples—apple cider, applesauce, and freshly grated apples. This combination gives it delicious apple flavor! Or try my quick and easy 30-minute sourdough apple fritters for more great apple flavor.
- Sourdough Discard: This is a great sourdough discard recipe. If you want a tangy flavor, use discard that has been in your refrigerator for a few days.
- Flavorful: This apple bread with sourdough discard is a mild and pleasant apple flavored loaf, similar in flavor to my Sourdough Apple Cider Donuts.
- Moist and delicious: You’ll love the texture to this apple quickbread, similar in texture to my sourdough peach bread full of ripe, juicy peaches!
Important Ingredients
- Unsalted Butter – I always bake with unsalted butter. It allows me to control the flavor in my baked goods — there is no standard for the amount of salt in salted butter, so you cannot predict how much salt has been added.
- Sourdough Discard – You can use fresh, bubbly sourdough starter if you want. If you don’t mind a more pronounced sourdough flavor, you can use refrigerated discard up to a week or two old. I always use 100% hydration sourdough discard.
- Sugar – Granulated sugar gives this bread a sweet flavor.
- Apple Cider – Apple cider is typically 100% apple juice (not made from concentrate). Store-bought “apple juice” is often made from concentrate. You can use apple juice in these muffins, but they won’t have the same apple flavor in them as fresh apple cider has. Be sure to save some cider to drink with your muffins! Note: this is NOT apple cider vinegar.
- Applesauce – I prefer unsweetened applesauce in this recipe. Homemade or store-bought both work well.
- Apples – Choose a flavor-forward apple. My favorites are honey crisp, pink lady and granny smith.
- Vanilla Extract – Vanilla gives this sourdough apple bread a delicious flavor.
- Eggs – Eggs bring richness, a good texture and help this bread rise.
- Flour – All-purpose flour works well for this recipe. I use an all-purpose flour with 11.5% protein content.
- Salt – Salt is an important ingredient to enhance flavor.
- Baking Powder & Baking Soda – These ingredients help with the texture and rise of this bread.
- Spices: Ground cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves are used to enhance the flavor of the apple in this apple sourdough bread.
How to Make Sourdough Apple Bread
Grate the Apples
This apple bread recipe with sourdough discard uses three different apple products. For the grated apples, I like to use either Honeycrisp, Pink Lady, or Granny Smith. Prepare the apple by grating into small shreds using a handheld grater. Set aside grated apples.
Mix the Batter
Combine the melted butter, sourdough discard and sugar in a small bowl. Whisk until completely combined. Add the apple cider, applesauce and vanilla extract. Mix until fully combined. Add the eggs and mix again until incorporated. Then add the grated apples. Set aside liquid mixture.
Mix together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves in a large bowl until combined.
Pour the wet ingredients into the center of the flour mixture and mix together until barely combined with just a few dry streaks. Don’t overmix the batter. Pour into a bread loaf pan that has been lined with parchment paper or greased with cooking spray.
Bake
Bake sourdough apple bread at 425ºF for 10 minutes. After ten minutes reduce the temperature to 350ºF and bake for 50-55 minutes until a sharp knife or toothpick is inserted into the center and comes out clean. Baking at a higher temperature for the first 10 minutes will help your bread have a nice rise. Let your sourdough apple bread cool completely before slicing. Enjoy!
Amy’s Recipe Tip
Grating the apple helps the apple pieces melt into the loaf giving lots of apple flavor in every bite. I like to use granny smith, pink lady or honeycrisp apples for best flavor.
Substitutions
- Apple Cider: Apple cider is going to give much more apple flavor to the loaf because it is unfiltered and fresh pressed. Apple juice can be substituted in a pinch, but it won’t have quite as much apple flavor.
- Sourdough Discard: If you don’t have sourdough discard on hand, you can substitute ripe, active sourdough starter.
- Unsalted Butter: Salted butter can be substituted, but you may want to decrease the salt added a little in the recipe to compensate.
How to Store Leftovers
Sourdough apple bread can be stored covered at room temperature for 24 hours. After that I like to freeze it to keep it fresh. Slice and freeze for 2-3 months.
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Frequently Asked Questions
You can do that! Spoon batter into muffin tins and bake for 5 minutes at 425ºF and then another 12-15 minutes at 350ºF. You could also use this muffin recipe instead!
Yes! If you want more of the fermentation benefits from the sourdough starter into the loaf, mix together the batter and stick it in the refrigerator for 24-48 hours. Then bake according to the recipe instructions.
Sourdough Apple Bread
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Equipment
Ingredients
- 113 grams unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled, 1/2 cup
- 100 grams sourdough discard , scant 1/2 cup
- 140 grams granulated sugar , 2/3 cup
- 60 grams apple cider , 1/4 cup (NOT vinegar – this is cider from freshly pressed apples)
- 250 grams unsweetened applesauce , 1 cup
- 4 grams vanilla extract , 1 teaspoon
- 2 large eggs , 100 grams
- 175 grams all-purpose flour, 1 1/4 cups
- 6 grams salt , 1 teaspoon
- 5 grams baking powder, 1 teaspoon
- 5 grams baking soda , 1 teaspoon
- 3 grams ground cinnamon , 1 teaspoon
- 1 gram ground nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon
- 1 gram ground cloves, 1/2 teaspoon
- 130 grams apple, grated, about 1 cup
Instructions
- To a large bowl, add the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Whisk together until combined.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the center of the flour mixture and mix together until barely combined with just a few dry streaks. Pour into the prepared baking pan.
- Bake at 425ºF for 10 minutes. After ten minutes reduce the temperature to 350ºF and bake for 50-55 minutes until a sharp knife or toothpick is inserted into the center and comes out clean. Let cool completely before slicing and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This was great! Only thing I changed was I reduced the sugar to 100g and used white whole wheat flour because I ran out of AP. Lovely spiced bread that was easy to put together! Much enjoyed by the family with a good cup of coffee on this snowy cold day!
Thanks for the recipe note and review! Enjoy.
Hi Amy,
Planning to try this recipe as my sourdough discard is taking over my fridge at the moment, but wondering what size loaf pan you use for this recipe. 9×5? 8×4? Just noticed one of the comments was about the batter overflowing her loaf pan, and trying to avoid that. Thank you!
Amy uses these 8.5×4.5 1 pound loaf pans from USA Bakeware – they are the best!
My pan overflowed and batter got all over the bottom of my oven. I’m so sad. Has anyone else had that problem with this recipe/portions? I followed the directions precisely and used a normal sized loaf pan
I’m sorry – I hate when that happens!