
Zucchini Bread
I’m going to start by sharing with you one of the world’s best kept secrets. Are you ready?
Here goes. Zucchini bread tastes better after being refrigerated overnight or longer. Truly!
The same goes for almost all sweet breads. It gives the flavors time to meld together and the whole texture holds up better and is less crumbly. I especially love sweet breads after they’ve been frozen and then thawed on the countertop.
It’s not a hill I’ll die on, because I also like sweet breads still warm, straight out of the oven, dripping with butter. But if you haven’t tried zucchini bread cold, just-barely-thawed, from the freezer — you are missing out!
That’s why when I make zucchini bread I make a huge batch. I stick one loaf in the fridge for breakfast the next morning, and the rest I package up in zippered storage bags and freeze. They only take about an hour to thaw on the countertop when you’re ready to use them.
Ingredients:
- 6 cups all purpose flour
- 2 Tablespoons ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 3 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 5 cups shredded zucchini (frozen or fresh)
- 4 cups oil (I use coconut oil, but any vegetable oil will also work)
- 5 eggs
- 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel (optional)
Instructions:
- If you’re using fresh zucchini, shred it with your food processor into a large bowl. Leave the peel on, and be sure to harvest your zucchini before it is huge and tough. If it is overripe, you will need to remove the skin and the core with the seeds because they will be tough. (I frequently use club-sized zucchini and it works fine as long as I peel and core it.)
- Sprinkle salt over the zucchini in the bowl, let it sit for ten minutes, then use a tea towel or a paper towel to press out all of the excess moisture. If you’re using frozen zucchini (see below for instructions on freezing zucchini), just remove it from the freezer and let it thaw on the countertop for about an hour before you mix up your batter. Drain excess moisture if necessary.
- In a large mixing bowl thoroughly combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices and salt.
- In another large mixing bowl, beat together sugar, shredded zucchini, oil, eggs and lemon peel (optional).
- Add flour mixture to the zucchini mixture, stirring just until combined. Don’t overmix. The batter will be thicker than pancake batter, but spreadable. Spoon batter into 4 greased loaf pans (8x4x2). Bake at 350* for 55-60 min. or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack, then wrap tightly and refrigerate overnight. (Unless you can’t wait to dig in, in which case wrap and refrigerate three loaves and enjoy one right now.)
Fun Zucchini Bread Additions
In my opinion, chocolate usually makes everything better. For some reason, though, I love chocolate chips in pumpkin bread, but prefer my zucchini bread plain. The following ideas are some fun ways to make your zucchini bread extra special:
- Chocolate chips
- White chocolate chips
- Walnuts
- Pecans
- Sliced almonds
- Shredded coconut
- Pistachios
- Dried cranberries
- Raisins
With a recipe this size, you’ll want to add about 4 cups of anything you decide to add in. Or since you have four loaves, you could stir a different add-in into each loaf pan after filling them with batter and make an assortment of different zucchini breads.
How To Freeze Zucchini for Zucchini Bread:
1. Shred the zucchini, using your food processor, into a large bowl. Leave the peel on, and be sure to harvest your zucchini before it is huge and tough. If it is overripe, you will need to remove the skin and the core with the seeds because they will be tough.
2. Sprinkle salt over the zucchini, let stand for 10 minutes and then spread it on a towel and press it, in order to eliminate the excess moisture.
3. Fill a zippered storage bag with about 5 c. zucchini and flatten the bag into the bottom of your favorite casserole dish to freeze, so that it will be the right shape for cooking later.
By the end of the summer, you will have dozens of bags of shredded zucchini in your freezer, ready to turn into this scrumptious zucchini bread!
Are you overloaded with zucchini? Do you need a few more zucchini recipes?
101 Zucchini Recipes: The Ultimate Guide to Zucchini Overload
Zucchini Bread cost breakdown:
- Zucchini: free
- Sugar: $0.60
- Flour: $0.40
- Eggs: $0.75
- Oil: $0.95
4 loaves of zucchini bread; under 10 cents per serving
Save this zucchini bread recipe for later!