There are some quick breads that are so common that everyone has made them, or at least eaten them. Zucchini bread is in that category. But somehow, I rarely make it. I always seem to have ripe bananas to use up, or it’s fall and pumpkin bread seems in order. But what season is zucchini bread season? How about summer? Zucchini is available everywhere (including maybe your garden) and the bread is super easy. The boys are home from college for the summer, so I have a lot of mouths to feed. They unanimously declared that I need to make more zucchini bread (and carrot cake), and let banana bread have a break.
This recipe makes 2 loaves of zucchini bread. You can divide it in half using 2 eggs, but a medium large zucchini grates into about 2 cups, so why not use the whole zucchini and make 2 loaves of bread? I guess you have to have to loaf pans (standard size, 8 ½ x 4 ½). I like to use apple sauce for some of the vegetable oil to make it healthier. This also adds a bit of sweetness.
I looked at a lot of zucchini bread recipes before I chose to combine several, and one of the biggest differences between recipes was the baking time. One suggested 40-60 minutes at 325 degrees, while another almost identical recipe recommended 1 hour to 1 hour 20 minutes at 325 degrees. I chose to stick with what works for banana bread, and bake my zucchini bread for 55 minutes at 350 degrees. Other variations used half white sugar and half brown sugar. That sounds pretty good, but it’s extra effort to measure out the brown sugar. I also saw recipes that use spices more like in pumpkin bread, or alternately no spices at all. I kept it simple and used cinnamon and vanilla only.
Now about grating that zucchini. Just wash it, lop of the end, and grate it using the biggest holes on a box grater. In other words, grate it like a big block of cheese. Keep the stem as something to hold on to. Super easy. The recipe calls for about 2 cups of grated zucchini, more is fine. I don’t measure, I just look at the size of the pile and estimate that it looks like around 2 cups. The zucchini adds moisture, not flavor, so don’t worry about being precise.
Zucchini bread freezes great, if you can’t eat 2 loaves of bread at a time. After the bread has cooled, just slide it into a gallon sized Ziploc bag. Be sure to squeeze out most of the air before sealing. Now you can slip that bag into your freezer, and pull it out whenever you want zucchini bread.
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup applesauce or another 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups grated zucchini approximately
- 1 cup chopped walnuts optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and spray two 4.5 x 8.5 inch loaf pans with cooking spray.
- Grate the zucchini with the largest holes in a box grater (just like cheese). Aim for about 2 cups of grated zucchini.
- Next, in a medium to large sized mixing bowl, combine 2 cups of the flour with all of the sugar, baking power, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
- Add the applesauce and vegetable oil, then break the eggs into the glass measuring cup you used for the vegetable oil and beat them lightly before adding them to the batter. Add the vanilla.
- Stir everything together. The batter will be pretty thick. Now add that last cup of flour and continue stirring until the flour is fully incorporated.
- Fold in the grated zucchini and chopped walnuts (if using).
- Divide the batter between the two prepared loaf pans.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes.
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