Zucchini Bread
Zucchini bread is what American home bakers do with a summer glut: grated squash folded into a cinnamon-spiced batter, baked into a dense, damp loaf that tastes of nothing in particular but keeps the crumb tender for days. The zucchini brings no flavour of its own — it brings water, which is the whole point. Sliced thick and eaten with butter or plain with coffee, it sits somewhere between a cake and a bread and refuses to choose.
Ingredients
- 400 gzucchini
- 280 gwheat flour
- 150 gbrown sugar
- 100 gsugar
- 3 pcsegg
- 160 mlvegetable oil
- 100 gwalnuts
- 2 tspground cinnamon
- 2 tspvanilla extract
- 1 tspbaking soda
- 1 tspbaking powder
- 1 pinchnutmeg
Method
- Heat the oven to 175°C and line a large loaf tin with baking paper. Spread the walnuts on a tray and toast them 6–7 minutes until fragrant, then chop them roughly and let them cool.
- Grate the zucchini on the large holes of a box grater, skin and seeds included — there is no need to peel it. If it looks very wet, let it sit in a sieve a few minutes and press lightly; if it looks ordinary, leave it as it is.
- Whisk the flour, ground cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder, and a pinch of salt together in a large bowl.
- In a second bowl, whisk the eggs with both sugars until smooth, then whisk in the vegetable oil and the vanilla extract until the mixture is glossy and homogeneous.
- Fold the grated zucchini into the wet mixture, then tip in the dry ingredients and the toasted walnuts. Fold with a spatula only until the last streaks of flour disappear — overmixing makes the loaf tough and rubbery.
- Scrape the batter into the tin and level the top. Bake 55–65 minutes, until a skewer pushed into the centre comes out with a few moist crumbs but no wet batter. Cover loosely with foil after 35 minutes if the top is colouring too fast.
- Cool in the tin 15 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and cool completely before slicing. Cutting it warm tears the crumb and makes it seem underbaked.
FAQ
It depends on the squash, which is why recipes disagree so sharply. The moisture in grated zucchini is what gives this loaf its characteristically damp, tender crumb and its long shelf life, so wringing it dry in a towel usually produces a drier, plainer cake. On the other hand, a very large or very juicy zucchini can release enough liquid to leave a dense, gummy layer near the base. The practical answer: if liquid pools under the grated pile within a few minutes, drain it briefly in a sieve and press lightly; otherwise use it as it is.
Rate this
Keep browsing
More dishes from the American archive — picked by overlap with what you're cooking now.
Join the conversation
Comments
No comments yet — be the first!