Mom’s Zucchini Bread with a Twist
This is our take on our mom’s zucchini bread, with a twist that’s totally ours! It’s full of healthy zucchini, a generous amount of cinnamon, golden raisins, toasted walnuts, and applesauce for extra moisture and flavor.
A Twist on Our Mom’s Zucchini Bread: A Family Favorite Reinvented
Our mom has been making a variation of this bread for years. Every holiday season, she’d bake up two loaves of zucchini bread, freezing one to enjoy at a later date. It seems like so many family matriarchs had similar zucchini bread recipes, with tons of cinnamon and vanilla and only baking soda for rising.
We grew up loving that sweet loaf, but we wanted to make our own version of our mom’s zucchini bread. We replaced some of the oil in the original recipe with unsweetened applesauce and included toasted walnuts, golden raisins, brown sugar, a hefty amount of cinnamon and vanilla extract, and a whole heap of shredded zucchini. Using baking powder and baking soda allows for extra lift and structure, keeping this bread nice and fluffy.
Why We Love This Recipe
- Great use of summer produce. Zucchini (also called “courgette”) is a summer squash, and recipes featuring this fruit seem to be everywhere in warmer months. If you’re looking for a way to use up your zucchini surplus, this is an excellent option. In the United States, you can also usually find zucchini in grocery stores all year long.
- Dessert bread that’s also full of nutrients. While this is technically sweet quick bread, it’s not overly sweet in flavor, so could also be a breakfast option. It’s also full of antioxidants and other nutrients, like vitamin A, folate, and potassium. Using zucchini like this is a great way to sneak produce, and a green one at that, into baked goods.
- Soft, spongy, and moist, with interesting textural variation. Each slice of this zucchini bread is like an explosion of juicy golden raisins and toasty walnuts. The zucchini and applesauce give this bread a ton of moisture too, so it won’t dry out after it’s cooked.
- Not fussy. We love that there isn’t much preparation required in this recipe, aside from grating the zucchini and toasting the walnuts (or you can buy pre-toasted). There’s no need to peel the zucchini or squeeze out the liquid. In fact, that liquid helps keep the bread soft and moist too.
Ingredients in the Zucchini Bread
- Dry ingredients – you’ll need all-purpose flour for the base of this bread (no need for cake flour here). The other dry ingredients include a heavy amount of cinnamon for warmth, salt for flavor, and baking soda and baking powder for rise.
- Wet ingredients – the wet ingredients include eggs, brown and granulated sugars, neutral oil, vanilla extract, and unsweetened applesauce.
- Zucchini – for this recipe, you’ll want a medium-large zucchini. Once it’s grated, it should make about 2 cups of volume.
- Other mix-ins – we love the squishy, juicy, slightly tart flavor of golden raisins in this bread. They plump up when they bake and taste like little fruity flavor bombs. We also add toasted walnuts for protein and texture. If you’re allergic to nuts, you can leave them out.
How to Make This Zucchini Bread
STEP 1: Toast the walnuts and prepare the loaf pans. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Lightly spray or butter a 9×5 inch loaf pan and line it with parchment paper.
Add the walnuts to a baking sheet and bake for 3 to 5 minutes, or until they start to smell nutty. Nuts can burn quickly, so watch them carefully. Toasting them ensures that they’ll provide maximum flavor and nutty crunch to the bread.
STEP 2: Mix the dry ingredients together. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
STEP 3: Mix up the wet ingredients and incorporate the dry ingredients. In a separate large bowl, mix together the eggs and sugars with a whisk or electric beater until the texture resembles wet sand. Mix in the applesauce, oil, and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined.
STEP 4: Add the mix-ins. Add the grated zucchini, golden raisins, and toasted walnuts and mix in carefully with a spoon or spatula.
STEP 5: Bake the zucchini bread and serve. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the edges darken and pull away from the sides. This bread bakes dark because of the cinnamon, so be sure to test its doneness by inserting a toothpick into the center. If the bread is done, the toothpick should come out with only a few crumbs. Once it’s done, remove the zucchini bread from the oven and let it sit for 10 to 15 minutes, then turn the bread out onto a surface to cool before slicing. Serve with butter or whipped cream cheese.
Tips for Serving and Storing
Mom’s Zucchini Bread with a Twist
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour (about 187 grams) spooned and leveled
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp tsp baking soda
- ¾ tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 2 eggs
- ¼ cups granulated sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar packed
- ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce
- ¼ cup neutral flavored oil
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 2 cups grated zucchini, unpeeled and liquid not squeezed out about 1 large zucchini
- ½ cup golden raisins
- ½ cup chopped walnuts
- Butter or cooking spray for greasing pan
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan with a tiny bit of butter or cooking spray and line it with parchment paper.Butter or cooking spray
- Add the chopped walnuts to a baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven for 3 to 5 minutes, or until they start to smell nutty but not burnt. Remove from oven.½ cup chopped walnuts
- In a medium bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.1 ½ cups all-purpose flour (about 187 grams), 1 tbsp cinnamon, ½ tsp tsp baking soda, ¾ tsp baking powder, 1 tsp sea salt
- In a separate large bowl, mix together the eggs and sugars with a whisk or electric beater until the texture resembles wet sand. Add the applesauce, oil, and vanilla and mix until fully combined.¼ cups granulated sugar, ½ cup brown sugar, 2 eggs, ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce, ¼ cup neutral flavored oil, 2 tsp vanilla
- Add the dry ingredients to the bowl with the wet ingredients and mix until just combined, being careful not to overmix or the bread will become gummy.
- Add the grated zucchini, golden raisins, and toasted walnuts and mix in carefully with a spoon or spatula.2 cups grated zucchini, unpeeled and liquid not squeezed out, ½ cup golden raisins, ½ cup chopped walnuts
- Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the edges darken and pull away from the sides and a toothpick inserted comes out with only a few crumbs.
- Remove the zucchini bread from the oven and let it sit for 10 to 15 minutes. After it has rested, turn the bread out onto a surface to cool before slicing. Optional: serve with butter or whipped cream cheese.
