This Streusel Apple Zucchini Bread is exceptionally moist, hearty, and flavorful. It’s loaded with warm spices, both apple and zucchini shine prominently, and it’s topped generously with brown sugar streusel! This Streusel Apple Zucchini Bread is basically guaranteed to knock your socks off!
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I was talking to a friend about this, and we both agreed that we don’t normally like apple when it’s incorporated into baked goods – except straight-up apple desserts like Apple Pie or Apple Crisp, but just adding chopped apples to breads, muffins, or the like…. I’m not usually into it at all.
But this Streusel Apple Zucchini Bread is a HUGE exception. I don’t know what prompted me to make it in the first place, seeing as though I don’t like apple in that format, but I really wanted to make a new spin on zucchini bread, and I’d already exhausted the citrus route with this Lemon Blueberry Zucchini Bread and this Orange Zucchini Bread with Orange Glaze.
Come to think of it, I’d also exhausted banana as an option with this Zucchini Banana Bread with Streusel Topping.
In any event, I thought I’d give apple another shot in baked goods. I went into this with a “we’ll just see what happens” attitude, but I was blown away by this Streusel Apple Zucchini Bread.
Surprisingly, of the 4-5 zucchini recipes I made this summer, this is actually my favorite! I don’t love it only because it happened to exceed low expectations. No. It’s just that damn delicious. But you don’t have to take my opinion only!
My S.O. agreed. He raved and raved. Every time he had a slice, he raved more. A little bit of this bread was shared at his workplace with colleagues too so we could have outside feedback, but we mostly ended up keeping this Streusel Apple Zucchini Bread all to ourselves, and I’m making another loaf this weekend because we were OBSESSED with it.
Hate that word — obsessed — but it completely fits in this case.
This is NOT an ordinary zucchini bread recipe, to be sure. This Streusel Apple Zucchini Bread is insanely, unbelievably moist. Not mushy, just ridiculously moist. But it’s also dense and hearty, while still not being heavy. Perfect crumb.
There’s only 1 large apple in this bread, but it really shines, certainly with the help of apple pie spice and cinnamon too. The apple definitely comes through pretty prominently, so the bread is distinctly apple-y. And the zucchini adds a touch of fresh flavor as well, while also not making this bread taste like a veggie. It just makes it crazy moist!
Besides the addictive texture and awesome flavor, this Streusel Apple Zucchini Bread is no ordinary zucchini bread also due to the streusel! Sometimes I wonder why I bother to make any sort of bread or muffins without streusel. Like, why?
Streusel is extra, but always worth it. This streusel is LOTS of brown sugar, LOTS of spice, and quite saturated with butter. Would you want it any other way?
This Streusel Apple Zucchini Bread features a lot of apple flavor and spice, it’s moist, dense, and hearty, and it’s rather simple to whip up. Throw in a few cups of shredded zucchini too, and you get the bonus features of what zucchini does for baked goods.
Top it generously with sweet, crunchy, brown sugar streusel, and this is a recipe that will actually make you grateful that you’ve got zucchini coming out of your ears.
It’s like apple pie met zucchini bread. Whoop!
If you’re on the hunt for other zucchini recipes, perhaps brunch ones, I love this Chocolate Zucchini Coffee Cake. It’s like 4 inches tall, and it has a ribbon of chocolate streusel through the center and on top. These Blueberry Zucchini Bread Pancakes are the most gorgeous and tasty stack of pancakes you’ll ever experience. These Lemon Zucchini Muffins with Lemon Glaze or Almond Blueberry Zucchini Muffins are terrific. Such moist, sweet, fluffy muffins.
For a traditional combo of chocolate and zucchini, these Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cookies can be made really fast start-to-finish, and feel so decadent. I also suggest these Chocolate Zucchini Muffins with Chocolate Chips. They’re lightened up, but don’t sacrifice flavor or texture at all.
Looking for a savory zucchini recipe? This Parmesan Zucchini Cornbread is *the* cornbread of summer! You need it at your picnics and BBQs. And these Goat Cheese Zucchini Scones make the best egg sandwiches for breakfast.
What will you make first? What’s on your zucchini baking list this summer?
Streusel Apple Zucchini Bread
Ingredients
For bread:
- 3 large eggs
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup vegetable or canola oil
- 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp. apple pie spice
- 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. baking soda
- 2 cups grated zucchini
- 1 large gala apple peeled, finely chopped
For streusel:
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp. apple pie spice
- 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
- 4-5 tbsp. butter melted
Instructions
For bread:
- In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar, oil, and vanilla.
