Classic Zucchini Bread
on Jul 10, 2019, Updated Apr 15, 2025
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Moist and tender and perfect for snacking on all day long. No such thing as too much zucchini when you can make zucchini bread or muffins!
Zucchini bread is the number one recipe to turn to when you are in the midst of those zucchini-filled months of summer. The good news is that you can use more mature zucchini to make zucchini bread, so this is a great way to use up those larger zucchini that have passed their moment to be used in salads and the like. If you have a garden, you know how hard it is to use up all of the zucchini before they get big and fat — this recipe is perfect for those oversized zucchini.
Plus, if you bake, you probably have all of the ingredients in your house at this very moment. It takes about 15 minutes to get the quick bread into the oven — also, check out the option for zucchini muffins below! They’re great to bring as a snack for a crowd. You have your choice of keeping it simple or adding raisins or nuts — I happen to love raisins in my zucchini bread.
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Is this cake? Is this a quick bread? Maybe it’s breakfast, a snack, a dessert? The answer is yes to all.
Table of Contents
Zucchini has a well-deserved reputation for too-muchness. A faster-growing vegetable is hard to find; they come thundering in, whether it’s at the farmers market or in your own garden, and they demand to be used. My neighbor Ted has this to say about zucchini season: “When I was a kid, it was the only time we ever locked our houses and cars in town. You didn’t want to go out and then come back to find a bag of zucchini left on your car seat or kitchen counter.”
This recipe can make two zucchini bread loaves or 24 zucchini bread muffins…or, in this case, 12 muffins and one loaf, since I was being indecisive.
Easy, moist, with just the right level of sweetness — and ready to pop into the oven in less than 15 minutes! This Classic Zucchini Bread recipe is makes 2 loaves or 24 muffins.
Kitchen Smarts
If you are using large zucchini and the skin is particularly thick, peel it before grating. Also, for large zucchini, make sure to scrape out the seeds from the middle, which could make your zucchini bread watery and give it a less desirable texture.
Zucchini Bread Ingredients
- Flour – All purpose, please.
- Ground cinnamon – This warm spice is where the bulk of the flavor in your zucchini bread comes from (aside from the zucchini, of course).
- Baking powder – One of the two leavening agents used in this recipe.
- Baking soda – Having both baking powder and soda here allows the baking soda to counteract the acidity of the cooked zucchini, while the baking powder actually propels the whole mixture to rise.
- Large eggs – Bind the bread and help with texture.
- Canola or vegetable oil – Any neutrally flavored oil is fine.
- Sugar – You could reduce the sugar to 1 1/2 cups if you like a slightly less sweet zucchini bread.
- Vanilla extract – Brings out the natural sweetness of the zucchini.
- Zucchini – The star of the show! You can feel free to use more mature zucchini in this recipe. Check out the tips below for how to grate your zucchini and how to remove/avoid using the mushy seeds in the center.
- Raisins or chopped walnuts – The raisins and walnuts are optional, but I love a good raisin in my zucchini bread.
How to Make Zucchini Bread
- Preheat the oven and prep the loaf pans.
- Mix your dry ingredients together: In a medium-sized bowl, combine the flour, salt, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon together.
- Mix the wet ingredients: Beat the eggs, oil, sugar, and vanilla together in a large bowl. Add the zucchini and stir until combined.
- Combine the batter: Blend in the flour mixture. Stir in the nuts or raisins, if using. Pour the batter into the prepared pans.
- Bake: Bake the loaves for about 50 to 55 minutes, or until a skewer or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes. Remove the bread from the pans, and allow it to completely cool on the wire rack (or enjoy ever-so-slightly warm).
Tips
- When you add the flour mixture, stir just until there are no streaks of flour visible. Do not overmix.
- When you grate the zucchini, use the biggest holes on a box grater, or you’ll end up with watery pulp.
- Check to see if the zucchini skin is thick and tough or bitter-tasting — if so, peel it. If not, you are fine to include that in the grating. Always grate from the outside of the vegetable in, and stop grating when you get to the middle, avoiding the seedy center.
How to Turn Zucchini Bread into Muffins
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees: Line a cupcake tin with paper liners or spray it with nonstick cooking spray.
