The Best Zucchini Bread
This is the best zucchini bread recipe ever! It is soft, moist, and so easy to make. It can also be baked as muffins or in mini loaf pans.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This bread is truly there best! I am so impressed! I’ve had so many varieties of zucchini bread in my time, and I never knew it could be like this. It is perfectly tender, moist, has the best crust to it, rose perfectly, and the flavor is divine! It’s hands down the best zucchini bread I’ve ever made or tasted. -Meg
Why This Zucchini Bread Recipe is the Best
I’ve been making this zucchini bread recipe for nearly twenty years. And I have no desire to make another zucchini bread recipe ever again! If that isn’t proof it is the best, I don’t know what is.
- This recipe comes together quickly and easily. There are no fussy ingredients.
- The crumb is tender, sturdy, and ultra-moist.
- The flavor is just the right amount of sweet, and the earthy notes of cinnamon and zucchini lend a hearty, wholesome goodness to the bread.
- The recipe can easily be doubled or tripled.
- Many readers have reported making the batter into muffins with great results!
- The bread freezes great.
I have a lot of zucchini recipes on my website, but this is the recipe I turn to most often when I have zucchini exploding from my garden.
Ingredients Notes
- Zucchini: Trim the ends of the zucchini before using. If the zucchini are extra-large with lots of seeds, scrape out the seeds before shredding. There is no need to peel the zucchini before shredding.
- Flour: I always use unbleached all-purpose flour. This recipe also works well subbing in half whole wheat flour for half of the all-purpose flour. I recommend using the following varieties for the best results: hard white wheat, soft white wheat, kamut, einkhorn.
- Ground cinnamon
- Ground allspice
- Granulated sugar: The sugar can be decreased to 1 cup for a less sweet version (however, I recommend making it per the recipe the first time so you know exactly how much you’d like to decrease the sugar, if any).
- Eggs
- Plain yogurt: Sour cream can be subbed in for the plain yogurt with great results.
- Fresh lemon juice: You can easily omit the lemon juice and increase the yogurt or sour cream to 1/3 cup.
- Butter: Melted butter is used in the batter. You can sub in a neutral-flavored oil for the butter, if desired. FYI: I think the bread has the best flavor with the butter.
A few other every day ingredients like salt, baking powder, and baking soda are used in the recipe as well.
Alternate Baking Pan Options for Zucchini Bread
- Instead of baking in a 9X5-inch loaf pan, the batter can be baked in three to four mini loaf pans.
- The batter can be scooped into lined or greased and unlined muffin tins for a yield of 12 to 16 muffins (depending on how full you fill the muffin cups).
- I have successfully baked the bread in an 8 1/2X4 1/2-inch loaf pan. It makes a VERY full loaf, so I don’t recommend it if you live at high altitude.
No matter the pan used, fill right around 2/3 full. Don’t over fill or the batter may overflow in the oven and/or take much longer to bake.
Try Eating Zucchini Bread This Way
If you’ve never had a slice of this zucchini bread with a slather of cream cheese, you are missing out.
It is the most delectable combo. Lightly sweet, ultra-moist zucchini bread + tangy, soft cream cheese. YUM. It’s my favorite way to enjoy this classic quick bread.
This bread has become such a staple, I will never stray from this recipe. It really is the best. 💚
The Best Zucchini Bread
Ingredients
- 1 pound zucchini
- 2 cups (284 g) all-purpose flour (see note)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon allspice
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups (318 g) granulated sugar (see note)
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ cup plain yogurt or sour cream, not fat-free
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (see note)
- 6 tablespoons (85 g) salted butter, melted
Instructions
- Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 350 degrees (original instructions were for 375 degrees). Generously coat a 9X5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray or cooking spray with flour.
- Chop the ends off the zucchini (just 1/4-inch off each end) and finely shred the zucchini, peel and all. Place the shredded zucchini in a clean kitchen towel (or nut milk bag), wrap the towel, and wring the ends (like a an old-fashioned candy wrapper) to squeeze out all the excess water. You should have about 1 1/2 cups of dry zucchini. Set the zucchini aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, allspice, and salt. In a smaller bowl, whisk the sugar, yogurt, eggs, lemon juice or sour cream, and butter until combined.
