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Morning Glory Farm’s famous zucchini bread recipe is a moist and tender summer treat that takes advantage of the season’s bountiful produce! The easy quick bread comes together in minutes, and makes a delicious breakfast or snack that the whole family will love!
Our Favorite Recipe for Zucchini Bread
Our family’s former house on Martha’s Vineyard was in biking distance of one of my favorite places on the planet — Morning Glory Farm. Full of beautiful fresh flowers and colorful, ripe local produce, Morning Glory’s bakery and farm stand has become a popular tourist destination over the years. One of the hottest items that flies off store shelves? The decadent loaves of zucchini bread!
My boys can devour a loaf of this bread in almost one sitting. They say it tastes like pumpkin bread or Amish Friendship Bread — thanks to all of that cinnamon! While you can’t taste the zucchini, it adds great moisture to the loaf.
Ingredients
This is just a quick overview of the ingredients that you’ll need for a loaf of easy zucchini bread. As always, specific measurements and step-by-step baking instructions are included in the printable recipe box at the bottom of the post.
- Zucchini: shredded on a box grater, the zucchini adds nice moisture to the loaf. You don’t need to peel it, either. Kids will be happy to know that you can’t actually taste it in the finished product! Medium zucchinis about 6-7 inches long and about 2-3 inches in diameter will yield about 1 cup of shredded zucchini.
- Oil: use a mild oil such as vegetable oil or canola oil to keep the bread nice and moist.
- Eggs: give the loaf structure.
- Vanilla extract: for flavor.
- Granulated sugar: for just the right amount of sweetness in each slice!
- All-purpose flour: the base of the batter.
- Salt: to enhance the other flavors in the bread and balance the sweetness.
- Cinnamon: for warmth.
- Baking soda and baking powder: the leavening agents that help the bread rise.
Do you peel a zucchini for zucchini bread?
No, you don’t need to peel the zucchini before grating it and using it in this recipe. Zucchini skin is so thin that it will not add an unpleasant, tough texture to the baked goods.
Do you remove the seeds?
No, as long as you’re not using a giant zucchini, you do not need to cut out the seeds before shredding. The seeds are small and tender, so they just mix right in with the rest of the grated zucchini.
Should you squeeze water out of a zucchini for bread?
No, in this recipe, you do not squeeze the water out of the zucchini. That extra liquid will keep the batter nice and moist.
Can you use frozen zucchini for zucchini bread?
I have not tested this recipe with frozen zucchini; however, according to this article, you can successfully bake with frozen zucchini. The key is to measure the zucchini before freezing. For instance, measure out 1-cup portions of shredded zucchini, keep it in the freezer, and then thaw before using in this recipe. There will be a lot of water extra with the thawed zucchini, so make sure to pat it dry before stirring it into the batter.
How to Make Zucchini Bread
This quick bread doesn’t need yeast or rising time, and doesn’t even require an electric mixer. Just combine the ingredients and pop it in the oven!
- Stir together the grated zucchini, oil, eggs, and vanilla extract.
- Add the sugar and whisk until everything is creamed together.
- Sift together the dry ingredients.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients; stir just until combined. The batter should be smooth, with the exception of the zucchini, but don’t overmix or you’ll end up with a dense, dry loaf.
- Transfer the batter to a loaf pan and bake in a 325°F oven for about 55 minutes. The bread is done when it’s golden brown, springs back when gently pressed in the center, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
How to Serve this Easy Zucchini Bread
Serve the bread warm, at room temperature, or even straight from the refrigerator! It’s a great option for breakfast or snack when paired with a mug of hot coffee or tea.
The bread is delicious on its own, but you might also enjoy it with butter, cream cheese, almond butter, or peanut butter. Add some yogurt or eggs and fresh fruit on the side for a perfect morning feast, or offer it in the bread basket at dinner alongside savory options like ribs, pulled pork, steak, or chicken.
Preparation and Storage
- Make-Ahead: This bread just gets better as it sits. The flavors come together and the zucchini helps to keep the bread nice and moist.
- How to Store Zucchini Bread: Always wrap your loaf in plastic wrap or foil to prevent it from drying out. It does not need to be refrigerated. The bread will stay fresh at room temperature on the counter for 2-3 days, and it will last in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
- To Freeze: Cool the loaf completely, wrap tightly, and freeze for up to 3 months.
Is zucchini bread healthy?
While you’re getting some health benefits from the zucchini in this recipe, I wouldn’t consider zucchini bread (or other quick bread recipes like banana bread) to be “healthy.” There’s definitely plenty of sugar, fat, and refined carbs in this recipe. That said, you can certainly do worse when it comes to sweet treats! Assuming that a loaf yields 12 slices, each slice includes about 215 calories, 29 grams of carbohydrate, 3 grams of protein and 10 grams of fat.
