Pumpkin Apple Bread with Cinnamon Pecan Streusel

- Amanda

Happy first official day of fall. Autumn is my absolute favorite season. Crisp air (not so much at the moment in LA,) colorful falling leaves, the season of every cozy recipe possible, wafts of cinnamon and spice running through the air and all things pumpkin and apple. Is there anything better?

Aside from the falling leaves, today’s recipe checks all the above boxes. This Pumpkin Apple Bread with Cinnamon Pecan Streusel is everything that is wonderful about fall, baked into one delicious loaf. Not one, but two star ingredients of the season get combined in this, there’s a hefty amount of warming delicious spice and that means your house will smell the way it should this time of year. So much so, that you might forget it’s still 80 degrees outside. I have.

We started the season off doing one of my favorite things over the weekend. We took a drive out to roam the fields and patches to pick apples and pumpkins. I might possibly enjoy this more than the kids. It’s the truth. I loved this autumn activity every year when living in New York (pre-kids) and I still love it now. I get dorky excited the night before I know we’re going.

The LA experience isn’t quite up to East Coast standards, but it’s still pretty darn fun. We went out to Julian this year, since the fires are very near our usual spot out in the other direction. It’s a bit more of a trek from Los Angeles, but we came back with plenty (read- too many) of apples and pumpkins to make it very worth it. And it was a great day feeling pretty safe from the stressors that can come with leaving the house during Covid.

So, lets talk about this bread. I just love it. It’s quick bread style, so it doesn’t take much time at all. In one bowl, you mix together sugar and spices with pumpkin puree, eggs, grapeseed oil and vanilla. Then you fold in the flour, baking powder and baking soda and some chopped apples that have been tossed with a little brown sugar, cinnamon and flour. Into the pan it goes and then more apples get sprinkled all over on top.

Then for the ah-mazing streusel (really, this takes the bread to the next level.) All you do to make this fabulous topping is combine pecans with brown sugar, spices like cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger, some flour, a little salt and melted butter. You’ll actually make this first so it has time to firm up in the fridge and end up nice and crispy crunchy on the bread. I feel like this step keeps those irrisistible chunks intact as opposed to melting on top.

The hardest part of this recipe is waiting the hour for it to bake while inhaling all that sweet, nutty, spicy goodness. And then having to wait a bit longer for it to cool. But I promise, it’s worth it. And in the meantime your house will smell heavenly. Think Wednesday before Thanksgiving pre-turkey-in-the-oven mom’ s house bake-a-thon good. And hey, with all that’s going on in the world right now, I think our home smelling like that for the next however many weeks is maybe exactly what we could all use.

I hope you’ll give this a try and if you do, I’d love to hear about it. Thanks so much for stopping by today, I hope you’re getting in the fall spirit as we speak. happy {autumn} baking.

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Pumpkin Apple Bread with Cinnamon Pecan Streusel

Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Servings 1 9×5″ loaf
Author Amanda – A Treat Life

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
  • 1/4 cup + 2 tbsps (75g) brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp kosher salt
  • 1/4 tsp ground cloves
  • 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1 cup + 2 tbsps pumpkin puree (not pie filling)
  • 2 lg eggs, slightly whisked
  • 3/4 cup grapeseed oil (or other neutral oil)
  • 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups (192g) all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/4 tsps baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda

For the apples:

  • 2 cups apples, peeled & diced
  • 2 tbsps all-purpose flour
  • 1 tbsp brown sugar
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon

For the Cinnamon Pecan Streusel:

  • 1/4 cup + 2 tbsps all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup chopped pecans
  • 2 tbsps brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • pinch ground nutmeg & ginger
  • pinch kosher salt
  • 3 tbsps (42g) unsalted butter, melted

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 325F/ 165C. Grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan and line with parchment paper going up the sides. (This will make it super easy to remove the loaf.) Set aside.

For the streusel:

  1. In a medium,bowl, combine all the streusel ingredients and mix with your fingers or a fork until it resembles coarse crumbs (a few bigger chunks is a good thing.) Set in the refrigerator while you make the batter.

For the bread:

  1. Begin by tossing the chopped apples in a small bowl with the flour, brown sugar and cinnamon.

  2. Then in a large bowl, add both the sugars, the cinnamon, salt, cloves and nutmeg. Stir to combine. Then using a spatula, stir in the pumpkin puree, eggs, grapeseed oil and vanilla.

  3. Once the wet ingredients are completely combined, fold in the dry- the flour, baking powder and baking soda. When almost combined but a few streaks of flour still remain, fold in 3/4's of the apples.

  4. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle the remaining apples on top then sprinkle the streusel topping evenly over the batter. Bake the bread for 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with only a few crumbs attached.

  5. Remove the loaf from oven and cool 10-15 minutes in the pan on a wire rack. Then remove the bread from the pan and continue to cool on the wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Recipe Notes

*The bread can be stored, covered with plastic wrap at room temperature for a couple days or refrigerated a week.