Chocolate Zucchini Bread (And 5 More Loaves From the Same Batter)

I make zucchini bread more than anything else in August, and it took me an embarrassing number of years to realize I was making the same loaf over and over with small changes. So a few summers ago I stopped keeping six recipes and started keeping one.

This is that one. A single base batter, and then five directions you can take it depending on what’s in the cupboard and who’s asking. Chocolate for the kids, lemon when it’s still too hot to want anything heavy, brown butter when I want it to taste like more work than it was.

All six freeze well, which is the actual point. A zucchini glut in August turns into breakfast in February if you plan for it.

THE ONE THING THAT MATTERS

Do not squeeze the water out of your zucchini.

Every instinct says to. Zucchini is around 95% water, and the recipes for fritters and casseroles all tell you to salt it and wring it out in a towel. For bread, that’s backwards. The water is what makes the loaf moist — squeeze it out and you get something dry and crumbly that tastes like it’s been sitting on a counter for two days.

Shred it on the large holes of a box grater, skin on, no peeling. Measure it loosely into the cup. Dump it in wet. That’s it.

(The one exception is if you’re using zucchini that’s been frozen — that thaws with a lot of standing liquid, and you do want to drain that off. More on freezing at the bottom.)

THE BASE BATTER

Makes one 9×5 loaf.

Dry

• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 1½ tsp cinnamon

Wet

• 2 large eggs
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup neutral oil (vegetable, canola, or light olive)
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1½ cups shredded zucchini, packed loosely, not drained

Method

1. Heat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9×5 loaf pan, or line it with parchment with a little overhang so you can lift the loaf out.
2. Whisk the dry ingredients together in a medium bowl and set aside.
3. In a larger bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until they lighten a shade — about a minute by hand. Add the oil and vanilla and whisk until smooth.
4. Stir in the shredded zucchini. It’ll look like far too much zucchini and not nearly enough batter. That’s correct.
5. Add the dry ingredients and fold just until you can’t see flour anymore. Stop there. Overmixing is what makes quick breads tough.
6. Scrape into the pan and bake 55–65 minutes, until a toothpick in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs but no wet batter.
7. Cool in the pan 15 minutes, then turn out onto a rack. Let it cool completely before slicing — a hot loaf tears.

1. CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI BREAD

The one that disappears fastest in my house, and the reason nobody in it complains about zucchini season.

Changes to the base:

• Reduce flour to 1 cup
• Add ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder to the dry ingredients
• Increase sugar to 1 cup
• Add ¾ cup chocolate chips, folded in at the end

Bake the same, 55–65 minutes. It’ll look underdone in the middle because it’s dark — go by the toothpick, not the color.

If you want this as a cake rather than a loaf, I have a whole recipe for that: my go-to chocolate chip zucchini cake. Same idea, sheet pan, frosted.

2. CHOCOLATE CHIP ZUCCHINI BREAD

Not the same as the one above. This one keeps the vanilla base and just adds chips — you get a light, cinnamon-scented loaf with chocolate running through it instead of a chocolate loaf.

Changes to the base:

• Fold in 1 cup chocolate chips at the very end
• Toss the chips with a teaspoon of the measured flour first so they don’t all sink

This is the version I make when I want something that passes as breakfast.

3. LEMON ZUCCHINI BREAD WITH GLAZE

For late August when it’s still 85 degrees and nothing cinnamon-flavored sounds good.

Changes to the base:

• Leave out the cinnamon entirely
• Add the zest of 2 lemons to the sugar and rub it in with your fingers before adding the eggs — this is worth doing, it pulls the oil out of the zest
• Add 2 tbsp lemon juice with the wet ingredients

Glaze:

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 tbsp lemon juice

Whisk until smooth and pour over the loaf once it’s completely cool. If you glaze it warm it soaks in and vanishes.

4. ZUCCHINI BANANA BREAD

For when you have both problems at once, which around here is most of the summer.

Changes to the base:

• Reduce zucchini to 1 cup
• Add 1 cup mashed very ripe banana (about 2 medium)
• Reduce sugar to ½ cup — the banana brings plenty

This one runs wetter, so give it closer to 65–70 minutes and tent it with foil if the top is browning too fast.

5. BROWN BUTTER ZUCCHINI BREAD

Ten extra minutes for something that tastes like it came from a bakery.

Changes to the base:

• Replace the ½ cup oil with ½ cup butter, browned and cooled
• Swap ¼ cup of the granulated sugar for brown sugar

To brown the butter: melt it in a light-colored pan over medium heat, then keep going. It’ll foam, then quiet down, then the milk solids at the bottom will turn golden and it’ll smell nutty. That’s the moment — pour it straight out of the pan, including the brown bits, and let it cool to room temperature before using it. If you leave it in the hot pan it keeps going and turns bitter.

6. GLUTEN FREE ZUCCHINI BREAD

Changes to the base:

• Swap the flour for a 1:1 gluten free baking blend, cup for cup
• If your blend doesn’t already contain xanthan gum, add ¼ tsp
• Let the batter rest in the pan for 10 minutes before it goes in the oven

That rest matters more than anything else here — gluten free flours need time to hydrate, and skipping it is what gives you a gritty loaf.

HOW TO FREEZE ZUCCHINI FOR BAKING

This is the part that turns one overwhelming August into a winter’s worth of breakfast.

Shred the zucchini on the large holes of a box grater, skin on. Don’t blanch it and don’t squeeze it. Measure it into freezer bags in the amount this recipe needs — 1½ cups per bag — so you’re not thawing more than you want. Press the bags flat, push the air out, label them, and freeze them stacked.

When you’re ready to bake, thaw a bag on the counter or overnight in the fridge. It’ll release a surprising amount of liquid. Drain that off — this is the one time you do — and use the zucchini as written.

It keeps ten to twelve months in a deep freezer. Mine never lasts past March.

If you’re putting up more than zucchini this year, I walk through the whole thing in canning for beginners.

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STORING AND FREEZING THE BAKED LOAVES

Counter: wrapped well, 3–4 days. It actually improves on day two. Fridge: up to a week, but it dries faster — wrap it tightly. Freezer: slice it first, then freeze in a bag with parchment between the slices. You can pull out one piece at a time, and it thaws on the counter in twenty minutes.

Six loaves, one bowl, one batter to remember. If you’re staring down a counter full of zucchini right now, I have 45 more ways to use it up — but honestly, most Augusts I just make this on repeat until the plants give out.

Tell me which version you tried. The brown butter one converted a few people who swore they didn’t like zucchini bread.