My New Favorite Zucchini Bread Recipe on Food52

Photo by James Ransom

Test Kitchen-Approved

Author Notes

I think one of my favorite things when it comes to zucchini is a lot of other peoples favorite too...Zucchini bread. It's sweet, moist, and one of the few things I will happily turn my oven on for even on the hottest of days. Besides the taste, zucchini bread does another wonderful thing, it freezes well. So you get to stash a loaf in the freezer for a later date and not feel the need to hoard the one loaf being devoured on the counter. However, sometimes...I find myself wanting it to be a little different. The cinnamon version is wonderful, and I'll always make it, but I was looking at that slice on my plate a couple of weeks ago and wondering what other flavors I could put in there. Don't say chocolate. Go ahead and make a chocolate zucchini cake if you want to, but don't make chocolate zucchini bread...that's just not right. It's like zucchini trying to be something it's not. My favorite zucchini bread recipe is one I found on Smitten Kitchen. It is the moist, flavorful zucchini bread you are craving when you go to make a couple of loaves. Inspired by that recipe, I was looking out my kitchen window into my herb garden and I saw my rosemary plant. Now there's a thought. So I thought a little more and came up with this:
—Dabblings

Test Kitchen Notes

WHO: Dabblings is an avid DIY-er, mother, food blogger, and "self-reformed wild child."
WHAT: A rosemary and orange-scented loaf cake that feels both indulgent and virtuous.
HOW: Shred, stir, bake, slice, enjoy.
WHY WE LOVE IT: This is the kind of quick bread we love to keep around the house, to slice for breakfast, for snack, for dessert, for anything. And when we run out, it takes a mere hour to whip up another loaf! —The Editors

Prep time 30 minutes
Cook time 1 hour
Makes 2 loaves

Ingredients

3 large eggs
¹/₂ cup of plain yogurt
¹/₂ cup of olive oil
1 ³/₄ cups of sugar
2 cups of zucchini; shredded
2 teaspoons fresh rosemary; finely minced
Zest of one orange (I used a navel orange)
Juice from 1/2 of the orange
3 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
¹/₂ teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of toasted pecans; chopped ( Or pine nuts if you can swing that)

In This Recipe

Directions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease two loaf pans and set them aside.
In a large bowl beat the eggs. Mix in the yogurt, oil, and sugar. Then mix in the shredded zucchini, rosemary, orange zest, and orange juice. Set aside.
In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and toasted nuts.
Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
Once the batter is well combined divide it evenly between the two loaf pans.
Bake the loaves for one hour, give or take a few minutes, until a tester inserted comes out clean. My loaves took exactly one hour and were perfect.
Remove the loaves from the oven and allow them to cool for 10 minutes inside the loaf pan before transferring them to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Tags:

Contest Entries

See Reviews

See what other Food52ers are saying.

Mollie Bedick
fuhsi
Tracy
Liaily
Emily May

Review

Popular on Food52

131 Reviews

KarenM September 30, 2018

This is turned out very well! I substituted ground cardamom for the rosemary and added a bit of vanilla. The BEST zucchini bread I’ve ever made...and will continue to make....and share!

Emma P. September 11, 2018

Super yum! I didn’t make any changes except for using small loaf pans, which only took about 40 min to bake to perfection.

Mollie B. September 9, 2018

Absolutely amazing! I used lemon juice and zest and coconut oil and it still turned out great!

fuhsi August 20, 2018

Very pleased with translation to gluten free. A little recon to see the common difference between using my gluten free flour mix and regular flour was really all that was needed! I simply added a little less than 1.5 tsp arrowroot and followed the recipe faithfully for everything else. I split the wet mix in half and made muffins and a loaf, and both came out perfectly, using the times suggested by other commenters.

Tracy September 9, 2017

OH pooh! I don't have oranges and fresh rosemary. I have plenty of lemons, limes....any recommendations?

JR September 9, 2017

Go to the grocery store. The rosemary and oranges really make the bread!

JR August 8, 2017

The subtle flavor of the rosemary and orange zest made this bread amazing. It was beautiful. I only had 1.5 ounces of olive oil and had to also use corn oil and it tasted fine. I squeezed out a lot of moisture out of the zucchini as well. I cooked the bread for one hour and feel it could have been taken out at 55 min. Other than that, it was divine.

Umamibrain July 31, 2017

I made this as a Bundt cake. It turned out high and moist. Didn't have pecans so I used 1/2 pine nuts and 1/2 walnuts. Everybody loved it.

