Our Best Ever Zucchini Bread recipe is a MUST TRY! This popular zucchini quick bread recipe is easy to make and has the perfect blend of delicious spices.
This moist zucchini bread recipe is a great way to use up all those zucchini from your garden. This delicious zucchini bread is packed with so many delicious ingredients and it tastes amazing!
Easy Zucchini Bread
Zucchini Bread is the perfect way to use up all that zucchini in the garden! My squash plants have not been as fruitful this year, but even so, I suddenly find myself with a lot of zucchini! As a matter of fact, I look forward to it each year so that I can fill my freezer with loaves of this delicious zucchini bread. I can’t remember where the original recipe came from, but I have changed it over the years. This produces the Best Ever Zucchini Bread. Try it- you will love it.
Moist Zucchini Bread Ingredients
- Sugar: You will need 1 cup white sugar and 1 cup brown sugar to add a bit of sweetness to this bread.
- Eggs: Use 3 eggs to help bind the dough together well for this recipe.
- Vegetable oil: Using 1 cup vegetable oil (you can substitute applesauce for ½ the oil) will help give great moisture to this treat.
- Vanilla extract: You need 3 teaspoons vanilla extract to help enhance all the wonderful flavors.
- Flour: Use 3 cups all-purpose flour for the base of this bread recipe.
- Seasonings: You will need 1 tsp nutmeg, 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon and 1 teaspoon salt for a perfect combination of flavors in this delicious bread.
- Leavening agents: Using 1 teaspoon baking powder and 1 teaspoon baking soda will help the bread to rise properly.
- Zucchini: You need 2 cups grated zucchini for an amazing blend of sweet and savory flavors (you can add a little more, I always do!)
- Nuts: Use 1 cup chopped walnuts for a wonderful balance of crunchy texture in this recipe.
How to Make Zucchini Bread
Prep
Grease two 8 x 4 inch bread pans or 6 mini loaf plans, set aside.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Bread dough
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg and cinnamon.
Next, in a separate small bowl, beat the eggs, oil, vanilla extract, and sugars together.
Then, add the wet ingredients to the large bowl of dry ingredients and stir until combined.
After that, grate the zucchini using a box grater.
Add to the dough mixture, along with the nuts, until well combined.
Proceed to pour the batter into the prepared pans.
Bake
Place bread into the oven and bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. My mini-loaf pans take about 35-40 minutes. Large sized loaves take about 55 minutes.
When done cooking, cool in the pan on rack a for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.
Slice, serve & enjoy! Remember: quick bread is generally EVEN BETTER TASTING the next day! So make a loaf in the evening, then enjoy it for breakfast the next day!
How to know if the bread is done
Your bread should register about 200 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer to ensure that it has been cooked fully. Not only that but the top should appear to be a nice golden brown color and as the bread cools, it shouldn’t sink, but should instead remain well-shaped with a rounded top.
BEST BREAD PAN?
I bake a lot of bread and the pans I prefer are either ceramic, glass or cast iron. These pans will bake bread more evenly and release the bread more easily after baking. I don’t like using dark or nonstick pans because the bread cooks unevenly. It darkens on the outside before the bread is cooked on the inside, so the coloring is uneven. Read more about which bread pan is the best here!
Easy Zucchini Bread
Ingredients
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup vegetable oil you can substitute applesauce for 1/2 the oil
- 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 cups grated zucchini you can add a little more, I always do!
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
Instructions
- Grease two 8 x 4 inch pans or 6 mini loaf plans. Preheat oven to 325°F.
- In a large bowl, mix together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg and cinnamon.
- Next, in a separate small bowl, beat the eggs, oil, vanilla extract, and sugars together.
- Then, add the wet ingredients to the large bowl of dry ingredients and stir until combined.
- After that, grate the zucchini using a box grater. Add to the bread batter, along with the nuts, until well combined. Let batter sit 5-10 minutes.
- Proceed to pour the batter into the prepared pans.
- Place bread into the oven and bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. My mini-loaf pans take about 35-40 minutes. Large sized loaves take about 55 minutes. (See below for my method on making sure loaves are completely cooked!)
- When done cooking, cool in the pan on rack a for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool. Slice, serve and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Easy Zucchini Bread Recipe FAQ
I plan on 1 zucchini for each cup of grated zucchini needed in a recipe. Of course, this varies being as zucchini come in all sizes. Zucchini in the grocery store range from small to medium sized.
There’s no need to peel the zucchini prior to grating it for zucchini bread. The dark green peel is very soft so it bakes well and adds vitamins, nutrients and even a bit of color to the bread.
I prefer to grate the zucchini as opposed to shredding it so that bits of green peel remain in tact. They contribute toward the popular look of zucchini bread! Shredding the zucchini causes the zucchini to nearly disappear once the bread is baked. Both will work though! I know when my kids were young, I hid vegetables in baked goods often, so having them disappear was preferable!
