Dressing Up Zucchini Bread

Skip to a specific section of this post:
Basic Zucchini Bread recipe
Lemon Pistachio Zucchini Bread
Orange Walnut Zucchini Bread
Guava Coconut Zucchini Bread

It's Fall, and that means finding creative ways to use up all of the zucchini in the garden. While I don't currently have a garden, I still can't pass up purchasing a giant zucchini squash at the farmer's market. One of my favorite recipes for zucchini is zucchini bread, and one of my favorite things to do with sweet breads is to play around with new flavor combinations.

New flavor combinations aren't as easy to come up with as it might seem, and finding a good pairing can be tricky at times. However, once you find something that works, it can be pretty easy to make tweaks here and there to get something entirely new but playing on the same theme. For example, last year I came up with recipes for Orange Walnut and Lemon Pistachio Zucchini bread (I will share them below). These are variations of the same theme; a citrus flavor paired with a nut flavor. Even experienced cooks fall short sometimes, though. At the same time I came up with those recipes, I tried a lime coconut version that just didn't have a very good flavor. Don't be afraid to fail sometimes; the sucesses make it worthwhile. If you start with small changes, like changing the flavor ingredient but nothing else, you're a lot more likely to get a favorable outcome.

For this round of zucchini bread, I made the orange walnut and lemon pistachio recipes from last year along with two experimental recipes: guava coconut and chocolate cherry swirl. The chocolate cherry didn't come out very well at all, so I won't be sharing the recipe here, but the guava is definitely one of my new favorites. I asked Adam which he preferred, and he liked the orange walnut and guava coconut best.


The Basic Recipe
I developed this basic recipe after trying several zucchini bread recipes and being disappointed with the results. I took some of the elements of my favorite sweet bread recipes and combined them with some pretty nice results.

Basic Zucchini Bread (makes two loaves)
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup plain yogurt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray two 9x5-inch loaf pans with cooking spray.

2. Mix flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.



3. Beat eggs, sugar, and vegetable oil together in another bowl; stir in yogurt and vanilla extract.



4. Gradually stir flour mixture into wet ingredients until just moistened. Do not over-stir, as this will cause the bread to become chewy.
   
   
   The batter can be a bit lumpy, but should look about like this.



5. Fold the zucchini into batter. Folding is a process where you gently stir the batter over the ingredient you're incorporating so as not to over-stir. You should be pulling batter from the bottom of the bowl up over the top of the zucchini.
6. Pour batter evenly into prepared loaf pans.



7. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 45 to 55 minutes. What you should check for with a toothpick (or butterknife) is whether globs of batter are sticking to it, as this indicates it's under-done. Check from the cracks, as those are the last parts to finish cooking. As you can see in the image above, a little bit is on the knife, but that's fine; you're just looking for raw batter.



8. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack. It's important to cool it on a wire rack because this speeds up the cooling process, which prevents it from becoming too dry. Once it has completely cooled (about an hour), you can cut into it and serve. I recommend storing it in a plastic bag, and if you don't think you'll finish it within a few days, move it to the refrigerator so that it can stay fresh longer.

Lemon Pistachio Zucchini Bread

To the basic recipe, add the following:
Zest of 1 small lemon
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 cup chopped pistachio nuts

Add the lemon zest and juice together with the vanilla extract, and fold the nuts in along with the zucchini.
(Click here to see the full recipe, which I've posted to allrecipes.com)

Orange Walnut Zucchini Bread

To the basic recipe, add the following:
Zest of 1 orange
1 tablespoon orange juice
1 cup chopped walnuts

Add the orange zest and juice together with the vanilla extract, and fold the nuts in along with the zucchini.

Guava Coconut Zucchini Bread

To the basic recipe, add the following:
1/4 cup frozen concentrated guava juice
1 cup shredded coconut

Guava Glaze:
1/4 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons frozen concentrated guava juice

Add the guava juice together with the vanilla extract, and fold the nuts in along with the zucchini. For the glaze, stir the powdered sugar and juice together until there are no lumps remaining. After baking, use a spoon to slowly pour the glaze over the top of the loaf. The heat will cause the glaze to melt an soak in.