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Zucchini Bread

If you want a go-to zucchini bread recipe, try this one. The recipe yields one gorgeous loaf of walnut-studded zucchini bread. It's moist, just sweet enough, and packed with roasted walnuts both inside and out. It has a lovely nut-crusted top, only takes one pan, and is a rustic showstopper.

A time-saving tip: if you have a food processor with the grating attachment, use it to shred the zucchini. It will perfectly shred the zucchini in no time. On the flour front, this recipe calls for whole wheat pastry flour, it lends a nice, tender crumb to the zucchini bread. That said, feel free to swap in unbleached all-purpose flour if it is more convenient or happens to be your flour of choice. Or do a 50/50 blend of whole wheat pastry and all-purpose. Lastly, I have you sprinkle some sugar across the top of your zucchini bread batter before baking, if you have a large grain sugar use that (pictured), if not granulated sugar is fine.

Zucchini Bread
Ingredients

Ingredients

  • 2 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or all-purpose flour)
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 3/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
  • 1 3/4 cups chopped toasted walnuts, divided
  • 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar, plus more for topping
  • 1/3 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 1/2 cups grated zucchini (about 2-3 medium), skins on

Instructions

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F with a rack in the middle. Butter a 9x5-inch (1 lb.) loaf pan, dust with a bit of flour, and set aside. Alternately, you can line the pan with a sheet of parchment. If you leave a couple inches hanging over the pan, it makes for easy removal after baking. Just grab the parchment "handles" and lift the zucchini bread right out.
  2. In a medium bowl, combine the whole wheat pastry flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and 1 1/4 cups of the walnuts.
  3. Using a mixer or large bowl if you're mixing by hand, beat the butter until fluffy. Add the sugars and beat again until the mixture comes together and is no longer crumbly. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well and scraping down the sides of the bowl between each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Squeeze some of the moisture out of the zucchini and then fluff it up a bit before stirring it into that batter by hand.
  4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in two batches, stirring between each addition. Stir just until you have a thick, uniform batter. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and level it by running a spatula over the top. Sprinkle with the remaining walnuts and 2-3 tablespoons of sugar.
  5. Bake for about 60–70 minutes, keeping a close eye on things after 50 minutes. If the top of your zucchini bread is getting too dark, drape a piece of parchment paper or aluminium foil over it for the remainder of the baking time. You're going to want to use a cake tester or toothpick to test for doneness. The cake should be golden and rustic-looking, and a toothpick should come out clean.
  6. When done, remove it from the oven and cool the zucchini bread in the pan for about ten minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.