When I was a kid my mom would bring home zucchini muffins from Publix as a treat. I know—”Zucchini in a muffin??” was my first thought too. But they were delicious, and I promise they did not taste like zucchini in the slightest! Kind of like how carrot cake doesn’t taste like carrots. Instead, they were sweet pastries interspersed with bits of walnut, and they never lasted long. So when I saw today was National Zucchini Bread Day, I just had to try making some. And how could I turn down a recipe named The Best Zucchini Bread? Obviously, I couldn’t, so here goes nothing!
An extra moist quick bread recipe with a warm cinnamon flavor (and a handful of nuts if you’d like)!
The Ingredients
Like the Brown-Butter Banana Bread I made recently, this zucchini bread recipe doesn’t have too many ingredients. I had things like flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt, and vanilla extract. About half the items.
I had to shop for the zucchini, of course, as well as the eggs and walnuts. I was also either out of or running low on baking soda and vegetable oil, so I added them to my shopping list. Tip: Baking soda is a leavener, so you want to make sure you use a relatively fresh box so your bread rises.
The Process
This recipe makes 2 loaves of zucchini bread, so I had to order a second 8' x 14' loaf pan. I could have halved the recipe, but I had a feeling I would want 2 loaves around.
Like most baking recipes, this one starts off with preheating the oven and preparing the pans. I used some unbleached parchment sheets to line both pans after trimming them to fit the length. Tip: Folding the parchment will make it lie neatly inside the pans. I also sprayed the parchment and pan with canola oil after lining them to make sure the loaves would lift right out.
Next came the prep work. I used 3 medium-sized zucchini for this recipe and shredded them with my mandoline (a box grater would also work). I loved that they didn’t need to be peeled first, but I did cut off the ends to make them fit against the flat mandoline.
Once that was done, making this zucchini bread was a familiar process. Mix the wet ingredients in one bowl, mix the dry ingredients in another, and combine (I used a wooden spoon to mix). Then divide between the prepared pans and bake.
Timing
This recipe lists 15 minutes to prep, 1 hour to bake, and 1 hour and 15 minutes total time. My zucchini bread came out at exactly that! Here’s how my time was spent:
- 15 minutes to prep
- 55 minutes to bake
- 5 minutes to cool in the pan
- 1 hour 15 minutes total
Neither time includes cooling on a wire rack once the bread is removed from the pans. I’d guess mine was ready to eat warm in about 30 minutes and completely cooled in 1 hour.
