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Three half slices of zucchini bread stacked on piece of parchment paper.

The Best Zucchini Bread

Yield: 12 Slices
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 55 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 pound zucchini
  • 2 cups (284 g) 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

Loaf Pans: the batter can be baked in a three to four mini loaf pans or as muffins (yield will be about 12-16)
Whole Wheat Flour: this recipe 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. 
Lemon Juice/Sour Cream: you can easily omit the lemon juice and increase the yogurt or sour cream to 1/3 cup. 
Sugar: you can decrease the sugar 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).