Yes, you can squeeze out excess water from grated zucchini before adding it to your batter. Zucchini naturally has a lot of water in it. That becomes quite clear after grating it, if you simply leave it to rest for 5-10 minutes, the water will begin accumulating in the bowl! If I’m using garden zucchini, especially large ones, I like to squeeze as much out as possible before making it into zucchini bread. Store bought zucchini rarely has excess water.
Yes, you can make zucchini bread with yellow squash! You do need to scrape the seeds out since the seeds in yellow squash are much larger. Also, I find the skin to be more tough on yellow squash, so you can either peel the outside to remove the skin, or you can just grate it with a finer cheese grater.
Zucchini Bread should be stored on the counter top in an airtight container or ziplock bag. Keeping it in the fridge can dry it out over time.
Zucchini bread rises as a result of leavening ingredients in the bread recipe being exposed to two things, moisture and heat. We use eggs, baking soda and baking powder as leavening agents. Make sure your ingredients are not past their expiration date as stale ingredients can affect how much the bread rises.
Storing this Moist Zucchini Bread Recipe
After the bread has cooled, store it in a gallon size ziplock bag or similarly sized airtight container. We bake bread often, so I purchased bread bags and love them!
Can this recipe for zucchini bread be frozen?
I love freezing loaves of zucchini bread! How you prepare zucchini bread for freezing really depends on how long you intent to keep it frozen. If you just want to freeze it for a week or two, I’d wrap it in plastic wrap or foil and place the loaf in a large freezer ziplock bag. Most often, when I bake zucchini bread to freeze it, I’ll bake mini loaves so that they fit in the ziplock bag easier. If you want to freeze it for 2-6 months, I’d wrap it more securely, making sure it’s airtight and wrapping it in a double layer of foil or plastic wrap, then place it in a ziplock bag.
How do you make Healthy Zucchini Bread?
If you’d like to make a few changes to my recipe to make a healthier version of zucchini bread, I’ve got great news- this recipe is incredibly versatile! I suggest leaving out the 1 cup of white sugar, replacing half or all of the oil with apple sauce and using half whole wheat flour in place of all-purpose. Then you’ll have a traditional healthy zucchini bread recipe!
Can zucchini bread be made into muffins?
Zucchini bread muffins are our favorite muffins! Simply use my recipe above, then spoon 3 tablespoons of batter into each greased or lined muffin cup. Bake for 18-20 minutes. There are several benefits of making zucchini bread into muffins. First, I like that they cook faster! Where a full loaf of zucchini bread bakes for up to an hour, zucchini muffins bake for only 20 minutes, which is a fraction of the time. They’re also easy to freeze! I like to bake a batch of zucchini muffins and then freeze them just in a layer in a large ziplock freezer bag. I pull them out one or two at a time for breakfast. You can let them thaw on the countertop, or you can microwave them or toast them to heat them up. Yum!
Why does my zucchini bread fall in the middle?
Here’s how to help your zucchini bread not sink in the middle after it’s baked. This happens to me occasionally too! Often it’s because I’ve over mixed the batter. Quick bread (referring to a bread recipe that doesn’t use yeast) does not like to be stirred too much, so try to just barely mix all the ingredients together. Another culprit could be overfilling the pan. The bread pan should be only half full each time. The recipe below makes 2 loaves of bread, or you can make 1 loaf of bread and 3 mini loaves… or 6 mini loaves. As always, make sure your baking soda isn’t too old- it should only be on your shelf for 6-9 months before purchasing new. Lastly, make sure your bread is fully cooked. Uncooked batter in the middle of the loaf will cause bread to sink.
Your bread should register about 200 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer to ensure that it has been cooked fully. Not only that but the top should appear to be a nice golden brown color and as the bread cools, it shouldn’t sink, but should instead remain well-shaped with a rounded top.
More Zucchini Bread recipes:
- PINEAPPLE ZUCCHINI BREAD
- LEMON ZUCCHINI BREAD
- ORANGE ZUCCHINI BREAD
- PUDDING ZUCCHINI BREAD
- ZUCCHINI BANANA BREAD
- ZUCCHINI SHEET CAKE WITH BROWNED BUTTER ICING
- EASY ZUCCHINI CAKE
- LEMON ZUCCHINI MUFFINS
- ZUCCHINI BREAD CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
- LEMON ZUCCHINI BREAD COOKIES
More amazing quick bread recipes that we love:
- Easy Banana Bread
- Sweet Coconut Quick Bread
- Easy Lemon Quick Bread
- Yogurt Banana Bread recipe
- Dutch Apple Quick Bread
- Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Quick Bread
- Caramel Banana Nut Bread
- Best Ever Pumpkin Bread
- Lemon Buttermilk Quick Bread
- Caramel Apple Quick Bread
- Cinnamon Raisin Quick Bread
- Peppermint Chocolate Quick Bread
- Cranberry Orange Quick Bread
- Cinnamon Roll Quick Bread
This recipe for easy zucchini bread has been in my family for years, it’s easy to make and you’ll love the blend of spices used. Read the reviews- it’s popular for a reason! It really is the perfect zucchini quick bread recipe.