Recipe Variations
- What all can you put in zucchini bread? If you’d like to add some mix-ins to your loaf of zucchini bread, try about ½ cup of chopped nuts (such as walnuts or pecans), raisins, dried cranberries, or chocolate chips.
- If your kids don’t want to see green flecks in the bread, you can substitute with an equal amount of yellow summer squash instead of the zucchini.
- Zucchini Bread Muffins: divide the batter between muffin cups. Bake at 400°F for about 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. You might also like to try this one-bowl zucchini muffin recipe.
- Sprinkle coarse sugar over the top of the bread before baking. This will give it a lovely “crust” on top.
- Add more spices. I like just it simple with just ground cinnamon in this recipe, but you can add more spices like nutmeg, cloves, allspice, or ginger for a cozier, zestier loaf.
- Add whole grains to the loaf by replacing half of the all-purpose flour with ¾ cup of whole wheat flour.
Tips for the Best Zucchini Bread Recipe
- I use a large box grater to shred my zucchini, which still blends easily into the bread. If you really want the zucchini to be undetectable, use a finer grater so that the zucchini has a finer texture. You can also use a food processor to shred the zucchini if you like.
- Don’t squeeze the zucchini dry before adding it to the batter. That extra liquid will help to keep the loaf moist.
- Use either canola oil, vegetable oil, or avocado oil. You want a neutral oil that will not flavor the bread, so don’t use olive oil. Feel free to substitute with melted unsalted butter if you prefer.
- Be careful not to over-mix the batter. You want it to come together so that everything is combined, but then stop stirring! Mixing too much will result in dry, dense bread.
- To check if the loaf is done, insert a toothpick deep into the center of the bread and make sure that it comes out clean. Don’t cook the loaf for too long, or it may dry out.
More Zucchini Recipes to Try
Zucchini bread exists to use up all of that wonderful summer zucchini that we find in our gardens each year! If you have an abundance of the delicious green veggie, here are some other ways to put it to good use.
- Zucchini Banana Bread
- Chocolate Zucchini Bread
- Greek Yogurt Chocolate Zucchini Cake
- Garlic Parmesan Zucchini Casserole
- Zucchini Pie
- One-Bowl Zucchini Muffins
- Zucchini Gratin with Corn and Bacon
- Zucchini Fritters
- Crispy Zucchini Fries
- Sauteed Zucchini
Morning Glory Farm Zucchini Bread
Ingredients
- 1 cup grated zucchini
- ½ cup vegetable oil (or substitute with other mild cooking oil, such as canola or avocado oil)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease a 8 ½-inch x 4 ½-inch loaf pan with nonstick spray.
- In a large bowl, mix together zucchini, oil, eggs, and vanilla extract.
- Whisk sugar into the zucchini mixture until the sugar completely dissolves and the mixture is creamed together.
- In a separate bowl, sift together flour, salt, cinnamon, baking soda, and baking powder. Add the sifted dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Stir just until combined. The batter should be smooth, with the exception of the shredded zucchini.
- Transfer batter to prepared pan.
- Bake for approximately 55 minutes, or until bread springs back when gently pressed in middle and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Notes
- Recipe slightly adapted from Morning Glory Farm.
- I use a large box grater to shred my zucchini, which still blends easily into the bread. If you really want the zucchini to be undetectable, use a finer grater so that the zucchini has a finer texture. You can also use a food processor to shred the zucchini if you like.
- Don’t squeeze the zucchini dry before adding it to the batter. That extra liquid will help to keep the loaf moist.
- Use either canola oil, vegetable oil, or avocado oil. You want a neutral oil that will not flavor the bread, so don’t use olive oil. Feel free to substitute with melted unsalted butter if you prefer.
- Be careful not to over-mix the batter. You want it to come together so that everything is combined, but then stop stirring! Mixing too much will result in dry, dense bread.
- To check if the loaf is done, insert a toothpick deep into the center of the bread and make sure that it comes out clean. Don’t cook the loaf for too long, or it may dry out.
Nutrition
This post was originally published in August, 2013. The photos were updated in July, 2022.
I’m making this bread for the second time in a week. Thank you for posting.
Awesome! Isn’t it great? So glad that you’ve enjoyed it, Chris!
This bread was a big hit with my family. Making it for the third time in 2 weeks!
Wonderful! Thanks, Becky! I’m so glad that your family loves it as much as we do. 🙂
Can you substitute Splenda for the sugar
Hi, Carol! Probably, but you’ll have to play around with the measurements because I know that Splenda is much sweeter than sugar. You’ll likely want to significantly decrease the amount of Splenda (versus the amount of sugar called for in the recipe) — it’s typically not a 1:1 swap unless it indicates that on the package. Hope that helps, and enjoy!
