Easy Fruit Bread Recipe

There's nothing better than a freshly baked loaf of bread — the warmth, the aroma, and the amazing flavors are truly enjoyable anytime of day. Even the simplest types of bread, like sourdough or multigrain, are delicious on their own, but bread is even better with a little extra oomph. Thanks to recipe developer and wellness coach Miriam Hahn's fruit bread recipe, it's never been easier to enjoy bakery-level quality right in the comfort of your own home.

There are plenty of ways that one could incorporate fruit into bread, but Hahn's recipe uses raisins, dried cranberries, and orange zest to achieve the flavor profile in a simple but delicious way. Along with cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, this bread has a depth of flavor that is akin to banana bread — "similar to banana bread without the banana flavor," Hahn explains. "I would describe the flavor of the bread like an apple cinnamon roll," she continues, adding that the spices help add nutty, woody, and warm flavors. 

Best of all, this recipe is incredibly easy to make. While some bread recipes take hours to make and several mixing bowls, this easy fruit bread will be ready in less than an hour and doesn't require any fancy tools. If you're a fan of banana bread and are looking for a similar flavor profile, give this fruit bread recipe a try — it'll be perfect for an easy breakfast or brunch!

To make this easy fruit bread recipe, you'll need flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, salt, vegetable oil, eggs, applesauce, vanilla, orange zest, raisins, and dried cranberries. Hahn also notes that you can mix ground flax with water to form a gel in lieu of using eggs, if you'd like to make the recipe vegan. Also, Hahn uses golden raisins in the recipe, though you can easily use regular raisins if that's what you prefer or it's all you have on hand. 

Once you have your ingredients sorted, you can go ahead and prepare your baking dish or loaf pan. First, preheat your oven to 350F so it'll be ready to go once you're finished preparing the batter. Then, grab your loaf pan and place it on top of a sheet of parchment paper. Using scissors, you can cut the paper as shown in the picture so it will fit perfectly into the loaf pan. Once you've cut the parchment paper, you can take the sheet and place it inside of your pan.

Now that you have your loaf pan prepared with parchment paper, you can move on to the actual ingredients. Start by grabbing a large bowl and add in your dry ingredients, including the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Using a whisk, mix all of these ingredients together until they're thoroughly combined, and then set the bowl aside and prepare to move on to the wet ingredients part of the recipe. 

In a medium-sized bowl, add in your oil and eggs (or flax mixture) and mix those until combined. Then, add in the applesauce, vanilla, and orange zest, and stir until those are combined as well. Once you have all of your wet ingredients combined, go ahead and grab your bowl of dry ingredients and add the two together. Mix these ingredients until they form an even batter (like the one shown in the picture). Your batter should be relatively thick in consistency, but still somewhat wet and easy to mix and pour.

Once you've formed your batter, you can go ahead and add the last two ingredients to the mix: raisins and dried cranberries. Fold these in, and then go ahead and grab your loaf pan with the parchment paper. Carefully pour your batter into the pan — you'll notice that the sides you cut on the parchment paper will sink down with the batter, creating a nonstick barrier between your bread and the pan. This is especially ideal as it will make for easy removal from the pan once the bread bakes and you don't need to use any sort of nonstick spray! Pretty nifty, eh?

Pop your bread into the oven and bake for about 55-65 minutes, or 40-45 minutes if you're using a convection setting on your oven. You'll know the bread is done when you can stick a toothpick into the loaf and it comes out clean. At this point, allow the loaf to cool for 15 minutes in the pan, then another 20 minutes on a cooling rack. From there, go ahead and slice your bread, optionally serve with butter, and enjoy!

"I love it for breakfast or dessert," Hahn says of this easy fruit bread, also noting that it makes for a great brunch option. As for beverages, she also says that this bread "goes great with coffee or a hot cup of matcha," but the options are really endless with how you can enjoy this bread. If you want to whip up an easy, quick, and flavorful loaf of bread as a go-to breakfast or simple dessert, give this fruit bread recipe a try — you'll never want to go back to plain old banana bread ever again!