Zucchini Bread

I know there are a bazillion recipes out there for zucchini bread, but I thought I’d add mine to the mix. Although, I should say that it’s not really mine! I got it from Cook’s Illustrated’s Country Cooking website when I had a free trial.

Interestingly enough, though, I just found another Cook’s recipe for zucchini bread in my Baking Illustrated book. It’s almost exactly the same, except that instead of 1 1/2 cups of sugar, it only calls for 3/4 cup. I’ll give that a try and let you know if cutting the sugar by half produces good results. 1 1/2 cups has always seemed like an awful lot of sugar for one loaf of bread!

What makes this recipe a little different than most is that you squeeze the liquid out of the zucchini, which helps to prevent that most common of problems, which is the dense/wet spot at the bottom of the loaf. Also, squeezing the liquid out means that you can fit more zucchini into a loaf. An entire pound of zucchini goes into each 9×5 inch loaf, so if you have a glut of the green squash, this is a good recipe to use.

Happily, this is a very simple recipe….mix dry ingredients, mix wet ingredients, combine, and bake. If you need some pictures, though, read on. 😉

First, shred a pound of unpeeled zucchini. This ends up being about three cups, although it looks like more than that in the picture.

To rid the zucchini of its excess liquid, wrap it in a tea towel and squeeze until you can release no more juice. Your zucchini will have lost about a cup of volume, so you should end up with about 2 cups now. Again, I took this picture from a bad angle, so it looks like more than 2 cups. ( Note to self: move farther down when photographing measuring cups.)

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl.

And mix the wet ingredients together. I like to use my handy-dandy egg beaters for this.

Add the zucchini and wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix gently until it’s all just combined. If you recall from our gluten lesson, since this is a non-yeast bread, you do not want to develop a lot of gluten. So, use a light hand with the mixing.

Although the Cook’s recipe doesn’t specify this, I like to mix the zucchini in with the egg mixture before I add it to the dry ingredients. This allows me to do slightly less mixing once the wet and dry ingredients are combined.

Pour the batter into a greased 9×5 inch pan.

And bake for 45-55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool on a wire rack completely before slicing, as quick breads are nearly impossible to slice while warm.

Zucchini Bread

1 pound zucchini, shredded, with excess liquid squeezed out (about 2 cups of squeezed zucchini)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup plain yogurt
2 large eggs
1 tbsp lemon juice
6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 °F. Generously coat a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan with cooking spray.

Whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, allspice, and salt in a large bowl. In a small bowl whisk together sugar, yogurt, eggs, lemon juice, and butter until combined. Gently fold yogurt mixture and zucchini into flour mixture using a spatula until just combined. Transfer batter to prepared pan.

Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few crumbs attached, 45 to 55 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes in pan, then turn out onto wire rack to cool for at least 1 hour. Bread can be wrapped in plastic and stored at room temperature for 3 days.
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So, that’s the last of my zucchini recipes for this week, as Food Waste Friday will be the post for tomorrow. I do have one other recipe for zucchini, which I’ve shared it before. If you prefer your zucchini to be free of sugar and flour, check out my Hibachi Chicken and Shrimp recipe.

And if you have some other good ideas for using up zucchini, leave a comment and share with us.