Apple Cinnamon Sourdough Bread

If you’re craving sourdough bread with flavor, this amazing apple cinnamon sourdough bread recipe is perfect for you!

I especially love making this in the winter, when the warm taste of cinnamon, combined with baked apples just seems right.

I’ve heard people remark that they don’t like making sourdough because it takes too long, but honestly, that’s one of the things I love about it. I feel like it frees me up to be flexible, rather than having to dedicate a lot of time to making yeast bread. Because while it does take a lot of time in total, it’s in 1-2 minute spurts, so I go about my day of farm chores and homeschooling, and stop to do my stretch and folds every now and then.

And at the end of the day? A fresh, hot loaf of bread is ready to serve with dinner.

For this recipe, I’m using my same day sourdough template, which allows you to make the bread from start to finish in one day.

If you prefer the longer bulk-ferment time, using an overnight method, I recommend you follow the directions in this cranberry walnut sourdough loaf recipe. Use the measurements in the this recipe, the timing progression in the other. The reason you need to make sure to use the measurements here is that while the cranberry-walnut is higher hydration starting out to make up for the cranberries soaking up moisture, the apple-cinnamon is much lower hydration starting out, because the apples will add a lot of water to the loaf. It’s a completely different dough.

With all that said, let’s get down to the nuts and bolts.

Ingredients used for making apple cinnamon sourdough bread

• Sourdough starter. I use a white flour starter for this.
• Water
• All purpose flour
• Salt
• Ground cinnamon
• Apples – use a variety that is good for baking. I like to use Fuji, honeycrisp, or gala because I feel like it’s a nice blend of flavorful, and firm texture.
• Optionally, you can also add walnuts for some nice richness and texture. I would add about a cup to this recipe.

Substitutions. The main one here would be using apple pie spice instead of just cinnamon.

Equipment needed to make Cinnamon apple sourdough bread

For making sourdough, it seems the more popular it becomes, the more specialized equipment there is to go with it. You can buy a kit from your favorite sourdough creator, or spend untold numbers of dollars buying proofing baskets, scoring tools, bread baking irons, and more.

But I’ll share a little secret with you:

• You don’t need a dough whisk – a sturdy fork works just fine.
• You don’t need a bench scraper – you can use a butcher’s knife.
• You don’t have to have a proofing basket – line a bowl with a tea towel, and you’ll be just fine.
• Instead of a scoring tool, you can use a razor blade or super sharp knife.
• A cast-iron dutch oven is nice, but do you know what? When I bake for the farmer’s market, I use two 9×5 inch loaf tins – one to put the loaf in, one to act as the lid. This allows me to fit more loaves into the oven at one time, and keeps my expenses down. I’m not worried about what the tins are made from, because they are lined with parchment paper, and the bread doesn’t come into contact with the pan itself.

This is not to say that any of those thing are bad, or that you shouldn’t get them if you love making sourdough, and want to use those things.

But when you’re just giving it a try, figuring things out and/or are on a budget, you don’t have to have any of it. Most of us already have the things we need in our kitchens.

The only things that I highly recommend you have that you may not already is a food scale that weighs in grams. These are very affordable. I have one that I picked up from Aldi more than ten years ago that is still going strong. I also have this one from Amazon that works well.

If you don’t have a scale, you can google conversions (how many teaspoons/tablespoons/cups, etc. is x number of grams of each ingredients), but your results will be unreliable, because your measurements won’t be as exact, or exactly the same every time.

If there’s one things I can say for the rise in sourdough baking, it’s been good for normalizing weighing ingredients, which is really the way to go for consistent, exact results.

Anyway, let’s proceed with the recipe.

How to make sourdough apple cinnamon bread

Feed sourdough starter first thing in the morning, or the evening prior to use first thing in the morning.

When the starter is at its peak and ready to use, proceed with the next steps.

1. Weigh water and sourdough starter into your non-reactive bowl (glass, stainless steel, etc.), and whisk together well
   
   
2. Add flour and salt
3. Mix together until a ball of dough forms. It may not be the prettiest ball, but don’t worry, it will smooth out during the process.
4. Cover with a tea towel or plastic wrap, and let rest 45 minutes
   
   
5. While dough is resting, core and shred apples. I don’t find it necessary to peel apples before shredding, as most of the peel will come of during the process, and what doesn’t will be small pieces that won’t be noticeable in the final loaf.
6. Drain excess liquid from apples, but don’t squeeze it out – just gently drain – and combine apples with cinnamon.
   
7. Add cinnamon filling on top of the dough, re-covering to finish the resting time.
8. Uncover the bowl, wet your hands, and stretch one side of the dough as far as possible without tearing (it won’t be far on the first stretch), and fold dough toward center, over the apples.
9. Turn bowl 1/4 turn, re-wet hand, and repeat. (I find it best to do this beside a running faucet so I can rewet my hand between each stretch).
10. Repeat until all four sides have been stretched and folded. It’s okay if you need to keep folding more than the required four times in order to get the apples more incorporated, but don’t worry about it too much as you have three more stretch and fold sessions to get them all folded in.
11. Cover dough, and let rest again for 45 minutes.
    
12. Repeat process for a total of four stretch and fold sessions, with 45 minutes between each.
13. After the last session, dump dough onto a lightly floured surface, and shape. pulling dough up from the side to the center, to form a tight ball to make a sourdough boule.
14. Turn ball over, so that the smooth bottom side is now the top, and gently work dough ball into a nice circle with a bench scraper or floured hands.
15. Place dough onto a piece or parchment paper, and let rest for 45 minutes.
16. While dough rests, place bread baker in oven, and preheat to 425º.
17. Pick up dough using the corners of the piece of parchment paper, and put into hot bread baker.
18. Score with a razor. I like to do a long score about halfway between the center and edge of the loaf so the oven spring gives it a nice ear.
    
    
19. Spritz loaf with water, or place an ice cube in bottom of baker, between the pan and the parchment paper, to create steam.
20. Place lid on baker, and place in oven.
21. Bake for 25 minutes in the center of the oven.
22. Remove lid to create a crispy crust, and bake until golden brown (about 25 more minutes, until the internal temperature reaches 190-200º)
23. Remove from oven, and transfer loaf to a wire rack to cool
24. Slice, and serve with butter, or as desired.

Storing the bread

Let bread cool completely before bagging up to store. My kids usually start slicing and eating this as soon as I will let them but truthfully, crusty sourdough doesn’t cut the best while it’s hot, so I never let them do it straight out of the oven.

Nevertheless, I do usually have half a loaf or so leftover to store.

• Make sure your loaf is completely cool before bagging up.
• Store in an airtight bag, such as a ziplock bag. I have these reusable bags that work really well.

This bread will keep at room temperature for a day or two. If you want it to last longer, store in the refrigerator for up to five days.

More Sourdough Recipes for you

• Overnight sourdough cinnamon rolls
• Easy Sourdough discard pie crust
• Sourdough Pizza crust recipe
• Flaky sourdough biscuits recipe
• Easy sourdough tortillas

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