This is a family-favorite recipe for homemade zucchini bread. One slice and you’ll taste why! It’s made with brown sugar, pure vanilla extract, cozy cinnamon spice, and summer’s favorite vegetable. See my recipe note for turning this batter into zucchini muffins, or try this similar zucchini muffins recipe.
I originally published this recipe in 2019 and have since added new photos, a video tutorial, and more helpful success tips. I’ve also made a few improvements to the recipe, which are reflected in the printable recipe below.
Comes From An Award-Winning Zucchini Bread Recipe
This zucchini bread recipe is very slightly adapted from an award-winning family recipe. My husband grew up making this zucchini bread with his family, who entered it into the Maryland State Fair. And guess what? IT WON. You know a recipe is good if it’s winning state awards, right?
Now slightly scaled up to yield a taller 9×5-inch loaf (more zucchini, 1 extra egg, and a touch of applesauce for moisture), the quick bread is better than ever and ready to place 1st in your own kitchens too!
Here’s Why You’ll Love It:
- Batter comes together in less than 5 minutes
- Extra moist and flavorful
- Sneaks in veggies
- Can easily be doubled
- Welcomes add-ins like chocolate chips, nuts, or blueberries
- Makes great muffins (or try these zucchini muffins which are heartier and slightly less sweet)
- Freezes beautifully
A beginner baker can easily make this quick bread, and it’s a wonderful recipe if you have eager young bakers ready to help!
One reader, Emma, commented: “Zucchini bread is my absolute favorite, so I’m quite picky about how one tastes, the amount of spices, etc. This recipe yields a very moist and super flavorful zucchini bread! 5 stars from me. Everyone else thought so too! Definitely a keeper. ★★★★★“
Another reader, Linda, commented: “This was delicious and oh-so moist. I made it exactly per your recipe, adding walnuts as an extra ingredient. This zucchini bread recipe is a keeper! ★★★★★“
Why Bake With Zucchini?
Zucchini is one of my favorite ingredients for baking and I have a lot of published zucchini recipes on my website. My recipes for chocolate zucchini bread and zucchini muffins are both incredibly popular with readers. We use an entire zucchini in my healthier Greek yogurt zucchini bread and you’ll find a whopping 3 cups of it in my chocolate zucchini cake (you can’t taste it!).
It sounds odd to bake with a vegetable, but here’s why you should use it in your baking:
- There are only so many zucchini side dishes to make (looking at you, zucchini sweet potato fritters). Zucchini is abundant in the summer months, and it’s fun to incorporate this vegetable when baking, too.
- Zucchini adds flavorless moisture. We’re talking pure moisture with zero savory vegetable flavor. I don’t think I would bake a cake with a green vegetable if I could taste it. You bake carrot cake, right? It’s delicious, right? Well zucchini is even better! Hello, zucchini cake. It’s truly a magical ingredient in your baked goods and this includes zucchini oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, too!
Grab These Ingredients
One new addition is the applesauce. This, along with the oil, keeps the bread moist. You can use sour cream, Greek yogurt, or mashed banana in its place if needed. All you’re doing is whisking the dry and wet ingredients together separately, and then combining everything. Honestly, it’s as easy as pumpkin bread and uses a few of the same ingredients.
Success Tip: Shredding Zucchini
Today’s zucchini bread comes together in just 5 minutes with simple kitchen tools including a couple bowls, a whisk, and a 9×5-inch loaf pan. You also need a grater to shred the zucchini. If you’re looking for recommendations, I own and love this box grater because it’s easy to use, grates quickly, and has held up well with regular use. It’s what I use when making zucchini fritters, too.
- How much zucchini do I need? Zucchini can vary in size, but 1-2 medium zucchini are plenty for this recipe. You need 1 and 1/2 cups shredded, which is 180g.
- Do I need to peel the zucchini first? You can if you’d like, but I never do. There’s no taste or texture variance either way, but you’ll definitely have more flecks of green throughout the loaf if you keep the peel on. Pretty!
You do not need to blot the zucchini dry before using in the batter. (You want that moisture here! Unlike when we make zucchini biscuits, where ridding of that moisture is key.)
Expect a thick batter:
What Does This Zucchini Bread Taste Like?
Zucchini is like a chameleon and takes on the flavor of whatever’s nearby. Have you ever tried this peanut chicken zucchini noodles dish? The zucchini is basically a vehicle for the delectable savory peanut sauce.
