Bhojan Daily

Zucchini Bread is a soft, moist quick bread made with grated zucchini -mild in flavor but wonderfully tender. The classic version is lightly spiced and subtly sweet. My take is a chocolatey twist on this favorite – an eggless, vegan Chocolate Zucchini Bread recipe made with whole wheat flour, pantry staples, and rich cocoa. It’s wholesome, delicious, and a great way to enjoy zucchini when they’re in season.

About Zucchini Bread Recipe

Typical Zucchini Bread is a sweet quick bread made with baking staples like flour, fat, sugar, and eggs. I’ve omitted the eggs here to make this a vegetarian recipe, and swapped in whole wheat flour for added nutrients.

Adding zucchini to the mix gives this sweet loaf a lovely, moist consistency, but you can’t taste the veg at all! Zucchini is relatively bland on its own, so when added to bread it just tastes like a plain sweet bread with no added flavors.

I was also having a serious chocolate craving when I developed this recipe, so I ended up adding some cocoa powder to make Chocolate Zucchini Bread. And friends? It was a very good idea. It added a rich, flavorful dimension to the bread and the chocolate flavor came through splendidly.

Now we can all eat chocolate for breakfast without feeling the slightest bit of guilt. Hooray!

Ingredients & Substitutions

• Whole Wheat Flour – I mostly always make my bakes with whole wheat flour. Feel free to use all-purpose flour or pastry flour instead of whole wheat flour.
• Cocoa Powder – Use a good quality cocoa powder. Do not use dutch process cocoa powder.
• Ground Cinnamon, Allspice or Clove, Nutmeg, & Ginger – You can skip any of the ground spices if you do not have them, or use 1 to 1.5 teaspoons pumpkin spice instead of adding ground spices separately in the recipe.
• Baking Powder & Baking Soda – You’ll need both ingredients for proper leavening. Make sure that they are fresh and within their shelf-life.
• Salt – For a bit of seasoning
• Toasted Walnuts – Totally optional, but very delicious. You can also use nuts like pecans, almonds, pistachios, cashews or dry fruits like raisins, dried berries or even chocolate chips.
• Zucchini – You can add either green or yellow zucchini. However, avoid the really huge ones, as they are often bitter. If you’re unsure, do a taste test before adding the grated zucchini to the batter.
• Raw Sugar – Maple syrup, coconut sugar, palm sugar, white sugar or jaggery can be used in place of raw sugar
• Vanilla Extract – Vanilla adds a lot of depth here, so don’t skip it. That said, feel free to use vanilla powder, paste, or essence instead of extract as needed.
• Neutral Flavored Oil – Vegetable, canola, corn, peanut, grapeseed, sunflower seed, or avocado oil will all work. You can also use melted coconut oil, butter (dairy or plant-based), or ghee.
• Almond Milk – Water or any unsweetened nut or dairy milk can be substituted.

Step-by-Step Guide

How To Make Zucchini Bread

Once you try this recipe, you’ll understand why it’s called a “quick bread!” Here’s how it’s made:

Preparation

1. Chop some walnuts and measure them. You will need ⅓ cup walnuts. Grease a loaf pan with the dimensions of 8.5 x 4.5 x 2.5 inches with oil and set aside.

2. Rinse zucchini and then wipe it dry. Grate 1 medium-sized zucchini using a thick grater. You will need 1 cup of grated zucchini.

Tip: Taste test the zucchini and if bitter, discard it.

Sift Dry Ingredients

3. Add 1.25 cups whole wheat flour and ¼ cup cocoa powder in a sieve.

4. Add the following ingredients one by one:

• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground allspice or clove powder
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg or grated nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
• 1.5 teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ⅛ teaspoon salt

5. Sift and set aside. Preheat oven at 190 degrees Celsius (374 degrees Fahrenheit) for 20 minutes.

Mix Wet Ingredients

6. In a mixing bowl take add 1 cup grated zucchini and ½ cup + 3 tablespoons raw sugar (or granulated white sugar).

7. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 teaspoon vanilla essence, ¼ cup sunflower oil , and 2 tablespoons almond milk.

8. Mix very well.

Make Batter

9. Now add the sifted dry ingredients and ⅓ cup chopped walnuts, if using.

10. Begin to fold the sweet bread batter using the cut and fold technique. Do not fold too vigorously.

11. Fold to a batter where all the ingredients have mixed evenly and the bread batter has a volume. This is a thick batter. If the batter looks too thick or dry then add 2 tablespoons more of the almond milk. 

12. Pour batter in a greased or well-oiled loaf pan. Tap the pan a couple of times on the countertop and smoothen the top with a spatula.

13. Bake in the preheated oven at 190 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes.

Place the pan on the lower second rack if you have a 32 or 35 litre OTG. Use both the top and bottom heating elements.

14. Keep an eye on the loaf when it’s baking, but only open the oven door after ¾ᵗʰ of the bread is baked. Oven temperatures vary so it can take less or more time in your oven.

A wooden skewer inserted in the loaf should come out clean. Keep the loaf pan on a wired rack to cool.

15. When the bread has completely cooled to room temperature, remove it gently from the loaf pan. See the beautiful fluffy, dark crumb on the loaf. So good, isn’t it?

16. Slice and serve. Wrap the remaining bread and store zucchini bread in the refrigerator. You can also freeze it. Enjoy!

Expert Tips

• On folding: Always fold batter using the cut and fold method. Do not mix or overdo the folding or you’ll over-develop the gluten and make your bread dense.
• Grating zucchini: Thickly grate the zucchini using the large holes of a box grater. Do not finely grate as this can lead to the zucchini releasing more water, which can end up making the batter runny.
• Consistency of batter: Here the batter is a thick like banana bread batter. If the batter becomes flowing or thin, then add 2 to 3 tablespoons flour and incorporate it gently into the batter.
• Wheat flour: You can use the whole wheat flour that is available in the US or even use the Indian wheat flour that is used for making roti. Depending on the quality of flour and the water content in the zucchini, you may need to add 2 to 3 tablespoons of flour if batter has a medium consistency or add 2 tablespoons almond milk if batter looks very thick.
• Oven temperatures: Since this is a moist bread it takes more time to bake. Oven temperatures vary and in your oven it may take less or more time to bake. For this reason, I suggest investing in an inexpensive oven thermometer.
• Baking in convection ovens: Use the temperature of 180 degrees Celsius (356 degrees Fahrenheit) for baking in a convection oven.
• Storing: Wrap the bread and store in the refrigerator. You can also store the bread in a container or box in the refrigerator if you prefer. This zucchini bread also freezes well. It stays good for 10 to 12 days in the fridge and for a couple of months in the freezer.

FAQs

More Tasty Sweet Breads

Please be sure to rate the recipe in the recipe card or leave a comment below if you have made it. For more vegetarian inspirations, Sign Up for my emails or follow me on Instagram, Youtube, Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter.

Zucchini Bread recipe from the blog archives was first published on October 2020.