Mom’s Cinnamon Zucchini Bread With A Twist

This is our take on our mom’s cinnamon 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. 

Pull Up A Chair

Rachel: Honestly, I like raisins in bread. Regular raisins have a bad rap, but golden raisins are super juicy and add a ton of moisture and texture to this sweet bread.

Emily: This bread is so delicious toasted with a thin layer of butter or whipped cream cheese spread on top. Plus, it has secret veggies and protein.

Why We Love This Recipe

• Great use of veggies. 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. This quick bread is not overly sweet in flavor. 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 a green vegetable 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. You don’t need to peel the zucchini or squeeze out the liquid (the liquid actually helps keep the bread soft and moist).

Our Twist

Our mom has been making a variation of this bread for years. Every holiday season, she bakes up two loaves, freezing one to enjoy later. We grew up loving it, but we wanted to make our own version.

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.

Ingredients in Cinnamon Zucchini Bread

• Dry ingredients – all-purpose flour, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.
• Wet ingredients – eggs, brown and granulated sugars, neutral oil, vanilla extract, and unsweetened applesauce. 
• Zucchini – you’ll want a medium-large zucchini, which should make about 2 cups of volume once shredded.
• Other mix-ins – golden raisins and toasted walnuts add juicy, tart flavor (raisins) and protein and texture (walnuts). If you’re allergic to nuts, you can leave them out.

How to Make This Zucchini Bread

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. 

Mix the ingredients together. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. 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.

Add the grated zucchini, golden raisins, and toasted walnuts and mix in carefully with a spoon or spatula. 

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.

Our Tips for Cinnamon Zucchini Bread

• Measure flour using weight or “spoon and level” method. If you don’t use these methods, you’ll likely end up with more flour than the recipe intended, which will make your cinnamon zucchini bread more dry.
• Use toasted walnuts for better flavor. You can do this yourself or buy pre-toasted (roasted) walnuts for ease.

• Use golden raisins, not regular raisins. Golden raisins have a juicier texture and more tart flavor than regular raisins. They add brighter flavor to this sweet quick bread.

Mom’s Cinnamon Zucchini Bread with a Twist

5 from 1 vote

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.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time:10 minutes mins

Cook Time:1 hour hr

Total Time:1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Course: Baked Goods, Bread & Baked, Breakfast, Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: zucchini

Servings: 9 slices

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.

Final Thoughts

We’ve been loving our mom’s zucchini cinnamon bread since we were kids, but we’ve always wanted to make our own version. This one is full of some of our favorite mix-ins for baked goods: applesauce for moisture, walnuts for protein and subtle crunch, and golden raisins for plump, juicy texture and mild tartness. It’s a super tasty, shareable loaf that’s a great way to use up extra zucchini. If you’ve made this recipe, let us know what you thought! Leave us a rating and comment and don’t forget to tag us on Instagram!