Natalie B. August 21, 2018

How long did you cook in the bundt pan? Same 1 hour?

Umamibrain August 21, 2018

As far as I recall, yes.

LJ G. July 18, 2017

Lovely cake but need WEIGHTS (not cups) for the non-liquid ingredients. Much more accurate and I hate all the extra dishes :)

Liaily April 10, 2017

Just made this and it is absolutely delicious! Inside is moist but top outer layer has subtle crunch that adds even more texture to this bread. I did decrease the sugar to 1 1/4 cups, added 1 full cup of chopped walnuts instead of pecans, and used 1 9x3 round pan instead of 2 8x4 loaf pans since i didn't have them readily available (took about 58-60min as well). This recipe is definitely a keeper but i might just use 1 cup of sugar next time since the orange juice also adds a bit of sweetness to the cake :) Thank you Dabblings for sharing this great recipe!

Emily M. February 11, 2017

Just made this, and it is delicious! I used just a bit less sugar, 2 cups of white whole wheat flour and used cinnamon instead of rosemary, but the base recipe is terrific and will definitely be my new go to for zucchini bread!

Kate September 4, 2016

The cake is better for dessert than breakfast bread. I cut the sugar by 1/4 and it was still a little too sweet for me. I've read some zucchini bread recipes with ginger, shredded carrot and whole wheat flour. I'll try that next time because I at least like the illusion of a healthy breakfast sweet.

Nancy H. August 21, 2016

Title couldn't have been more accurate. this IS my new favourite zucchini bread recipe - and love that makes 2 loaves. Perfect (and all gone now :) Thank you Dabblings!

Nicole C. August 9, 2016

Amazing. Came out perfectly. I didn't have orange on hand, so used a lemon (full lemon's juice, and full lemon zest). I also didn't use nuts, and it still tasted delicious. I can't wait to make more and freeze. Thanks Dabblings!

Silke July 28, 2016

Wonderful recipe. I used lemon zest and juice instead of orange, and used only 1 1/4 cups of sugar. Turned out great.

Laurie June 19, 2016

Nice job, Dabblings! Opted to follow recipe as written (even after reading all comments). Used 2 8x4 loaf pans. Bake for exactly 1 hour. PERFECT! No need to squeeze zucchini prior to adding to mix. And no, the rosemary does not overpower in the slightest bit.

My F. April 29, 2016

Thanks! I was trying to create a high protein breakfast for a diabetic client who prefers to eat desert for breakfast but didn't have any recipes that were moist enough to add protien powder to, your outline worked great

This client is also dairy-free so I whisked some pea protien powder into coconut milk to get a yogurt consistency. If anyone with a sweet tooth is looking to add more protein to their diet this is a must try, the results were fabulous.

http://www.myfriendmaillard.com/

Emily S. March 3, 2016

Just made these today, so yum! And the whole family liked them. I love rosemary, but was still a little worried about adding it. I'd have to say the strongest flavor is the citrus.

I don't have loaf pans, so I followed what another reader said and baked at 350F for 20 min.

https://eemmllee.wordpress.com/

Z March 10, 2017

Hi Emily! Did you use a cupcake pan or a round pan?

Adriana R. December 22, 2015

do you think this recipe will work with half of the ingredients? 2 loaves is too much for me, its only me. should i use 2 eggs or 1? thank you!!!

angie January 16, 2016

don't know if you'd still need this question answered, but i just tried halving this using 1 egg and a little bit more yogurt (about 1/8 of a cup, i'd say) and it came together wonderfully! decided against adding all of the (halved) flour and left out maybe 2 tablespoons, which i think was a good call. definitely worth making the one loaf!

Adriana R. January 17, 2016

thank you so much for the answer!!!!

Kerry G. October 8, 2015

Easy to make, and worked perfectly. I squeezed out some of the liquid from zucchini, but not sure I needed to. I might want to
Increase orange flavour and maybe add some diced candied ginger (but still use the Rosemary).

judy September 4, 2016

I'm looking at this recipe now-came looking for fall zucchini. I'm a fan of candied ginger as well. Trader Joe's has a version that is non-crystalized that I put i just about everything (granola to trail mix to salad!). I think candied fruit peel might be nice as well.

Michelle O. September 17, 2015

Hello, usually when I make zucchini muffins, I use agave nectar instead of sugar. Do you think that addition would work with this recipe? Thank you.