Classic Zucchini Bread
Updated Aug. 19, 2024

- Total Time
- 1 hour 15 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- ½ cup/113 grams unsalted butter, plus more for greasing the pan
- 3½ cups/447 grams all-purpose flour
- 2teaspoons cinnamon
- 2teaspoons kosher salt
- 1¼ teaspoons baking powder
- 1¼ teaspoons baking soda
- ½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (or ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg)
- 4large eggs
- ¾ cup/165 grams light brown sugar
- ¾ cup/151 grams sugar
- ¾ cup/180 milliliters canola oil
- 1½ pounds zucchini, unpeeled and grated on a box grater (about 3 medium zucchini)
- 4tablespoons demerara or turbinado sugar (optional)
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease 2 8-x4-inch loaf pans with softened butter and line with parchment paper.
- Step 2
Melt butter in a small pot over medium heat. Cook, swirling occasionally, until the butter starts to brown and smell like hazelnuts, 5 to 7 minutes. Use a whisk to scrape up any browned bits on the bottom of the pot; set aside.
- Step 3
Whisk together flour, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, baking soda and nutmeg in a large bowl.
- Step 4
Whisk together eggs, light brown sugar, sugar and canola oil in a medium bowl until no lumps remain and eggs are well blended.
- Step 5
Using your hands, squeeze out as much water as possible from the zucchini. Add zucchini and browned butter to the egg mixture, whisking to blend.
- Step 6
Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients. Use a spatula to slowly incorporate until no dry spots remain.
- Step 7
Divide batter among prepared pans, smoothing the top. Sprinkle both with demerara sugar, if using, and place in oven. Bake, rotating once, until bread is golden brown on top, pulls away from the sides and springs back lightly when pressed at the top, 50 to 60 minutes.
- Step 8
Let cool completely on a wire rack before removing from the loaf pan.
Private Notes
Comments
Made the recipe as written, with 3 medium zucchinis, squeezed well. There was enough batter for 12 regular sized muffins and 24 mini muffins (lightly greased all muffin wells with softened butter). Baked the mini muffins for 14 minutes at 350, and the regular sized muffins for about 22 minutes at 350. Nice crown, nice crumb, nice color, and excellent flavor. Thank you for the great recipe!
This recipe was wonderful! Used 2 small zucchinis and halved the ingredients to make a single loaf. Substituted the brown sugar with a little less of standard sugar. It was so good we were only able to eat 3 slices before our dog could not resist, jumped on the counter and ate it all. Now I wish I made 2 loaves.
I use lemon zest instead of cinnamon. It really brightens the taste and makes less run of the mill. About a tablespoon.
Used 1/2 Whole Wheat flour / 1/2 regular and I didn’t squeeze out the liquid as someone else using WW flour suggested. Came out delicious and moist!
Just made this for the first time, and it's nice, but I think it's a bit bland. I'm not a zucchini bread aficionado, so I have nothing to compare it to, but even after dumping in more spice, it still didn't have much flavor. However, the crumb and heft of the cake was really good. It's like a really dense, moist pound cake. I enjoyed it with an espresso, and it's a good combo!
Delicious! I used a yellow squash and squeezed out as much liquid as I could, which was definitely the right move. I tend to add spices and cut sugar—I halved the white sugar and cut the brown sugar by about a third and it was still plenty sweet and rose just fine. Didn’t have Demerara so I sprinkled some brown sugar on top, which gave it a lovely look but I honestly don’t know that it needed the extra sweetness. I also made the cinnamon two heaping teaspoons and added 1 tsp vanilla extract, ~1/2 tsp ginger, and a pinch of cayenne (my trick for baked goods—it really helps bring out the other spices!). I’d do two pinches next time to further bring out the flavor!