- Bake the muffins for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a skewer or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
FAQs
If you are using a bigger zucchini, if the skin is thick and tough, you should peel it. If not, you are fine to include that in the grating. Always grate from the outside of the vegetable in, and stop grating when you get to the middle, thereby avoiding the seeds. And by the way, use the biggest holes on a box grater for this, or you’ll end up with watery pulp.
Quick breads are just that…quick! Since they don’t require yeast, they’re great kid-cooking projects. Quick breads make super gifts over the holidays or for any thinking-of-you moment, and they’re very portable (wrap it well, and you could even overnight a loaf to a lucky recipient).
In this particular instance, quick breads are probably the best way to make use of the copious amounts of zucchini that erupt from gardens in late summer. And unlike some other recipes where the smaller, more tender zucchini are pretty much all you’d want to use, zucchini-based baked goods are quite forgiving.
The middle of the zucchini, which contains the seeds, can be unpleasantly seedy, mushy, and/or spongy if the zucchini is on the larger side. If your zucchini is very seedy, slice it in half lengthwise, then scrape out the seedy, spongy middle with a spoon, and then grate or use however you like.
Zucchini naturally contains cucurbitacins, which can taste bitter. To avoid this taste, you just need to make sure to peel and seed more mature zucchini before eating or using in a recipe.
Zucchini is a plant that is rich in water, and older, larger zucchini have more water than their smaller counterparts. If there is too much moisture in the shredded zucchini, you’ll end up with mushy, squishy zucchini bread. To avoid that fate, you should squeeze your less firm grated zucchini with a paper towel to remove excess water.
It might also be soggy if you underbaked it, so make sure a wooden skewer comes out clean before you take it from the oven. Also, after 20 minutes, remove it from the pan to finish cooling on the wire rack.
How to Store Zucchini Bread and Muffins
Well-wrapped zucchini bread or muffins will keep for up to 4 days at room temperature. You can also freeze them for up to 8 months: Wrap them first in plastic wrap, then wrap it again in aluminum foil. Mark the package as zucchini bread, and add the date.
Muffins will keep for a similar amount of time if wrapped well in a similar fashion. Defrost either on the counter for a day, though muffins may defrost in under 12 hours.
More Quick Bread Recipes to Try
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- Zucchini Ribbon Salad
- Baby Zucchini Gratin
- Baked Zucchini Chips
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Classic Zucchini Bread or Muffins
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup canola or vegetable oil
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 cups lightly packed grated zucchini (peel the zucchini if necessary before grating if the skin is tough)
- 1 cup raisins or chopped walnuts (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease two 8- x 4-inch loaf pans and line with paper liners if you like (or spray either with nonstick spray).
- In a medium-sized bowl, combine the flour, salt, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.
- Beat the eggs, oil, sugar, and vanilla together in a large bowl. Add the zucchini and stir until combined. Add the flour mixture and stir until there are no streaks of flour visible. Stir in the nuts or raisins, if using. Pour the batter into the prepared pans.
- Bake the loaves for about 50 to 55 minutes, or the muffins for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a skewer or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes. Remove the bread or muffins from the pans, and allow to completely cool on the wire rack (or enjoy ever so slightly warm).
Notes
- If you are using bigger zucchini, just keep two things in mind before you start grating it (and by the way, use the biggest holes on a box grater for this, or you’ll end up with watery pulp). Check to see if the skin is thick and tough — if so, peel it. If not, you are fine to include that in the grating.
- Grate from the outside of the vegetable in, and stop grating when you get to the middle, which can not only be unpleasantly seedy but also start to become mushy and/or spongy. If you like, you can slice the zucchini in half lengthwise, scrape out the seedy, spongy middle with a spoon, and then grate however you please.
- When you add the flour mixture, stir just until there are no streaks of flour visible.
This recipe is exactly like my mother’s recipe that us 4 girls have been making for 30 years. The only difference is my mother’s recipe calls for 3 teaspoons of baking powder and 1 teaspoon of baking soda. I was looking around to see if I could take her bread recipe and make it into muffins and I see I can because your recipes is hers except for the baking powder and soda. Just wondering why you have less of that in it than my mother’s recipe.
there are many ways to make zucchini bread! I think you should play around and find the one you like the very best.
This recipe is wonderful. I have never been a fan of Zucchini Bread but love this one.