Olive Oil Zucchini Bread
- Total Time
- 1½ hours
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
Yield:One 8-inch loaf
- Butter, for the pan
- 1½cups/185 grams grated zucchini
- ⅔cup/140 grams light brown sugar
- ⅓cup/80 milliliters olive oil (or other oil such as safflower or canola)
- ⅓cup/80 milliliters plain Greek yogurt
- 2large eggs
- 1teaspoon/5 milliliters vanilla extract
- 1½cups/190 grams all-purpose flour
- ½teaspoon/3 grams salt
- ½teaspoon/3 grams baking soda
- ½teaspoon/2 grams baking powder
- 1½teaspoons/4 grams ground cinnamon
- ¼teaspoon/1 gram ground nutmeg
- 1teaspoon/2 grams finely grated lemon zest
- ½cup/55 grams chopped walnuts (optional)
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8-inch loaf pan.
- Step 2
In a large bowl, use a rubber spatula to mix together the grated zucchini, sugar, olive oil, yogurt, eggs and vanilla extract.
- Step 3
Whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, lemon zest and spices in a separate bowl. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Fold in the walnuts if using.
- Step 4
Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 40 to 55 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking. The bread will be done when a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- Step 5
Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove the bread from the pan and cool on a rack completely before cutting and serving.
Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Ju
Hi Melissa,
I am nine years old, I live in Brazil and I love your recipes. I enjoy a lot watching your videos.
My favorite vegetable is zucchini.
Thank you
Ju
RLIZA
I divided the batter in a 12-cup greased muffin pan so it's done faster at 18 minutes. Don't have walnuts, used choco chips instead. Perfection -moist and yummy.
Susan
I reduced the sugar to 1/2 cup, and added 1/2 tsp each ginger and/or cardamom. It added a nice complexity to the flavor.
Helen
This is a lovely treat, with strong flavors of spices and citrus. I made this recipe with buttermilk instead of yogurt, and extra walnuts and dried sour cherries, then baked it in a 12x4" loaf pan.
Joanne
I have made this bread several times now and it is delicious. I love its lightness and the hint of lemon and spicy flavor is delightful. I found it best to follow the recipe as written. The addition of chocolate chips, as others have suggested, overwhelms the citrus flavor and warm spices. Thank you Melissa!
Jodi Fortner
Ding, ding, ding!
You win the award for the only comment I've read so far that seemed not to make any changes to the published recipe.
Now I know IF I FOLLOW THE RECIPE it will work and be delicious, no costly time or ingredients down the drain. Thank you!
Jacqueline
This is a nice, tasty loaf. I bake it regulalry now, especially when I have a few zucchini left from something else. (Sometimes I add a handful of raisins.) It goes well with a young goat's cheese or a Stilton. But I do think it is important to drain the grated zucchini first, so that it holds its shape and does not become slush.
Alex S
You can substitute carrots for zucchini and get great results too!
cstennis
Lovely bread. I decreased sugar to a 1/2 cup, which was sweet enough; used half regular flour and half almond flour to cut down a bit on the carbs; 1/2 (instead of 1/3) cup yogurt; substituted almond oil for the olive oil; threw in a handful of unsweetened coconut and a half cup of chopped dates.
I think this bread lends itself to many substitutions and variations - all of which are probably pretty wonderful!
Becca
Made with no substitutions, everyone loved it.
Andrea
Used yellow zucchini instead of green (I think yellow flecks are more summery than the green) and coconut sugar instead of regular. This was incredibly easy, the top gets a beautiful, deep brown sheen, it looks and tastes like you worked a lot harder than you did. A keeper.
Leslie
Made it in muffin tins.... enough for exactly a dozen. Baked for 10 minutes, rotated, then baked for 10 minutes more and they are delicious. Also substituted vanilla yogurt for the plain and left out the vanilla extract.
Allie
Love this recipe--my new go-to for zucchini bread. As my husband said, it feels like a "grown-up" zucchini bread, while still being comfort food. The combination of the lemon + cinnamon/nutmeg is subtle, unexpected, and wonderful.
Stan
I felt that something was missing e.g. ginger or cloves-something to heighten flavor. I also think raisins would be good to add. Good idea to squeeze the zucchini to reduce the wetness.
Jessie
This was very moist and tasty. I don't like nutmeg so eliminated that and added cardamom and ginger instead. Threw in a handful of raisins. It was sweet, but not too sweet, to my taste.
dstan
Followed advice of some and substituted Chinese 5 spice for the spices in the recipe...because I actually had the 5 spice and had never used it before. I agree, it gave the bread a great, albiet different, flavour. I also agree, the anise elevates the complexity of the flavours.... I would use more zest next time and I also topped with a lemon juice and powdered sugar glaze. Great and easy way to use up the abundance of summer zucchini. Baked for 50 min. Everyone loved it...will make again.
SusieRCP
Delicious! I substituted lemons and walnuts with just a little orange rind and pecans, and they worked well. Doubling the recipe worked perfectly, and baking time is closer to 1 hour. Nothing like wonderful olive oil to give this bread a delicate scrumptious-ity.
Camille
Made again
Lisa
This is a winner. Baked it as directed. Everyone love it. Moist, flavorful, and delicious.
cynthia kukla
Would Melissa please share what are the green strands of some herb or something that is wrapped around the top of the baked loaf (in the picture above?) It looks tantilizing.
SusanW
For advice about making the strands, see Dan E's explanation from 5 years ago (one of the "Most Helpful" comments).
Mimi Goacher
This is a wonderful recipe which one had tweak to add different flavours as suggested in the comments and try them out on different occasions. Love it thank you !
Gloria
My husband loves this zucchini bread. I bake in a couple of Muffin top trays and keep them in the freezer. He pops one out everyday. He calls them his cookies
Pam
What kind of grater did she use to get those long thin slices on the top?
Edie
Good, but unremarkable.
Cecilia
I didn’t have eggs so subbed 1/2 c applesauce for 2 eggs, worked out fine. Also made 12 muffins instead of loaf of bread. Added 1/2 c dark chocolate chunks and 1 tblsp baking cocoa, very delicious. Turned out moist but not stodgy, not too sweet, will make again and again!
JoAnn
The flavor in the bread was complex and wonderful....But it was just way to dense and moist in the middle...After about 1 hour 15 mins..I finally took it out and just cut the loaf in thirds....And put it back in the oven on a cooling racks on a cookie tray. It seemed to cook more thoroughly at this point. But still very moist in the middle.
Caren
I made exactly as instructed and made 12 muffins (silicone baking cups 30-35 minutes). They were delicious! Very light and fluffy and flavorful.
Danielle
Followed the recipe, even used a scale. Modified with a bit coarsely chopped dark chocolate and chopped toasted hazelnuts. Great bread texture. Very flat flavor. More like a bland sugar loaf with strands of zucchini. Pretty looking and pretty tasteless. Meh.
Amy
Delicious!
Cass
Added some chocolate chips. Delicious!
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