Breads made with yeast can be intimidating to bake at home. It took me years before I realized how fun and easy they can be, but I also never saw what all the fuss was about when quick breads are so easy to produce with almost unerring results.
For the hundreds of times that I’ve made quick breads like chocolate chip banana bread or sweet chocolate zucchini bread, I’ve only recently started making savory versions. In the summer, when I’ve got tons of zucchini growing in our garden or I see it priced low at the farmers market, whipping up an exquisite loaf of this Zucchini Cheddar Bread is a most affordable and mouthwatering treat.
Savory. Simple. Zucchini Cheddar Bread
Ingredients
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 cups grated zucchini
- 1 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese
- 1/4 cup chopped scallions
- 3/4 cup buttermilk
- 2 large eggs
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° F.
- In a bowl, whisk together the flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
- Add in the zucchini, cheese, and scallions and toss to coat.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the buttermilk and eggs. Add to the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Do not over mix. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan and bake for 55-60 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool and serve.
- * Loaves can be cooled, wrapped in plastic wrap or foil, placed in freezer bags, labeled and frozen for up to 3 months. Place in refrigerator overnight to defrost.
I grated half the zucchini and minced the rest. Put all into a fine screen colander and sprinkled on the salt and placed it in the sink to drain while i worked on the rest. Earlier i blistered 3 large jalapeno on the grill. Peeled seeded and chopped. Followed the rest of recipe and it is a keeper. Marvelous. Thanks Catherine
I’m super bummed. Mine came out all brown on top, and not cooked in the middle as well. It also deflated. It tastes fantastic, so I’m gonna try it again, but I’m going to try wringing out the zucchini and salting it as per other people suggestion.
Awesome variation to share:
This recipe, in muffin form, has been in regular rotation in my repertoire since my oldest was a baby. Today, I was in the middle of whipping up a batch when I discovered I had totally overestimated the size of my zucchini, and didn’t have any of my usual substitutions handy. I ended up topping up with a blend of onion, red pepper and tomato, and rounding out the pizza flavour palate with some dried Italian herbs and garlic powder. (Today’s cheeses were Gouda and mini babybels — don’t judge!). The mix did not, as I feared, come out too runny, and my picky princess is gobbling them up!
I made this recipe tonight. It made one nice-size loaf. I basically followed the recipe as written, but I did squeeze the zucchini dry before adding it to the flour mix and I probably used 1 3/4 cups cheddar. I baked it for 50 min, then covered it with foil and baked it for another 10 minutes. We thought it was very good. Moist and dense with a nice browned outer “crust” and pleasant savory flavor.
Just finished baking this. It made 4 small loaves. I added 4 slices of chopped bacon-delish! It is nice to have a savory bread as well as a sweet zucchini bread recipe.
Followed the instructions but omitted the scallions and the loaf was cooked on the outside but dense and wet on the inside. Any suggestions?
I tried this bread 2-3 times without taking moisture out of the zucchini. Completely unbaked center with an overbaked crust was the result each time. As soon as I started taking out the moisture, I got the right results. I added more cheddar for a stronger taste.
This time, I used two cups of gluten free flour, coconut milk, and 2 cups of cheddar (one cup normal cheddar, one cup goat milk cheddar). To make it more suitable for my little ones, I put it in mini muffin cups. Result: divine.
Great recipe. As per the advice in the comments, I put a bit of salt on the zucchini to remove the excess moisture. I forgot the scallions (mommy brain) and think they would have added a lot of taste. We paired the bread with a hearty chili- perfect:)
Just made this and had used thawed frozen shredded zucchini from my prolific zucchini plant. The water had already mostly drained out, so I just put in the solids since lots of reviewers said it was too moist. Mine came out a bit dry but still tasty. Note, I also made mine in regular sized muffin tins – makes 12. I might try to add some frozen corn kernels next time, or even some jalapeno to spice it up.