- Gently fold the yogurt mixture and zucchini into the dry ingredients, using a rubber spatula to fold the ingredients together until just combined – don’t overmix! Transfer the batter to the prepared pan.
- Bake until golden brown and a thin knife or skewer inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs attached, 45-60 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes then turn out into wire rack to cool for at least 1 hour. Store well-covered for up to three days.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: adapted slightly from Cook’s Country
Recipe originally posted August 2011; updated September 2024 with new pictures, recipe notes and commentary.
Can Greek yogurt be used in this recipe?
Irene – yes, Greek yogurt should work great.
i made this yesterday. i couldn’t wait for it to cool! so i didn’t, and it was awesome! i had some later when it was cooled and it was great then too. i liked it best warm with a little butter and when the edges were a little crunchy. it’s still great now after i’ve wrapped it up and the edges have softened. i’m so happy i have another zucchini on the counter and this perfect recipe for it! 😀
Perfect! A co-worker just gifted me with some lovely zucchini and now I have a new recipe to try!
Hi do you weigh the zucchini then shred it or is it a pound after shredding? Is that a dumb question? 🙂
Jeannine – no that is not a dumb question! I weigh my zucchini before shredding because it will lose weight after it is shredded and rid of excess water.
Thank you so much for posting this! I can’t wait to try it!
Delicious bread, lovely texture! But I did not have good luck baking it in an 8 1/2 ” x 4 1/2″ pan; it ran out the pan and all over the oven. I should have used my common sense when filling the pan. I knew it looked rather full! Oops! Next time I will try some mini muffin pans. Thank you for all the time you Spend sharing delicious recipes and excellent cooking tips! 🙂
I made this recipe yesterday and loved it so much that I made another batch (mini loaves) and gave them away to my friends. This is absolutely the best zucchini bread I’ve ever had. Thanks for sharing a great recipe.
phew–as long as cinnamon is involved, at least i know you’re on the right track when you call this the best. 🙂
I love zucchini, its my favorite vegetables. A few weeks ago, a friend gave me a huge zucchini from her garden and not wanting to waste it with my two person household, I decided to make zucchini bread. I wish this would have been posted just a few weeks sooner… for sure I will be trying this. Thank you!!
I have always been searching for “the best” zucchini bread recipe. Thank you! I will report back when I have made it and let you know how it turns out!
Your timing is laughably impeccable. My neighbor just brought over a monster zucchini and I figured I’d check here for a good zucchini bread recipe, since you haven’t let me down yet. (and EVERY SINGLE dinner I’ve cooked in the past month has come from recipes from this blog)
And waddya know! A brand new post about zucchini bread. It’s like you read my mind or something.
Can you really do that? Quick! What am I thinking right now? (hee hee)
Hi! I just wanted to tell you that I just came across your recipes and I’m so excited about trying some of them! I usually love cooking but sometimes I run out of new ideas and then it gets old. Thanks for sharing yours.
Thanks again for taking the time to figure out the measurements. I will be baking several loaves today now! I appreciate you so much. Thank you for sharing.
Thx Mel! Have you tried this with white whole wheat flour or just whole wheat flour? Am curious. Love your recipes!!!!
Patrice – I’ve only ever used hard white wheat (it is what I use almost exclusively as far as wheat varieties go).
I heart you Mel. Your recipes never fail.
Lisa – yikes! Sorry about that. It was listed on the printable links documents but somehow got deleted off the main posting. It’s fixed now!
Hi Mel,
I went to make this today an noticed you forgot to put the flour in the list of ingredients. 🙂
Everyone – I made the bread this morning with the intent of measuring the zucchini and after shredding and squeezing dry, it comes to about 1 to 1 1/2 cups gently packed zucchini. Hope that helps!
