Zucchini bread is one of my favorite things to make during the summer. It is one of the few things I will use my oven for. We love it and it is a good thing.
If you garden you probably have the same problem that I often have during the summer. It is a zucchini problem. That is the problem of having a lot more zucchini than your family can actually eat.
Zucchini is one of those things that is cheap to plant and you always get more than you need.
It is a very easy and inexpensive thing to grow in your garden. If you are new to gardening zucchini is a good thing to start with.
The only problem with zucchini is squash bugs… If I could just figure out a way to keep the squash bugs off my zucchini I would be really happy. Anyone else have issues with squash bugs?
Back to the zucchini recipe.
Zucchini is nice right now, but in another few weeks my family will be begging me to stop serving zucchini. So, I have to be creative when serving it.
Zucchini bread though is a favorite in our house. My family will eat it anytime I make it. I like to make up large batches of the bread and freeze it for use later.
My family will love it when I pull out a loaf of zucchini bread in October.
If you have a lot of zucchini, stock your freezer with zucchini bread. Your family will thank you when they are enjoying zucchini bread in a few months.
I have tried several zucchini bread recipes over the years. I tried this recipe years ago and it was so good that for a long time it was the only zucchini bread recipe that I made.
There are several things that are different about this recipe that makes it so good.
First it has yogurt in it. I have found that my favorite quick breads contain either yogurt or sour cream. Yogurt and sour cream just help give it a really good texture and flavor.
The other trick that makes this recipe really good is that you drain the zucchini. Zucchini is really moist. If you are not careful the amount of liquid in zucchini will ruin a recipe. Don’t skip the draining step it really helps make the recipe better.
One more thing that I do is to grate this on the smallest size on my grater. I find that my kids like it better when the zucchini is hardly noticeable.
Can zucchini bread be made gluten free?
This works well in a gluten free version. All I do is use Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 gluten free flour blend and I have delicious gluten free zucchini bread.
Zucchini Bread
Zucchini bread is a delicious way to use garden fresh zucchini.
Ingredients
- 2 small zucchini or 1 med to large = about 1 lb
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- 6 tablespoon butter, melted
- 2 eggs
- ¼ cup plain yogurt (I have used vanilla and it works fine)
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 cups flour (Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 Gluten free flour blends works well for a gf version)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan and set aside.
- Shred zucchini and squeeze liquid out of zucchini, by squeezing it in a towel or several paper towels. Squeeze well to release most of the liquid.
- Whisk together sugar, melted butter, eggs, yogurt, and lemon juice together in a large bowl.
- Stir in flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.
- Carefully stir in zucchini.
- Place in batter in loaf pan and bake at 375 degrees for 50-55 minutes.
Notes
This bread can be made gluten free by using Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1 gluten free flour blend.
Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated
Originally published June 2009. Updated July 2019.
I keep saying that I need to use up the zucchini I have in the freezer. Hopefully this week.
I bet the yogurt in it makes it really moist. Thanks for sharing!
~Liz
We love zucchini bread here too. Good recipe. We tried a recipe for stuffed zucchini a few weeks ago that was very good too.
Thanks.
I like the idea of yogurt in the bread. I use yogurt as a fat replacement sometimes, so I wonder if this is a lower fat recipe than most?
I also have a favorite zucchini recipe on my blog if you are interested. You can find it here:
https://bluebarnbulletin.blogspot.com/2008/07/honey-roasted-zucchini.html
I seldom comment but I read your blog every day. It’s great!
I love zucchini bread also. I recently made a chocolate zucchini cake, that’s excellent and also have kefir or sour milk in it, but I am sure it could be subbed with yogurt.
here’s the link if your interested.
https://newlyweds.wordpress.com/2009/06/16/chocolate-zucchini-cake/
Where do you buy Kefir?
One thing you can do is grate and drain the zucchini, then freeze it in one-cup or one-pound packages. Imagine fresh zucchini bread in January!
I had never made zucchini bread until this morning. First I tried a more traditional recipe but it wasn’t as moist as I would have liked so I gave your recipe a try and it is perfect! I added a 1/2 tsp of nutmeg and substituted white flour for white whole wheat flour. Also, I only had to bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees using dark nonstick loaf pans.
Thank you so much for the great recipe!
I am so glad that you enjoyed it. I love making it this time of year with garden fresh zucchini.
What are your thoughts on subbing dairy free yogurt or sour cream for the yogurt to make it dairy free? Or using the coconut cream in a can of coconut milk?
PS-I follow your blog every day and use quite a few of your recipes on a daily basis. Thank you for keeping things simple and delicious!
First of all this week at the request of my daughter I made a gluten free dairy free zucchini bread and it was great. You might not need gluten free, but you could easily adapt the recipe using regular flour so look for that recipe coming soon. I hope to get it up next week. As for this question I would try dairy free yogurt. That is what I usually use in recipes like this that I want to make diary free for my daughter. I haven’t tried it in this exact recipe, but have in other recipes. I haven’t used much diary free sour cream, but it might work too. Coconut cream might also work, but it would probably add a coconut taste. I hope that helps and I am so glad that you enjoy my recipes and tips. I love sharing easy and delicious recipes so thank you!
I just took out the bread from the oven. Beautiful with G’F flour. I was short of butter and used Half vegan margarine and half butter. I added one small container of blueberries coated with the same flour.
When cooked, I soaked it with lemon juice, Delicious.
Thank you for sharing your basic recipe. I felt like sending you a photo as the bread rose beautifully.
Thank you for sharing how much you enjoyed the bread and what changes you made. The blueberries and lemon juice are a great addition to it.