- In another large bowl, whisk together flour, apple pie spice, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and stir until only just combined. Do not overmix.
- Gently fold in grated zucchini and chopped apple. Again, do not overmix! Bread will be tough if overmixed.
- Line two 9x5-inch loaf pans with foil or parchment paper, letting the edges hang over the pan. This is a MUST - bread wants to stick to pan, but also, it is easier to remove a streusel-topped bread when you can lift it out of a pan without needing to flip it out. Coat with non-stick spray.
- Divide batter between prepared pans.
- Prepare streusel.
For streusel:
- In a small bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, apple pie spice, and cinnamon.
- Add 4 tbsp. melted butter, cutting it in with a fork or knife until crumbly. If needed, add an additional tablespoon of butter, stirring until mixture resembles mostly pea-sized crumbs. As it was forming crumbs, it was easiest to use my fingers to stir and crumble the mixture.
- Scatter crumbs evenly over top of the batter, starting from the edges, and working toward the center.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes, or until tops and edges are golden brown, and a toothpick inserted near the centers comes out clean.
- Remove breads from oven to a wire rack to cool for 15-20 minutes - do not cool in pan longer than this.
- Run a knife along any edges that may have seeped and stuck to the pan.
- Using the edges of the foil or parchment paper, carefully (so you don't lose crumbs from the topping) remove bread from the pan to cool completely on a wire rack.
- Cut and serve. Enjoy!
- Store in an airtight container, in a cool, dry place at room temperature for 4-5 days, or in the refrigerator for up to 10 days. Also, bread will freeze wonderfully if well-wrapped.
Notes
My first question- id you actually make this bread? First off, 1/4 teaspoon leavened with all that flour and fruit? I timed that by eight, using 2 teaspoons. I should have gone with my gut regarding the pan, using two pans rather than the one, which took two hours and 15 minutes to bake. That being said, the finished product is delicious, but your recipe os fraught with error.
As is your comment — fraught with errors! Multiple typos. Yes, I’ve made it many times, love that bread. Have a great day, hopefully you can spread some sunshine to someone since you couldn’t spread it here.
Which spices are included in the apple pie spice? I’d like to make my own since I don’t have any on hand.
Hi Danielle: May be trickier to make it from scratch if you are limited on spices, and I don’t personally have a recipe posted with the correct spice ingredients, and in what proportion, but I found this from a quick Google search: https://www.mybakingaddiction.com/apple-pie-spice/. I would recommend following that!
Not trying to be offensive, but I had many of the same issues noted in one of the other comments. I knew that 1/4 tsp. of baking soda did not seem like enough leavening for the recipe, so I used 1 tsp. And I realized when I saw 3 cups of flour that this was not going to fit in a standard loaf pan. So, I baked 2 loaves. Also, when I mixed the crumb topping ingredients, it was not crumbly. It was the consistency of honey. So I added more flour and brown sugar until I got a crumbly consistency. The batter was very dense and, at first, I thought there was not enough liquid in the recipe, but after adding the zucchini and apples, they added some moisture to the batter. Overall, the taste and consistency is good. I am an experienced baker, so I knew what to do when things weren’t working out quite right. This might be a problem for a beginning baker.
Thank you so much for sharing your feedback kindly, Brenda! I appreciate your constructive thoughts and tips. I know it does produce a huge loaf, and readers on other zucchini bread recipes seem to prefer splitting to two loaves. I’ll add feedback to the notes of the recipe.
The streusel… sometimes the butter needs to set a minute or two for it to become crumbly again. I thought I added that tip here, but maybe I’m thinking of another streusel recipe, so I’ll add that information as well. Thanks again!
I should have read the comments before baking. This does NOT work if you bake it in one pan. Please please modify to say TWO pans as the default. Mine overflowed, and was soggy in the center even after baking 90+ minutes. I finally took it out because the crumb topping was starting to dry out and burn. And this was after the crumb topping was very wet to start even with only 4 Tsp of butter. I also recommend that you include substitutions in the recipe for apple pie spice…not something that a lot of occasional bakers like me have on hand. The parts of the bread that were done tasted fine, and this could be a good recipe with some revision.
I made this today. Thank you for sharing the recipe. This is very yummy. I had no problem with ingredients amounts or the streusel. I used 4 T melted butter and it was great.