This high altitude zucchini bread is so moist and flavorful, full of crunchy walnuts and spiced with cinnamon and cloves. With today’s recipe, you’ll also find options for making zucchini muffins and chocolate zucchini bread.
You might also love these high altitude recipes for pumpkin chocolate chip bread, lemon blueberry loaf cake, and classic banana bread.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Easy to Make. This is a “quick bread” (leavened with chemical leaveners rather than yeast), and like its name, the batter comes together quickly with just a bowl and spoon. And it doesn’t need to cool for long before you can enjoy the bread while it’s still warm from the oven.
Not too Sweet. While many loaf breads are sweet enough to pass for a cake, this recipe is not overly sweet. You can certainly add icing on top if you want a sweeter treat.
High Altitude Tested. I test and develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. This bread rises so tall with a gorgeous cracked domed top that will be the envy of all your other high altitude baked goods. And it has a beautiful moist and dense texture that stays fresh and soft for days after baking. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
- Zucchini. The best zucchini to use are the small to medium sized ones. When they grow too big, they will contain far too many seeds, making them unsuitable for baking.
- Eggs. Add moisture and strength.
- Oil. Moisture. I have not tested this recipe with melted butter instead of oil, and they are not always interchangeable.
- Sugar. A combination of granulated sugar and light brown sugar adds sweetness and moisture.
- Vanilla Extract. Flavor.
- Flour. All purpose (plain) flour adds structure and strength.
- Baking Powder + Baking Soda. Leavening agents, so the bread rises as it bakes.
- Salt. Adds flavor and balances the sweetness.
- Spices. Zucchini bread often contains warm fall spices like cinnamon and cloves, since the zucchini itself is not very flavorful. If you want less spice, you can certainly cut the spices in half.
- Walnuts. The nuts are optional, but they add a really nice texture and flavor to the bread.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
- If using the nonstick USA 1-lb Bread Loaf Pan, lightly grease the inside of the pan with softened butter. If your pan is not non-stick, spray it lightly with non-stick baking spray.
- Wash your zucchini, and cut the ends off, but don’t peel the zucchini. Use a box grater to grate the zucchini. You can lightly pack it into a measuring cup to get 1 1/2 cups, or just weigh out 8 ounces of grated zucchini. Do not squeeze out the water.
- In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil, brown sugar and vanilla, until smooth. Add the grated zucchini and stir together with a spatula.
- In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and cloves. Add the flour mixture and the chopped walnuts to the liquid ingredients, and stir everything together with a spatula just until moistened. The batter will be thick.
- Spread the batter evenly into your prepared pan. Bake for about 50-60 minutes (mine was done at 55 minutes), until the top of the bread is cracked, and a sharp knife or cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean or with moist crumbs clinging to it.
- Let the bread cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack to cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing.
Recipe Variations
Add Icing
- To make a zucchini loaf cake for more of a dessert situation, try it with a drizzle of tart lemon icing or sweet vanilla icing.
Add Crumb Topping
- Zucchini bread with crumb topping is fantastic. The crumb topping from my pumpkin bread recipe would work great, although you may need to add a few extra minutes of bake time.
Chocolate Zucchini Bread
- For a chocolate version, replace 1/2 cup of the flour with 6 tbsp unsweetened Dutch processed cocoa powder.
- Add 1/2 – 3/4 cup chocolate chips.
Zucchini Muffins
- For muffins, preheat the oven to 425 F and grease a muffin pan with non-stick baking spray.
- Fill the muffin cups completely full with batter.
- Set the pan in the oven, and immediately turn the temperature down to 375 F. Bake the muffins for about 22-25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
- You can also add blueberries or chocolate chips. The yield is around 8 muffins, more if you add blueberries or other add-ins.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!
Frequently Asked Questions
I used the USA Bakeware 1-lb Nonstick Bread Loaf Pan, which has dimensions of 8.5 x 4.5 x 2.75. You can also use a 9×5 inch loaf pan, but your bread won’t be quite as tall.
Store leftover zucchini bread in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days, or in the freezer for up to 3-6 months.
Yes, you can make it with or without the walnuts, or substitute another nut, such as pecans, almonds or macadamia nuts. You can even add chocolate chips.
No, do not squeeze or press any of the moisture out of the zucchini. All that moisture is what keeps the bread so moist.
Definitely use the small to medium sized zucchini that you’ll find at your grocery store, or that you’ve grown yourself. The overly huge ones that sometimes grow out of control in backyard vegetable gardens will be too full of seeds, and will not work well for baking.
You Might Also Like
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Did you love today’s recipe? Please rate the recipe and let me know in the comments what you thought! Also, be sure to follow Curly Girl Kitchen on Instagram, and tag me when you try one of my recipes so I can see all your delicious creations!
High Altitude Walnut Zucchini Bread
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups (8 oz) grated zucchini (2 small or 1 medium zucchini)
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- ½ cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 Âľ cups (7.7 oz) all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- ÂĽ cup granulated sugar
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ÂĽ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- ÂĽ tsp ground cloves
- ½ cup walnuts, roughly chopped (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
- If using the nonstick USA 1-lb Bread Loaf Pan, lightly grease the inside of the pan with softened butter. If your pan is not non-stick, spray it lightly with non-stick baking spray.
- Wash your zucchini, and cut the ends off, but don't peel the zucchini. Use a box grater to grate the zucchini. You can lightly pack it into a measuring cup to get 1 1/2 cups, or just weigh out 8 ounces of grated zucchini. Do not squeeze out the water.
- In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil, brown sugar and vanilla, until smooth. Add the grated zucchini and stir together with a spatula.
- In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and cloves. Add the flour mixture and the chopped walnuts to the liquid ingredients, and stir everything together with a spatula just until moistened. The batter will be thick.
- Spread the batter evenly into your prepared pan. Bake for about 50-60 minutes (mine was done at 55 minutes), until the top of the bread is cracked, and a sharp knife or cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean or with moist crumbs clinging to it.
- Let the bread cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack to cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing.
Heather Smoke
I hope you all love this recipe as much as I do!
Vicki
I made this today. It came out perfect. I used fresh whole cloves that I ground with mortar and pestle . It was very flavorful.
Heather Smoke
I’m so glad you loved it!
Jessica K
Thank you for sharing this recipe Heather! The loaf baked up beautifully and I really enjoyed the flavor. I’ve always loved my Mother’s zucchini bread but it sinks every time no matter what I try. Sorry, Mom, but this is my new go-to zucchini bread recipe! I sprinkled cinnamon chips on top just for kicks.
Heather Smoke
I’m so glad you loved it, and I’m sure your mom won’t mind. 🙂
Kathy Kettler
Made the recipe and really good!!! Unfortunately, I can’t print the recipe. I have tried printing from my phone and computer and it won’t print. Do you have a restriction on the printing?
Heather Smoke
So glad you loved it! Strange that you couldn’t print, though. The print button works for me, and there are no restrictions on printing.
Shannon Hopkins
Absolutely loved this recipe. I have never been a fan of zucchini bread but this recipe completely changed my mind. I have not found a recipe from Curley Girl that I don’t love.
Heather Smoke
I’m so glad you loved it!