Looks fantastic but I haven’t make it yet.
How could I eliminate the sugar and make this tasty using maple syrup or honey…..but not a lot of it.
I can’t have dairy, sugar or eggs. I can use an egg replacement such as ground flax seed and water….but what can I successfully substitute for the sugar? Looks very tasty but I’m not a good enough cook to know how to best substitute.for the sugar. In my circles everyone is trying to eliminate sugar from their diets.
Hi, Jeanette! If you want to completely eliminate the added sugar, you can try using a replacement like monkfruit sweetener (I like Lakanto brand, which you can buy on Amazon) that measures equally to sugar. If you use something like Splenda, you may need to reduce the amount used because some of these sugar substitutes are WAY sweeter than actual sugar.
If you want to replace the white sugar with a natural sweetener like honey or maple syrup, I would suggest reducing the amount of maple syrup or honey to 3/4 cup. The texture of the loaf will obviously change (since the syrup has a different texture than the white sugar), but it would probably still be fine. Let me know if you give it a try. I’m curious to hear how it goes!
Everyone’s raving about this bread! Thanks for a great recipe! I stuck to it except to sub gluten free flour and long-neck squash.
Thanks, Mara! I’m so glad to know that it works with gluten-free flour, too. Thanks for your note!
Thanks, Janette! I haven’t tested the recipe with honey or other sugar alternatives, so you’d just have to start playing around with it and see how it works. Honey is sweeter than white sugar, so you would definitely need to use a little bit less, I’m just not sure what the best combination might be.
I have made this twice this season and plan to again tomorrow, it is a complete PERFECt recipe in both bread and muffin form. We also cannot keep this from flying off the countertop! I have now also shared this with two other families that have the same response. So happy you recently posted this again as I have end of the season zucchini ready for sharing and freezer loaves!
Yay! That’s so good to hear. Thank you for sharing the recipe as well. You’re so kind to come back here and leave a note, Michelle. 🙂
Blair, you know, until I was in my 40s I thought I hated zucchini except when it was baked in a sweet bread such as this one. My parents often had a garden and the yellow squash and zucchini always grew like crazy! My mother always cooked them sauteed with garlic which I just dreaded because it was bitter. I assumed zucthe squash and zucchini were bitter in and of themselves and never just ate them raw. Finally, in my 40s, I bought a zucchini and tasted it raw. Lo and behold, it was completely unobjectionable and tasted a lot like cucumber. I finally figured out that what happened when my mother cooked it was that she burned the garlic! All those years wasted! My point is that if anyone comes across a squash or zucchini hater, coax them into sampling a raw one. I don’t know what to suggest about kids disliking the peel. I don’t think I ever noticed it in zucchini bread.
That’s so funny about the burned garlic! I’m sure the zucchini didn’t taste good. 🙂
I hope you’ll try this bread! I just made another loaf today…it’s a favorite around here!
The loaf looks delicious! One way I learned that mother burned the garlic was when I started cooking and burned the garlic myself! Really bitter!
Hi Blair, this is such a great recipe. I am on the island now at our place in Edgartown and love to take trips to buy the MGF zucchini bread. But I find your recipe is a bit lighter than theirs, which I love.
It’s brutally hot here for the Vineyard. Hopefully this heat wave will break for all of us. Did your parents sell their home here?
Hi, Teresa! I’m so glad that you approve of this bread — especially given that you’ve tried the MGF version! 🙂
Yes, my folks sold their home near Edgartown before last summer. It’s just SO far for us to get to, and now that my folks are getting older, they decided that a vacation home somewhere closer to Virginia (and Florida, where my brother’s family lives) would be far more practical. It was a lot for them to maintain from a distance, and we just couldn’t get there very often. Plus, the medical care on the island wasn’t cutting it when they had some scary health situations arise. Long story short, we sadly parted with the house after almost 40 years of fun!
Hope you’re having a wonderful time!
We just came home from the vineyard and frequented Morning Glory Farm daily while there!
I’m going to make your recipe this weekend — have you ever added banana to the bread? I’m thinking of trying it, but not sure if it would be an addition or maybe use some banana and some oil…
Hi, Rachel! I think that you could make it work with some banana, but you’d need to play around with the amounts of banana-zucchini-and-oil, so that you don’t get a loaf that’s too “wet” and gummy. I have a different zucchini banana bread recipe coming to the blog tomorrow, though, so stay tuned. Great minds think alike! 🙂
I just saw the recipe posted! I am definitely going to be making it 🙂
Awesome! Hope you love it!