Having a slice of this upside down apple and pear loaf is like having a delicious slice of fall!
The apples and pears caramelize by baking on the bottom of the loaf pan with a caramel sauce, and then being flipped over when cooled, and all the warming spices combine to make this one of the best loaf recipes I have ever made and had!
Ok, that last sentence, I’m not sure if it really conveys what I was trying to say: basically there’s this awesome almost crunchy caramel-sugar layer that forms because this loaf is bake upside down, it’s really good!! It’s also not a dry loaf because pieces of apple and pear are cooked into the batter, so it has subtle fruit flavors throughout!
Are you a ‘loaf’ person? I didn’t used to be, but a few years ago my sisters were raving about a pumpkin loaf which I recreated, and absolutely fell in love with loaves after that. Now, every time I see them at a coffee shop, I get a slice because I love trying different flavors!
I made this upside down apple and pear loaf for the first time when we went to a housewarming party, and I got a sweet text from the host (Nick’s cousin and his new wife who is a total sweetheart) saying that it had been devoured and there were only mere crumbs left and another text asking for the recipe from guests. I’d count that as a huge success.
This coming weekend we’re having Ben’s baptism and having family and friends stay over, so I’m definitely making this loaf to have for either breakfast along side a nice cup of coffee, or for dessert.
I love that one can have a loaf for breakfast or dessert, so versatile! My old loaf pan I had was literally rusted through – how does that even happen? – so I just got this loaf pan on Amazon and have been loving it! What I love about this upside down apple and pear loaf is that you can slice it and cut each slice in half or into thirds, so it’s a really great party recipe, hope you enjoy.
Other recipes you might enjoy:
- Healthy Apple Cider Donuts with a Tahini Maple Glaze
- 5 Ingredient Pear Crumble For Two
- Coffee Crumble Apple Pie
Upside down apple and pear loaf recipe
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup butter 1/2 stick or 4 tablespoons
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
- 1 medium apple peeled, cored, divided (1/2 sliced, 1/2 finely diced) - about 1 1/2 cups total
- 1 medium pear peeled, cored, divided (1/2 sliced, 1/2 finely diced)- about 1 cup
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking power
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 3 eggs
- 2/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350
- Spray a nonstick large loaf pan (9.25 x 5.25) with cooking spray and set aside.
- In a small saucepan melt butter, brown sugar and fresh grated ginger over medium-high heat, stirring constantly until the mixture is combined and resembles a caramel sauce and the edges start to bubble. Remove from heat.
- Pour 1/2 of the sauce from the pot into the bottom of the prepared loaf pan. Lay alternating slices of apples and pears along the center/bottom of the loaf pan, on top of the sauce.
- Then pour remaining 1/2 sauce on top of the pear and apple slices.
- In a large bowl combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, brown sugar and granulated sugar. Stir a few times to combine all the dry ingredients.
- In a separate bowl, add eggs, vegetable oil and vanilla and stir until the eggs are combined with the oil, then pour into the dry mixture and combine. Lastly, add the small apple and pear pieces to the batter and stir.
- Pour batter into the loaf pan (it should come up to 3/4 side, don't overfill the loaf pan) and bake for 50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out of the center mostly clean.
- Remove from oven, and allow the loaf to cool (about 2 hours) before turning it onto a board or serving plate and then gently wiggling the loaf pan off (you man need to run a knife gently around the edges.) Slice and enjoy
Nutrition
Abbie says
Hi,
I made this recipe a few weeks ago using only pears (that a neighbor had given us from their prolific pear tree). The loaf came out soooo yummy!
That same neighbor recently gave us a fresh pineapple and the first thing that came to mind was your upside down loaf recipe. I’m guessing most any fruit will work, so I’m going to give it a whirl!
Thanks for an easy and very yummy recipe!
Sweetphi says
Ooooooh I want to live close to that neighbor lol! So glad to hear only pears worked for you too (I’ve tried that a few times with success too) and I think pretty much most fruit would work in this recipe – I’d love to hear how pineapple turns out for you!!