Today’s zucchini bread includes cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and brown sugar so expect a lot of cozy, comforting, sweet flavors. In terms of texture, it’s not quite as dense as banana bread but not as light as white cake either. It’s soft and moist and actually reminds me of apple cinnamon bread, which is a favorite during the fall months. Combine them both in this apple zucchini bread!
If you love peanut butter and chocolate, be sure to try my peanut butter chocolate chip zucchini bread, too!
Let’s not forget optional add-ins like chocolate chips, chopped nuts, raisins, or even blueberries. Some readers have turned it into dessert with vanilla icing or cream cheese frosting (I’d halve the cream cheese frosting recipe). Honestly, this quick bread welcomes a bounty of tasty extras!
And if you’ve been itching to make some homemade honey butter, this zucchini bread is the perfect canvas to enjoy it on!
Can I Reduce the Sugar or Oil in Zucchini Bread?
You can absolutely slightly reduce either or both, but understand that sugar and oil help produce a moist, tender loaf; altering the ingredients may have disappointing results. Or for an option without refined sugar, you may enjoy this Greek yogurt zucchini bread instead!
Print
Zucchini Bread
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 55 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours
- Yield: 1 loaf
- Category: Bread
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
This zucchini bread recipe yields 1 9×5-inch loaf. With brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and a little applesauce for added moisture, the quick bread is flavorful, moist, and a great way to use summer’s favorite vegetable!
Ingredients
- 1 and 3/4 cups (220g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 cup (120ml) vegetable oil (or melted coconut oil)
- 1/2 cup (100g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1/4 cup (60g) unsweetened applesauce (or sour cream or Greek yogurt)
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 and 1/2 cups (180g) shredded zucchini (no need to blot)
- optional: 1 cup (180g) semi-sweet chocolate chips (or chopped nuts, raisins, etc)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Grease a 9×5-inch loaf pan. See notes for muffins.
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg together in a large bowl until thoroughly combined. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk the oil, brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs, applesauce, and vanilla together until combined. Whisk in the zucchini. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Gently stir or whisk until *just* combined; do not overmix. Fold in any optional add-ins like chocolate chips or nuts. Batter is slightly thick.
- Spread the batter evenly into prepared loaf pan. Bake for 55-70 minutes. (I like to loosely cover the bread with aluminum foil halfway through to prevent heavy browning on top.) Baking times vary so keep an eye on yours. The bread is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out *mostly* clean with zero raw batter. Remove the bread from the oven and set on a wire rack. Cool in pan for 1 hour before removing from pan. You can slice the bread at this point, but it will still be warm in the center and may not slice neatly. For neat slices, continue cooling bread directly on a wire rack and then slice once cooled.
- Cover and store leftover bread at room temperature for up to 3-4 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: Make the bread ahead of time by freezing it. Bake it, cool it, wrap it up in aluminum foil and freeze the loaf as a whole. Allow to thaw overnight in the refrigerator and bring to room temperature before slicing and serving. Freezes well up to 3 months.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 9×5-inch Loaf Pan | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Box Grater | Cooling Rack
- Update in 2022: Based on reader feedback and a few disappointing loaves in my own kitchen recently, I revised 2 ingredients in May 2022 (egg & zucchini) so the batter yields more for a taller loaf and there’s more moisture. I also added 1/4 cup of applesauce for added moisture, as you can see in the recipe. Rave reviews from taste testers. The original recipe used 1 egg and 1 cup of zucchini with no applesauce.
- Can I reduce the sugar or oil? You can absolutely slightly reduce either or both, but understand that sugar and oil help produce a moist, tender loaf and the results may be disappointing. For the oil, feel free to swap *some* for more applesauce. Or for a healthier option without any refined sugar, you may enjoy this Greek yogurt zucchini bread instead.
- Muffins: Grease a 12-count muffin pan or line with liners. Prepare batter in step 2. Spoon the batter evenly into each liner, filling each all the way to the top. Bake the muffins for 5 minutes at 425°F (218°C) then, keeping the muffins in the oven, reduce the oven temperature to 350°F (177°C). Bake for an additional 13-16 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The total time these muffins take in the oven is about 18-21 minutes, give or take. Allow the muffins to cool for 5 minutes in the muffin pan, then transfer to a wire rack to continue cooling. Yields 1 dozen.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Hi. Getting ready to try this recipe. Do I not squeeze out water from the zucchini before adding it to the mixture?