Katie Craig says
Love this recipe and so do my kiddos-I don’t review things often but I’m reviewing this so it gets more attention on a google search! Stop searching and make this!
Nicole says
Hahaha thank you!
Annie says
Perfect recipe. No ingredients omitted nor any steps were missing & truly was the best zucchini bread I’ve tasted. Thanks for sharing it. Will definitely make it again.
Nicole says
That’s so great to hear!
ANITA says
I find that when I bake this, it at least takes 1hr and 15 minutes for the two smaller loaf pans…I was wondering if you meant bake at 350 instead of 325 what this page said? The first time I made this, I did it at 40 minutes. Wasn’t done. Threw it back in the office for at least another 20 and it still wasn’t done. This time around I cooked the first loaf by itself at 55 minutes. Again, not done. Threw it back in the oven for another 15 minutes and finally done. And yes, I am squeezing all the water out of the zucchini on paper towels. Any other suggestions?
BUT IT IS DELICIOUS!!
Nicole says
I’m not sure what happened but the recipe is correct 325 degrees F is the proper temp. Squeezing the water out of the zucchini is crucial but perhaps you may have used a little too much zucchini? the batter should be very thick before stirring in the shredded zucchini and then should be a good batter consistency once it has been combined.
Wanda says
This is the best zucchini bread I make it once thank for the recipe every 2 weeks for my husband work and the boys there love it and so do I
Nicole says
isnt it just delicious?
Kytn says
I love cooking from scratch and I always read the reviews because sometimes you see what others think and how they’ve tweaked it.
I really appreciated that you also gave substitutions to use.
Yesterday I was craving zucchini bread and I had all the ingredients on hand and I read several but this recipe was simple enough and the word moist caught my attention. Nothing worse than dry bread.
Today I made it. I did omit the oil and used all applesauce. I used a towel to wring out the water . I folded the 2+ cups of the zucchini in and OMG i wound up with the most delicious zucchini bread I’ve ever had.
Thanks so much for sharing this recipe and I really hope more people try it cuz its truly scrumptious
Nicole says
YAY! I’m so happy that you liked this recipe! Isn’t it delicious?
Amy says
Love this zucchini bread but it definitely takes me longer than an hour to bake mine in regular loaf size pans. I checked them at 55 minutes and they weren’t even close to done.
Nicole says
Sorry about that, the time really will depend on the moisture in the zucchini as the juicier ones will result in a longer bake time. Ringing them out in paper towels before use can help to remove a lot of moisture
Chelsie says
Tastes great IF you’re able to get it done. Mine has been in 45 min longer than the recipe says so far and it’s still gooey in the middle!! I sliced the heel off and tasted that, but I don’t know if the rest is ever going to get done!
Nicole says
Im sorry to hear this, but zucchini bread can be a bit tempermental. The liquid in every zucchini varies so too much moisture will cause the bread to cook longer whereas less moisture means a dry loaf.
Mary Rozin says
Can you use 1/2 C melted butter instead of the oil and 1/2 C applesauce?
Nicole says
You should be able to replace the oil or applesauce with equal amounts of butter without issues.
Phyllis mayes says
I made it exactly like the recipe said and it was done in exactly the time the recipe said it would be cooking at 3:25 awesome loaf of bread
Nicole says
Glad you liked it 🙂
Susan Carl says
My family told me that this was the best Zucchini bread I have ever made!!!
Nicole says
Im happy to hear that!
Jessica says
Can I use self rising flour?
Nicole says
I have into tried this recipe with self raising flour, but if you do it would replace the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. So you would need 3 cups of self rising flour for this recipe. Let me know how it goes if you do feel brave enough to try it!
Patricia says
DELICIOUS!! Easy, bread is light and moist. I made I loaf and 12 cupcakes. Yum
Nicole says
Ohhh nice!
Cyndy Sorensen says
Yum Yum Yum. This is the best recipe I have ever made. Family loved it. I used yellow zucchini. Thanks for easy instructions and tips. You Rock.
Nicole says
So glad you enjoyed it!
Prz says
Unfortunately these came out very dry and tasteless. i can’t figure out why….my batter was like dough, yet I was careful not to overmix. My only switch was I used coconut oil instead of vegetable oil. A bummer because I wanted to love them!
Nicole says
The batter should be thick but once the zucchini is incorporated it becomes like a regular quick bread batter and should be pourable in consistency.
Hannah says
I’ve been looking for a really yummy zucchini bread recipe for a while now, and this is it:) I like the applesauce substitution for half the oil, and I added in raisins as well! Delicious!
Nicole says
Yay! We’re so happy that you liked this recipe 🙂