Sue says
So I’ve just taken this loaf out of the oven and letting it cool. Can’t wait to try it . I’m hoping it will be ok because I misread amount of oil and only used 1/3 of a cup 🤷🏻♀️. I really need to read recipes twice first . I thought I’d be enjoying it fresh for breakfast but maybe it will be a dessert loaf later tonight 😊
Sweetphi says
I’d love to know how you liked it! It should have been fine with a little less oil with all the other ingredients, maybe a little drier 😉 but still good.
Helen says
Now I’m itching to try this in a bundt pan. (And who said algebra has no real life applications?)
Sweetphi says
Haha, can’t wait to hear how it turns out for you as a bundt
Pat says
Hi! I totally want to make this soon. How do you think it would be with all apples? I’ve got an overabundance from the farmers’ marke!
Sweetphi says
I’ve made it before with all apples and it turns out great!! I too had a bunch of apples last year so I made apple-only loves and loved it!
Helen says
Help! We followed this recipe exactly and we had lots of problems. We used the correct size pans, but the batter seemed awfully high in the pan. While in the oven, the caramel sauce bubbled up and overflowed out of the pans — leaving a burning mess on the bottom of the oven. Are you sure 350 is the right temp?. Then, the top corners rose very high and burned while the middle of the loaves were still uncooked. I ended up taking the pans out of the oven, cutting off the burnt edges and then baking the loaves further at a much lower temp (250) until the toothpick came out clean. Yes, I know 250 is very low, but the outside of the loaves were burnt. The loaves tasted fine but the caramel sauce was no longer present. I’d like to try this again. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks!
Sweetphi says
Hi Helen, thank you so much for your comment. I’m so sorry to hear you had issues!! So I actually just made this recipe also and didn’t have any issues so I’m a little stumped.
You mentioned “pans” and “loaves” a few times… did you have multiple pans or try to double the recipe? The recipe I made was for 1 loaf, baked in 1 pan, so I don’t know how it would work if doubled/etc.
350 is definitely the correct temperature for baking. This loaf is very similar to a banana bread or a pumpkin loaf, all of which are baked at 350.
The idea you had of cutting off the edges and baking it at a lower temperature is exactly what I have done.
The only idea I’d have would be to make it again, just 1 loaf as written. And you’re using the slightly bigger loaf pan than a normal one? Oh, also maybe if you wanted you could make this in a cake pan, I’ve done that before too and it also turns out great.
Thanks for taking the time to leave me feedback, I always appreciate it.
Helen says
Hi Phil, Thanks for your response. Yes, we doubled the recipe and used two pans. Now I see you used a fairly large pan. I used two American standard loaf pans 8-1/2 x 4-1/2 x 2-1/2 inches, so that must have been the problem. I’ll try again. I did find the recipe a bit of a challenge in measuring the pear and apple. A weight or measure would have been helpful rather than “1 pear” and “1 apple” since there is so much variation in produce. I tried your crock pot potatoes recipe recently and was so happy you gave exact measurements — 5 lbs of potatoes cut in pieces 3/4 to 1 inch in size. That was great! Thanks again!!
Sweetphi says
Hi Helen, so glad we were able to figure it out. I think the loaf pan size is the culprit, because I just googled and the loaf pan you used holds approx. 4 cups volume, and the one I used and have listed in the recipe holds double that, around 8 cups!! I did list loaf pan size in the recipe specifically for that reason, but I definitely will add a measure of the pear and apple, it’s just your standard medium-large pear and apple, but I’ll add measurements.
All the best,
Phi
Helen says
Thanks! I’m trying this again very soon!
Helen says
Success! This is so yummy. But one loaf is not enough!
Sweetphi says
So happy it all worked out, it definitely is such a good recipe 🙂
Leslie says
Sooo delish!
Sweetphi says
YAY, so happy to hear this!
Ashley says
hello,
I have a few pears I need to put to use! lol This looks great! Do you think I can substitute actual ginger for grounf ginger?
xoxo, Ashley
Sweetphi says
What a great question, I think you’d totally be fine making that substitution (you’ll love this recipe, it’s so so good, just seeing this comment on the recipe makes me want to make it again!)
Ashley says
Currently about ti throw it in the oven, also ended up findind fresh ginger afterall yay! The batter was pretty thick almost dough texture and I followed everything to the T, Hope it turns out great cause it looks amazing!
