To this day, the only way Hailey will eat zucchini is if it’s baked into this bread and we have her sweet grandmother to thank for that. My mother in law baked the best zucchini bread; it was probably her signature dessert that also easily doubles as breakfast or an afternoon snack. She wrote the recipe down for Allen before she passed, but she was already ill at this point and we’re wondering if some of the measurements are off or maybe an ingredient is missing since following the recipe exactly as she has written doesn’t seem to yield the bread we remember. Or maybe she pulled the classic move and did something like that on purpose so the kids say ‘It’s just not as good as Mom’s’ 🙂 Accurate or not, we chose to frame the handwritten recipe and display it in our kitchen (which I LOVE) so if anyone tries to be sneaky and snap a photo of a family recipe to take home they may be a little disappointed haha

Still determined to make zucchini bread like she once did, we made some modifications to her recipe by comparing it to others we found and the end result was delicious! I also chose to use her mini loaf pans to bake the bread this time and kind of fell in love with them! They’re the cutest and baked up perfectly! She used to bake with these to make gifts for people on holidays or special occasions. I’ve already used them again to make little loaves of pumpkin chocolate chip bread…coming soon!

The ingredient round up for this recipe is:

• Flour
• Baking Powder
• Baking Soda *really key to have both baking powder & baking soda in bread recipes!
• Cinnamon
• Salt
• Brown Sugar – unless specified, I always go with light versus dark
• Cane Sugar
• Vegetable Oil – I only use vegetable oil for this recipe and pumpkin bread. I’ve tried Canola oil which is suppose to be interchangeable, but I’m just not sure haha
• Vanilla
• Eggs
• Zucchini

Super Helpful Tips

One issue I think I ran into on my first attempt at zucchini bread was not getting enough moisture out of the zucchini after grating it. I did a really simple fix for that this time that seemed to make a big difference! After grating the zucchini, I laid it out on paper towels, patted it dry and let it sit while I prepared other ingredients. Before adding the bowl of dry ingredients to the bowl of wet ingredients, I added the grated zucchini to the dry ingredients and mixed it up. It coated the zucchini and helped absorb a bit more of the moisture. Then I poured all of that into the wet ingredients and continued on.

Also, don’t fill your loaf pans too high! Honestly, I go about halfway full now since I learned filling them too high can be a cause of a sunken center. A problem we had the second time we attempted to make this bread 🙂 Basically, the bread is still rising, but running out of room or over the loaf pan walls at this point and once it begins to cool it sinks back down.

This recipe can be used to make 6 mini loaves of bread or two regular sized loaves of bread. If you like to bake and freeze leftovers, the mini loaves are the way to go since you can freeze a few of those without cutting them. I imagine that helps prevent them from drying out. Or I’m just making that up, but it sounds kinda good! I will probably give this a try with the pumpkin bread I just made today, because it made 6 mini loaves of bread plus one regular sized loaf. The recipe I referenced said it would make two loaves of bread – those are two very large loaves of bread then haha

So what’s your favorite family recipe? Is there a certain dessert, dinner or snack your Mom, Grandma, Dad, etc. makes? Have they shared the recipe with you? I’m curious what everyone raves about in your family’s kitchen 🙂

If you’re not sure, maybe it’ll be this zucchini bread for you too! Happy Baking & Happy Friday!!

Print

Zucchini Bread

The perfect bread that works for breakfast as well as it does for dessert

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 50 minutes

Servings 12

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs beaten
• 2 1/2 cups grated zucchini

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees and prep loaf pans by coating them in a light layer of butter and then flour. Set aside.

2. In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Stir together and set aside.

3. Wash and grate the zucchini. Lay grated zucchini over paper or kitchen towels and pat dry with another towel. Leave on towel for now to let moisture continue to be absorbed.

4. In a large mixing bowl, combine the brown sugar, sugar, vegetable oil, vanilla and beaten eggs. Stir together until well mixed.

5. Add the grated zucchini to the bowl of dry ingredients and gently stir to coat. Pour the dry ingredients with the zucchini in the bowl of wet ingredients and mix until well combined, but not over mixed.

6. Pour batter into loaf pans filling each pan halfway. This will make 6 mini loaves of bread or 2 regular sized loaves of bread.

7. For mini loaves, bake 30 - 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Check at 30 minutes and continue baking based on toothpick test results.

   For regular sized loaves, bake 45 - 55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Take the same approach with checking the bread a little early to avoid over baking.

8. Remove from oven and allow bread to cool slightly in the pan for 10 minutes. Then transfer bread loaves to a cooling rack (removed from pan) to cool completely. Store in an airtight container for two to four days. Bread can also be frozen for a few months.

Have a beautiful day!