This dish dates back to the Victorian era and was created to use up any remaining canned fruit in the pantry. It makes excellent holiday gifts and is especially lovely around Christmas. If preferred, top with a lemon glaze or cream cheese icing.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 55 mins |
| Additional Time: | 5 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 20 mins |
| Servings: | 10 |
| Yield: | 10 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 cup quick cooking oats
- ½ cup butter, melted
- ½ cup white sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups applesauce
- ½ cup chopped walnuts
- ½ cup black raisins
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease 8×4 inch loaf pan.
- Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and cloves together in a large bowl. Stir in the oats. Beat the butter, sugar, and vanilla together in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Stir in the eggs until well blended. Mix in the applesauce, walnuts, and raisins. Stir in the flour mixture just until moistened. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
- Bake in preheated oven until a knife inserted in middle comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Take care not to overbake. Cool 5 minutes in pan before turning out on a rack to cool completely.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 298 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 39 g |
| Cholesterol | 62 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 g |
| Protein | 5 g |
| Saturated Fat | 7 g |
| Sodium | 422 mg |
| Sugars | 20 g |
| Fat | 15 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Essentially, this was oatmeal raisin cookies in loaf form. After 55 minutes in oven, it was undercooked.
I was pressed for time so looked for a loaf recipe that had a holiday feel when I found this one. I had an open jar of applesauce that needed to be used up but it only had 1¾ cups in it, so I decided to add a ¼ cup of pureed prunes as this is what I had available. I did not have any walnuts, or other nuts, and after reading a few reviews, decided to add ½ dried cranberries instead. It was good but I think nuts would have added to the flavour. I used regular oats and they were okay, even though I would grind the oats down some next time. We all felt that this was better after sitting a couple of days. I iced it with Bella’s Eggnog Frosting to make it more festive and it was a very good combination.
This bread is awesome just how it is written. Usually it takes about 70 minutes in the oven but that may just be my oven. If we do not have raisins we use half cranberries, half cherries (dried, both) and it comes out even better. After making it about ten times we decided to double the cloves and add half teaspoon of allspice and half cup of shredded coconut , made it even better. Honestly though, it deserves all five stars just as is.
I can’t believe this hasn’t had more reviews. This bread is the BEST! I make this bread every year, in small loaves, for everyone at Christmas… and they LOVE it. You can add different fruits if you would like and it would still be great!!
after reading some notes i too reduced the applesauce to 1 1/4 c. and added 7 chopped figs dredged in oat bran. I also plumped the raisins in a cup of chai tea (no sugar)… Baked in two mini loaf pans.quite happy with the result.
I made muffins out of this recipe. I ground my oats down in my mini food processor for a finer texture. We don’t care for walnuts so I used chopped pecans in it’s place. I also soaked my raisins in unsweetened, hot chai for 20 minutes before adding them to the muffin batter. (I assumed that black raisins were regular raisins, mine were just organic) SUPER moist, awesome texture and really flavorful. I got 12 largish muffins out of one recipe–350* for 20 minutes and they were perfect. I think these would be good with chopped apples thrown in and maybe a half teaspoon of nutmeg, too. I’ll make this again.
Wonderful bread that’s bursting with a delicious combination of fruits and nuts! I cut back on the applesauce a bit and added some fresh chopped apples. I also a struesel topping before popping it into the oven. I baked this in a 9×5 baking dish and it was done in about an hour. It smelled divine and tasted fabulous!
I liked this bread as well. I did not add the sugar, but added a ripe bananna instead. I also did not use any butter, and added chopped dried apricots instead. It did not rise much, maybe next time I will try more baking power/soda. Any tips? It is sweet enough, dont need the sugar or fat in my diet.
Wow, this was FANTASTIC! Moist and delicious! Will definitely save to my recipe box!
This bread is just what I was looking for: fruit bread (or cake) with dried, not candied, fruit. I made just a few minor changes by using 1/3 cup butter and then added pureed prunes to make it 1/2 cup, and I added 1/2 cup each chopped dates and dried cranberries. It turned out rich, filling, and very tasty. And the aroma of the cloves was heavenly. I baked it in cupcake pans and the size and portion were just right. This is definitely a keeper!
Very very good. Not too sweet and very moist! Definately would make it again.
Great tasting treat! I made 1/2 batch and put into two 2.5 x 5 in. foil pans. Gave one away, and the lady who doesn’t even like raisins loved this bread!
Delicious! I followed the recipe exactly and it was perfect. Be sure your loaf pan is big enough as this makes a BIG loaf! Very moist; perfect with a little cream cheese on top. Will make again for sure.
YUMMY! I added a little candied fruit and it came out like a mini fruitcake, but not as heavy tasting. Much better than any storebought fruitcakes. And since I’m in the fruitcake-loving minority, it’s an easy size recipe to fill the mini loaf pans. Thanks!!