Laurel – I think the point of the lemon juice is to add a slight (very slight) tanginess to the sweet bread. I have used lemon juice, sour cream and just this morning – buttermilk – and all seem to work just fine. Because I use it more than the others, my preference is probably sour cream, but that may be just because I have it on hand (and sometimes am out of fresh lemons).
I’m excited to try this recipe, thanks for posting it! I think it is interesting that you can put either lemon juice or sour cream. Have you tried it both ways? Do you notice a difference and if so, which do you think is best to put in?
I am a pushover for zucchini in any form and am craving some of this bread right now, maybe during the hurricane I can bake this, the shredded carrot sounds like an addition I will put in too, double yum!
I just made this yesterday and enjoyed a slice for my breakfast this morning. It was super yummy. Flavorful but not too spicy. The allspice is a bit different, but very good. Love all your recipes, keep them coming!
That is such a pretty loaf, too! I will definitely be giving this one a try–thanks!
Hey! I can’t wait to try this, it looks soo yummy! Also, your school lunches solutions post is not showing up on the blog. I get a little preview in Google Reader, but not on your blog. It says the link The page cannot be found. Weird…I just thought I see if it was just me, or if other people had that problem.
I am excited to try this recipe. The current recipe I have is delicious but really oily and too fattening. Anyway, I have one suggestion for a fool proof method of getting zucchini bread out of pans. Cut out a piece of white paper to fit in the bottom of the pan. Put the paper in the bread pan, grease all around it, then add the zucchini bread mixture and bake. When it is done just scrape the sides of the pan and turn over and the bottom will come out easily. Also, the paper peals off the bread quite easily after you dump it out:) Always works for me:)
This came at the right time, as I’m on a quest for the perfect Zucchini Bread! Can sour cream be substituted for yogurt? What about buttermilk? Thanks a million!
Cecilia – according to the test kitchens that reviewed this recipe, sour cream made the bread much more dense and heavy than the yogurt, but if you don’t want to buy another ingredient, I think you could probably use it. I think you could definitely substitute buttermilk for the 1 tablespoon lemon juice/sour cream ingredient.
Vicky – it’s really Cook’s Country restrictions not to use nonfat yogurt – according to their test kitchens using nonfat resulted in a drier/grainier bread. I used lowfat yogurt and it worked great – apparently lowfat or full fat works best, but by all means, try what you have on hand. I can’t imagine it would ruin the recipe…the texture may be a bit different that is all.
Aubri – I’m sorry about your stuck bread! I use the Baker’s Joy spray which has oil and flour in it but perhaps I’ll put a note on the recipe to grease and flour just to be safe!
How did you know that I had two large zucchini’s sitting on my counter screaming “make me into bread!”? AND, I just ran out of cooking oil (gasp) so I couldn’t make my regular recipe. So, I tried this cuz when you say it’s the best, it is! I used half whole wheat pastry flour (soft white wheat) and added some mini cinnamon chips. They just came out of the oven and taste delicious…but for some reason they WILL NOT come out of the pans! (I used 5 inch pans…worked great!) So, if you’re planning on adding chocolate chips or anything, you might want to grease and flour the pan… Oh well, I’m eating and enjoying it anyway 🙂 Thanks Mel!
Mel, can you tell me why you specify not to use non-fat yogurt? It’s all I buy when I buy plain yogurt because the store doesn’t carry low-fat plain (weird). Does it really make a difference? I have used non-fat plain yogurt (and non-fat sour cream, for that matter) in many recipes calling for the regular stuff and not noticed a significant difference, especially in baked goods. It could be that my palate is not that picky. What do you think?
You know I love zucchini bread but I don’t have a go to recipe for it? I have always just tried different recipes here or there or used my Mom’s famous banana bread recipe and adjusted it to include zucchini. So if you are calling this recipe the best I guess it might have to try it and make it my ‘go to’ zucchini bread recipe.
What flour do you use for your best recipe? What do you think tastes best; all white, mixed white and wheat, or all wheat?