Sweetphi says
The batter on this totally is on the thicker side. I hope you loved it!!
Matthew says
Very confused about this one. Are you sure it’s TWO cups of flour because it was incredibly dry and we had to add a good amount of oat milk to even get anything close to a batter consistency.
Once made it is very claggy and thick too.
Did we miss something because everyone else seems to love it?
Sweetphi says
Hi there Matthew, yes, it is 2 cups of flour…but there is no oat milk in this recipe, so I’m not quite sure if you’re referring to the same recipe? This recipe doesn’t contain any milk. It does contain oil (which is obviously different than milk)…and I haven’t tested it with different substitutions. As written it turns out super good.
Debbie N says
I agree. I’ve been baking for 7+ years, and the dry-wet ratio doesn’t seem right. Followed the recipe exactly, and after mixing everything together noticed that there was definitely not enough wet ingredients. I had to add extra oil and added milk to get it to the right consistency, otherwise it would’ve been just dry and clumpy. Maybe I’ll try again, but I didn’t miss a single step or ingredient, so not sure.
Sweetphi says
Hi Debbie, thanks for your comment. As an experienced baker, I’m so surprised to hear that the batter in this loaf recipe didn’t seem to have the correct consistency for you…there’s 2 cups of flour, 2/3 cups oil and 3 eggs…so a cup of liquid to 2 cups dry…seems correct. Perhaps you misread the amount of oil? I’ve made this loaf as written 10+ times as well as there’s a bunch of positive comments and feedback and over 700 people have favorited this recipe, so I’m confident the recipe is pretty spot on. I’d love to try to help trouble shoot…I see that you added extra oil and milk, did you make any other changes? Did you try it as written? Happy to help if you give me a starting point.
Nanny says
Can you freeze this bread? I’d like to make a few for Christmas gifts.
Sweetphi says
What a great idea! I think you should be able to freeze it and then gift it. I have a recipe for pumpkin bread (https://sweetphi.com/the-best-pumpkin-loaf-ever-gluten-free-and-better-than-starbucks/) and I freeze that and gift it all the time!
Debbie Landers says
Made this today & it looks absolutely divine. Haven’t tasted yet! So all the way from RSA🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦 thank you
Sweetphi says
Thank you so much for commenting!!! I hope you loved this!!
Little Cooking Tips says
We LOVE that you made your own caramel for this. We prefer to make our own as well whenever a recipe calls for it.
The cake looks awesome, definitely trying it!
Hugs!
another lady face says
can you just use a prepared caramel sauce (I hate making caramel and it always burns or does not turn out for me). If so, how much should be used for this recipe? Also, I have always heard to remove the upside down cakes from the pan right after they come out of the oven so the sugars don’t harden and stick tot he bottom of the pan. Is this true in your experience?
Sweetphi says
Hi there, I’m not sure if my sauce is a true ‘caramel’ so I don’t know if it would translate the same way lol, but I think it would! I’d suggest using a generous 1/2 cup of the caramel sauce. That’s really interesting that you’ve heard to remove upside down cakes from the pan right after they come out of the oven so the sugars don’t harden, I have always thought you wanted the sugars to harden so that the fruit doesn’t just fall off because the sugar is soft…if that makes sense. So, I guess it just depends on your preference, I like when the sugars harden a little bit and form a nice ‘crust’ almost and the fruit stays on, but that’s just me…i’ve never tried it the other way around 🙂
shawnna says
hey girl- this looks so tasty!
Sweetphi says
Thank you so much girl, this one was definitely a winner!
Denise says
I am officially hungry now! I have been waiting for October to break out fall baking days, and now all I want to do is make this cake, pour a cup of coffee and enjoy!
Sweetphi says
Thank you so for your lovely comment Denise! This loaf is what really got me in the fall baking mood. I have made it several times and it just seems like my go-to fall dish for bringing to parties…or for with that precious cup of coffee!
Nancy Truszynski says
Ready to make this but unsure about the ginger-I have ground dry ginger or minced ginger in a jar..which one did you use?
Sweetphi says
Hi Nancy, thank you so much for your comment! You could use either, or both! I think a pinch of the dry ginger (because that’s very powerful) and then 1/2 teaspoon of the minced ginger would be great! Hope you love this amazing recipe.