No, that is not necessary with this recipe.
Would yellow squash work? I have oodles.
Thank you,
Camilla
Hi Camilla, absolutely! Enjoy!!
Thank you, Erin. You guys are always on your game with your very prompt responses. I’m sure we all
appreciate that.
Camilla
Hi Bakers, Sally this is my favorite Zucchini recipe. My garden has really taken off, I came back from a short vacation, to find 9 zucchinis and 7 yellow squashes. I made 2 large zucchini breads, 2 dozen muffins, zucchini pie, and a ratatouille. I still have 4 left. Many more on the plants. Sally my grandsons age 7 ate 6 muffins before noon. Thanks for a delicious recipe.
Most delicious I’ve ever tasted! I subbed sunflower oil and added Heath toffee bits. Wow best ever! I had to put it away to stop munching it! Thanks!
I wish I could give this more than just 5 stars. I’ve been making zucchini bread for 20+ years now, and this is by far the absolute BEST recipe. I have found the one I will use from now on. I upped the nutmeg to 1/2 tsp because I love the flavor. I’ve made 2 full loaves and 20 mini loaves over the past two days with this. We will enjoy zucchini bread all winter long. Thank you for such a wonderful recipe!
Same here; the only modification I made was using GF baking flour and added 1/2 cup of pecans.
Kelly how long did you bake the mini loaves? I want to make mini loaves tonight and not sure how time for those.
Sorry just saw this. Hope your mini loaves turned out as great as mine!!
I knew where I needed to look when I needed a great recipe for zucchini bread and Sally’s Baking Addiction did not disappoint. I did not have applesauce so used sour cream. The bread was so moist and tasty.
This recipe is the perfect combination of easy to make and delicious!! Thank you so much for sharing with us.
How different was the old one? I had that recipe printed but accidentally threw it out. The old one was absolutely perfect. This one is still good but I’m sad I can’t find the original. This new one doesn’t really taste the same.
Hi Blair, if you scroll down to the recipe Notes section beneath the recipe instructions, note #3 details the changes that were made in 2022: Based on reader feedback and a few disappointing loaves in my own kitchen recently, I revised 2 ingredients in May 2022 (egg & zucchini) so the batter yields more for a taller loaf and there’s more moisture. I also added 1/4 cup of applesauce for added moisture, as you can see in the recipe. Rave reviews from taste testers. The original recipe used 1 egg and 1 cup of zucchini with no applesauce.
Best ever Zucchini Bread. I made it according to the recipe and my add in was chopped toasted walnuts. Best part–I live in high altitude, 7,000 ft., and it turned out perfectly with no adaptations for altitude. Yay!
May I use whole wheat flour rather than all purpose (as is the case in Simply Zucchini muffins – which are amazing!)? Thanks.
Hi Jan, Whole wheat flour is a fine substitution, but the bread may taste a little dense. We recommend trying half white whole wheat flour and half all purpose for your first loaf and go from there. Hope you enjoy it!
This zucchini bread is so delicious and moist! I love the alternative options that were left for the oil and unsweetened apple sauce. It came out amazing my first try. I did it with chocolate chips, but I think I’ll do the next batch without to really focus the flavor on the cinnamon and nutmeg! This will be on steady rotation for me.
I made this with Cup4Cup gluten free flour and kept everything the same and it turned out amazing! I had to bake it for about 75-80mins instead though, but I knew it was gonna take longer to bake. Turned out fantastic!!
Do you think if I add a certain amount of cocoa to this recipe it would turn out fine as a chocolate version? Curious if I could double the recipe and then just add cocoa to half instead of making a completely different recipe to get chocolate.
The above recipe turned out really good. I just made it.
Hi Jen, for best results, we recommend making separate batches rather than doubling. And here is our chocolate zucchini bread recipe!
Thank you Sally, this recipe came out amazing. I’m a terrible baker but this was quite easy to follow, even my kids helped me! We have loads of zucchinis from the garden so will definitely be making it again. Also, served with a dollop of Greek yogurt gets even better!
Absolutely perfect – I substituted sour cream for the applesauce and added chopped walnuts and fresh blueberries. Will definitely bake this again!
Absolutely delicious and so moist! Thank you for sharing the recipe.
