Spiced Apple Cider Oatmeal Bread

Spiced Apple Cider Oatmeal Bread, is a tasty fall treat to enjoy while watching colorful leaves fall from the trees.  This quick bread recipe is flavored with apple cider plus cinnamon, and cloves for spiciness.  Oatmeal makes this hearty bread moist and tender and it is so deliciously simple.

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This Quick Oatmeal Bread has a wonderful chewy bite to it and is lightly sweetened from the apple cider and brown sugar, and the cinnamon and cloves add just the right amount of spiciness. Bake a loaf and cut it into nice big slices for your morning breakfast or a snack. The oatmeal in this bread adds some great texture and the loaf itself will be dense.

What is a quick bread?

• This is a batter bread that uses baking powder and or baking soda as a leavener to make the batter or dough rise.
• Little mixing is required with quick bread; once the flour is incorporated, stop mixing because overmixing will develop gluten and make the bread tough. Sometimes, the batter will be a bit lumpy, but that's Ok as long as the lumps don't contain dry flour.
• Once the batter or dough is made, it needs to be baked immediately since the leaveners have been moistened and activated, usually with an acidic component like buttermilk, yogurt, fruit juice, brown sugar, cream of tartar, or honey which releases the carbon dioxide bubbles, It is these bubbles, along with the steam created during baking, that causes the bread to rise.
• Making quick bread is so easy, with no yeast to deal with and no need to wait around for the dough to rise; just mix, bake, and let cool.

Here are a few favorite quick bread recipes for you to bake. Cheesy Cornbread, homemade Biscuits, Peanut Butter Muffins, and Ham & Cheese Scones are all fast and easy recipes you will love.

Apple Cider

After a visit to our local apple orchard in Apple Hill in the Sierra foothills today I not only came home with lots of juicy apples but apple cider too. So now I have some cider to drink and some to bake with.

What is the difference between apple cider and apple juice?

Apple cider is raw apple juice that has not been filtered to remove sediments, and the juice appears opaque with a deep caramel color.  The taste is very fresh with full apple flavor.  Usually, apple cider is not pasteurized and is highly perishable, so make sure to keep it cold. Try this other tasty One Hot Oven recipe using apple cider -  Cider-Glazed Baked Apples that are filled with cranberries and pecans.

Apple juice is apple cider that has been heated to 190 degrees F, which changes the taste and color of the cider. The color of the juice turns to a clear light amber and because the juice is filtered there is no sediment like you get with cider. Sometimes apple juice will contain preservatives and sweeteners, so read the label to see what you are buying. This juice has a longer shelf life than cider.

Reduce apple cider for baking

For today's recipe, you definitely want to use apple cider; otherwise, I would have to change the name of the recipe. Here's the thing about baking with apple cider, you really need to reduce the cider down for a more pronounced apple taste.  For this recipe, the cider is reduced by ¾ cup. You start with 2 ½ cups of apple cider and cook it down to 1 ¾ cups.  The reduction will be a bit thicker, and the color actually changes to a rosier amber color.  It's really pretty.

Apple Cider Bread Ingredients

How To Make Apple Cider Bread: Step-by-Step

Step 1. Grease a 9' x 5' loaf pan and preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Step 2. In a small saucepan, add 2 ½ cups of apple cider. Cook on medium heat (you want a slow boil) for 30 minutes until the cider has reduced to 1 ¾ cups. Then add the oats to the cider and cook on medium heat for 5 minutes. Do this the night before you bake the bread so it will be ready.

Soaking oats with apple cider plumps up the oats and infuses them with a sweet apple flavor.  Simmer the oats and apple cider on the stove for 5 minutes and let cool.  Take off the heat and put the oats into a large bowl to cool.

Step 3.  Add the eggs, melted butter, and brown sugar to the oats and stir to combine. Make sure there are no big lumps of oatmeal at this point.

Step 4. Mix all the dry ingredients together, then add the oatmeal mixture.  Stir just until all the dry ingredients are combined.

Step 5. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for  45 - 50 minutes.  Test with a toothpick for doneness.

Making a simple icing drizzle

Yes, I add butter to my powdered sugar icing because it just makes it taste soooo much better. Can you leave the butter out? Yes, you can, but butter just makes this simple glaze creamier and richer.

Step 6. Put the powdered sugar in a small bowl and whisk it to remove the lumps.  Add two tablespoons of melted butter, 1 ½ teaspoons of cinnamon, and two tablespoons of apple cider.  Mix all together, and if the glaze is too thick, add more apple cider by the teaspoons until you get the glaze consistency you like.

Step 7. Drizzle the glaze over the cooled bread. Let sit for about 10 minutes, and then your bread is ready to slice and eat.

Tasty variations to try

Want to take this bread up a notch, you can add all kinds of extra goodness to suit your tastes

• Dried Cranberries or Raisins
• Pecans or Walnuts
• Nutmeg
• Diced Apples

Don't forget to Pin for later

One apple recipe is good, but five is better. Try these favorite recipes.

Apple Cream Scones, you won't believe how quick these scones are to make and the taste is AMAZING!

Caramel Apple Popcorn has a hint of cinnamon and crunchy dried apples mixed into this sweet popcorn.

If you love oatmeal, try these Creamy Apple Oatmeal Bowls with cranberries.

Galettes are fast and easy to make, and this Apple Galette is filled with cranberries and has a delicious flaky crust.

More to make and eat!

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Recipe

First Published: Dec.7, 2017... Last Updated: March 27, 2023.

 I hope you have an awesome apple orchard to visit for fresh apples.  

Thank you for stopping by the One Hot Oven blog.  Please leave a comment to say Hello or just let me know what you are baking these days, I always love hearing from fellow bakers.  Have any questions or just want to chat about the recipe? Please visit my about page for information, and I’ll be happy to help!

About Jere'                             

From learning to cook on a farm in Indiana to culinary school in California, my passion for food is never-ending.  Turning on my oven to bake something for friends and family is my happy place, and I am glad to be here at One Hot Oven sharing both sweet and savory family-friendly recipes for your cooking and baking inspiration.