About This Vegan Apple Coffee Cake
Honestly, I was just craving sweets and I had some apples! This vegan apple coffee cake (coffee-free by the way) was a really gorgeous pairing for a pour over coffee on a lazy Saturday afternoon. I ate it curled up in a wool blanket on my couch while watching reruns of Sex and The City. A good Saturday in my opinion!
Compared to traditional coffee cakes, this vegan apple coffee cake is lower in sugar. It’s made with a less refined, sustainably produced coconut sugar and made a little fancier with a drizzle of salted date caramel sauce (recipe also below).
How To Make This Recipe
This recipe follows a familiar “mix the wet in one bowl, mix the dry in another bowl, then combine” but first you have to peel and slice the apples. So here’s a quick summary of how to make this apple coffee cake:
- Peel and slice apples and place in lemon water to prevent browning.
- Mix all the dry ingredients in large bowl.
- Blend wet ingredients together in a blender.
- Combine wet and dry.
- Pour into parchment lined bread pan.
- Drain the apples and tuck them into the top of the batter.
- Bake.
- Remove from oven and let cool.
- Drizzle with salted date caramel and nuts, if desired!
Ingredients You'll Need
- Granny Smith apples
- Almond flour
- Oat flour (gluten-free if needed)
- Arrowroot starch
- Baking powder and soda
- Chia seeds
- Spices (cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cloves)
- Salt
- Unsweetened apple sauce
- Dairy-free milk
- Almond butter (raw or roasted)
- Maple Syrup
- Vanilla extract
Health Notes
Granny Smith Apples. I love Granny Smith! I recently shared on IG why! Here’s a summary:
- They’re slightly tart and sweet.
- They hold their shape well.
- They’re rarely mealy.
- They’re widely available.
- They have less sugar than other apple varieties.
Chia Seeds
Chia seeds are a plant-based pantry must-have! They’re a great source of many essential vitamins, minerals, protein, fibre, and essential fats.
In this vegan apple coffee cake, the chia seeds are used as a binder as the chia seeds absorb liquid and become mucilaginous (i.e. like eggs).
Tips and Tricks
Parchment Paper. Line your bread pan with parchment paper as you see in the picture above. I like to do it this way so that the two opposing long sides of the pan have overhanging parchment. This is what you’ll pull on to get the loaf out of the pan.
But! The short sides of the pan might have some sticking. To avoid pieces of cake being ripped off, run a thin spatula or butter knife along the short edges of the pan to loosen the cake.
You can freeze this cake (with the salted date caramel) for up to 3 months. I like to slice it then freeze it so that you can remove a piece or two when needed and not have to defrost all the leftovers.
This vegan apple coffee cake is also outrageously delicious served warm with dairy-free vanilla ice cream…yummmmm.
Salted Date Caramel: You can freeze the salted date caramel if you have leftovers. Or if you don’t want to go through the trouble of making it, you can drizzle some thinned nut butter over the top of the cake instead. Thin nut butter by whisking it with small amounts of dairy-free milk (or maple syrup to make it sweeter) until your desired consistency is reached.
Vegan Apple Coffee Cake with Salted Date Caramel
Equipment
- Bread Pan (9x5 inches)
- BLENDER
Ingredients
- 2 small granny smith apples
Dry Ingredients
- 1 cup blanched almond flour
- 1 cup oat flour gluten-free if needed
- 1/3 cup coconut sugar
- 2 tablespoons arrowroot starch
- 2 tablespoons chia seeds
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
Wet Ingredients
- Scant ¾ cup unsweetened soy or almond milk
- ½ cup unsweetened apple sauce
- ¼ cup stirred almond butter (raw or roasted)
- 3 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Garnish
- ⅓ cup chopped pecans
- ¼ cup Salted Date Caramel (recipe below)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Line a bread pan (approximately 9 x 5 x 3 inches) with parchment paper so the paper hangs out over two opposing sides.
- Fill a medium bowl with water and add a squeeze of half a lemon – this is the water you’ll keep the sliced apples in to prevent them from browning. Peel and thinly slice the apples (about ¼ inch thick slices) and place the apple slices in the bowl of lemon water until needed.
- Now mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Break up any clumps of almond flour or coconut sugar with a spatula or your hands.
- Add all the wet ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth. Transfer the wet ingredients to the dry and mix with a spatula until no dry spots remain.
- Pour the batter into the bread pan. Now, in groups of 3 or 4, gently push the apple slices, curved side facing up, about halfway into the batter in a random pattern. Keep a little space between the apple slices. Refer to the picture.
- Place the pan in the oven and bake for 50 to 60 minutes. The cake should be browned and feel almost firm to touch. Let the cake cool completely in the pan on a cooling rack.
- Once cooled, slide a thin spatula or butter knife along the edge of the pan not lined with parchment paper (the short ends) to completely loosen the cake and then pull it out of the pan.
- You can enjoy the cake just like this or jazz it up by drizzling with Salted Date Caramel and pecans or chopped almonds. Slice into 8 slices.
Notes
Salted Date Caramel
Equipment
- BLENDER
Ingredients
- 1 packed cup pitted dates (Medjool or Deglet Noor)
- ¼ cup stirred almond or cashew butter
- ½ cup unsweetened dairy-free milk plus more as needed
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to a high-speed blender and blend until completely smooth. Add more milk, 1-2 tablespoons at a time, to reach a thick but pourable/spreadable consistency. Transfer to a glass jar with a lid.
- Keep in the fridge up for up to 5 days or freeze for up to a month.
Jcb
Can date paste replace the coconut sugar or will that make it too wet?
Ashley Madden
Hi JCB, you’re right. If you directly sub date paste for the coconut sugar it will be too wet. But, you could play around with it. You could try using 1/3 cup date paste (add with the wet ingredients) and reduce the milk by 1/3 cup? I haven’t tried this so cannot guarantee results! I hope this helps!
Ashley
Dan
Hi Ashley,
Do you think I could use tapioca flour instead of arrowroot?
Thank you for creating all these amazing recipes!
Ashley Madden
Hi Dan! Typically I wouldn’t replace arrowroot with tapioca but I think here you can! You could also omit the arrowroot and get a good result I think! The arrowroot helps as a stabilizer but you might not notice a huge difference! You can also use cornstarch if you have that. Let me know how how it goes!