I made these today adding the chips and walnuts. They are moist and delicious.
I bake treats for employee birthdays at my place of employment. My boss requested zucchini bread as he wanted to see if I could make it as good as his Italian mother (no pressure there). Of course, I went straight to this website. I added raisins per his request. Recipe was followed exactly as written and baked for 65 minutes (when internal temperature reached 200).
The verdict…I’m still employed! He said it was as good as his mom’s and he had the loaf finished in less than 2 work days.
This is the best zucchini bread recipe! I substituted with gluten free cup for cup flour and it was incredible! Thank you Sally!!
This is the best zucchini bread I have ever had!
I doubled the recipe and made two loaves today. I had frozen, grated zucchini so I drained it in a colander and even squeezed quite a bit of water out of the zucchini but didn’t force all the water out of course. I had made homemade applesauce earlier in the day so I used that and I grate my nutmeg on a microplane grater because I think it tastes and smells so much better when freshly grated. I also added an eighth of a teaspoon of cloves but that wasn’t much considering I had doubled everything else.
I baked it on 325° for one hour and it was perfect. I know you said 350 but because several others stated it wasn’t done in the middle even after an hour, I thought maybe it would work best to lower the temp a little even if I had to cook it a bit longer. My pans are 9×13 but they are not non-stick so I treated them like a cake pan and used Crisco to grease them then coated the inside with flour as well.
Very good recipe. I will use this again. Thank you.
I am torn what rating to give this recipe. For the most part it is a five-star all the way! I have made many of your other recipes and often you are my go to pick when deciding whose recipe to try. With that said this is the first time I’ve had a problem with one of your recipes. Like another commenter, I could not get the center of my loaves to cook. By the time I finally got the centers cooked the rest had basically become dry and hard, but my centers were finally cooked! Prior to realizing the center was not cooked I had sliced off a couple pieces and it was fantastic! I just threw out the tiny piece that was not cooked from one slice. I tested my oven temperature last year and it was perfectly accurate so I do not know why I had to cook this so long. I am going to guess in total it was likely in the oven at least an hour and a half but likely longer. I just kept having to add 5 10 minutes every time I checked on them and eventually lost track of how long it was in the oven for. Any thoughts as to why this would be is appreciated. As I said I have followed a lot of your other recipes with no problem and this one I followed to a tee as well. The only thing I changed was I added extra cinnamon
What is the calorie count for each slice?
Hi Vena, We don’t usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients. Plus, many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients listed. However, there are many handy online calculators where you can plug in and customize your exact ingredients/brands. Readers have found this one especially helpful: https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076
I love this recipe. Can I double it and get the same results?
Hi Darsi, we’re so glad you enjoy it! For best results, we recommend making two separate batches rather than doubling.
Under “Why You’ll Love It”, it states “can easily be doubled”. I’ll test my luck!
I try to jump to recipe and t wants me to watch a video?
Hi Jen, We aren’t experiencing that on our end, but if you scroll halfway down the page, you’ll see the recipe there too!
Hello Bakers
Can you substitute spelt flour for the all purpose?
If yes, should I adjust any liquid?
Thank you!
Hi Lee, we don’t recommend swapping for spelt flour here, as it’s not always a 1:1 swap and would likely require some tweaking of other ingredients. If you decide to do any testing, let us know how it goes!
For me, too much cinnamon. Not enoigh zucchini amount
Can I substitute whole wheat flour for the all-purpose flour in the zucchini bread recipe to make it a healthier version like the delicious Healthy Whole Wheat Banana Bread recipe that has become a staple in our home? Is the ratio 1:1 and do I need to adjust any other ingredients?
Hi Shannon, Whole wheat flour is a fine substitution, but the bread may taste a little dense. We recommend trying half white whole wheat flour and half all purpose for your first loaf and go from there. Hope you enjoy it!
Hello!
Since eggs are outrageously expensive right now, would some flax eggs work for this recipe?
Thanks so much!
Hi Bella, we haven’t tested this bread with any egg substitutes, but let us know if you do!
Can you use butter instead of oil?
Hi Arlene, you can try it, but we don’t really recommend subbing butter when a recipe calls for liquid oil (or vice versa). Because butter is a solid when it’s not melted, it has different properties in a baked good. In this zucchini bread, the oil serves to keep the crumb light and moist, where the butter would weigh this heavy batter down.