Hi Everyone – ok, let’s address the zucchini questions:
1) How many cups of shredded zucchini to use? I haven’t measured the cups since I use my scale to weigh the 1 pounds of zucchini but using Kira’s suggestion and thinking back to all the times I have made this (I’ll measure next time to be sure), I would say 1 1/2 to 2 cups of squeezed-dry zucchini (the stuff that comes out of the kitchen towel after all the water has been squeezed out). Also, I made the bread this morning (before reading all these comments) and was short about 6 ounces of zucchini, so I threw in a handful of baby carrots and shredded those with the zucchini. It turned out phenomenal!
2) As for flour, I alternately make this with unbleached all-purpose flour, white whole wheat flour or a combination of both. Works great any way you look at it (it is a bit more dense with the whole wheat flour but has a great hearty flavor). My guilty preference is with all white flour but like I said, it tastes great whole wheat or white.
yup…wondering the same thing,..how many cups of zucchini?
p.s. I am also wondering how many cups of shredded zucchini to use.
Perfect timing! I just bought a gi-normous zucchini from the farmers market and am hoping to make a bunch of baked goods w/ it for the freezer. (after eating a little fresh of course 🙂
Along with Kira’s comment, can you also freeze zucchini and use the same way in this recipe? I know when you thaw zucchini, it’s easy to drain the excess water. What are your thoughts? Would you still use 4 cups frozen/drained zucchini or maybe 2?
This looks delicious! I have been looking for a recipe that is moist but not oily. Do you use AP flour or whole wheat?
To Jody: I have used round zucchini, and it seemed to work the same as long zucchini.
Thanks for the recipe, Mel! I have zucchini to use…
I googled 1 lb. zucchini equivants and found that 1 lb. = 4 cups grated zucchini and then it said = 2 cups salted and squeezed zucchini. Since the recipe has you squeeze out the water in the towel which measurment would you say is most accurate? Thanks in advance can’t wait to try this; my husband just brought home three large zucchinis from a patient at work.
I was going to make zucchini bread last night but ran out of time. I think it was meant to be because I would much rather try your recipe. Thanks!
This looks wonderful. I will sure be trying it out.
I made a similar zucchini bread just last week but with just a slight tweak…I added an 8 oz. can of crushed pineapple. It was delicious and a nice little twist to ordinary z-bread.
Everyone – I’ve added an update to the recipe that I forgot to mention. Usually zucchini are best picked when there are still small prickly hairs on the skin and they are smaller in size but I think we all know that sometimes we miss one or two and they grow really, really big. If that’s the case, they can still be used in this bread, just slice the zucchini in half lengthwise, scoop out the seeds and then shred it.
Just made 8 loaves of zucchini bread yesterday! Good thing I have plenty more zucchini so I can try this recipe!!
This will be my new recipe this year! If you say it’s the best, I believe you 🙂
You know Mel,
I just realized I haven’t made Z-Bread in a really REALLY long time. What a great idea for this weekend.
I could make a bunch of loaves and freeze them for later.
Thanks for the recipe!
You know Mel,
I just reliazed I haven’t made Z-Bread in a really REALLY long time. What a great idea for this weekend.
I could make a bunch of loaves and freeze them for later.
Thanks for the recipe!
Have you ever used a round zucchini? We have one and want to make bread with it but am unsure if I just shred it like I would a regular one.
Jody – I’ve never used round zucchini. You might try googling to figure out if it can be used interchangeably with the long skinny variety.
Makes the perfect quick breakfast or afternoon snack. Mmm, tangy cream cheese on sweet bread is a total win!
Zucchini bread is the perfect recipe to use up all of the late summer zucchini. I love that your recipe has yogurt in it, Mel! If you say it’s the best, then I know it will be the best!
this sounds delicious and I have about 5 big zucchini I need to us.
I *just* made some zuc bread to post about (haven’t published yet)…I was unsure about my recipe but it turned out better than I thought it would. Though it is slightly greasy (but not too much). I still have some zucchini left, I just might have to try your recipe! And I never would have thought to put cream cheese on it – genius!!