Zucchini’s high moisture content gives this loaf cake from pastry chef Lena Sareini its soft crumb, while ground ginger, turmeric, and cardamom infuse the crumbly oat streusel with bold flavor.
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What you’ll need
Loaf Pan
$19 At Amazon
Box Grater
$12 $9 At Amazon
Kitchen Towels
$16 At Amazon
Whisk
$10 At Amazon
Recipe information
Yield
Makes one 9x5" loaf
Ingredients
streusel
⅓
2
¼
½
½
½
¼
2
bread
2½
¾
1½
3
¾
1¾
2¼
2¼
2
1¼
Preparation
streusel
Step 1
Whisk flour, brown sugar, oats, cardamom, ginger, turmeric, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl to combine. Drizzle butter over and, using your fingers, work into dry ingredients until butter is absorbed and clumps form. Set streusel aside
bread
Step 2
Place a rack in middle of oven; preheat to 350°. Coat a 9x5" loaf pan with nonstick spray and line with parchment paper, leaving a generous overhang on long sides. Using the grater attachment of a food processor or the large holes of a box grater, grate zucchini. (You should have about 3 cups.) Wrap shredded zucchini in a kitchen towel and wring out as much excess moisture as you can. Transfer to a small bowl and mix in vanilla extract (adding the vanilla here means the zucchini will take on more of its flavor).
Step 3
Place granulated sugar and lemon zest in a medium bowl and, using your fingers, work zest into sugar until sugar starts to clump and mixture is very fragrant, about 1 minute. Add eggs and oil to bowl and whisk to combine. Add grated zucchini and whisk again to incorporate.
Step 4
Using a fine-mesh sieve, sift flour into another small bowl. Add cardamom, ginger, baking powder, and salt and whisk to combine. Add dry ingredients to zucchini mixture and gently fold with a rubber spatula until there are no visible flour streaks remaining and batter is homogeneous. Scrape batter into prepared pan and smooth surface. Scatter reserved streusel evenly on top.
Step 5
Bake zucchini bread, rotating pan halfway through, until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 1 hour 30 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack and let zucchini bread cool completely in pan.
Step 6
Run a small offset spatula or paring knife around sides of zucchini bread to help loosen, then turn it out onto rack.
Step 7
To serve, cut zucchini bread into thick slices and divide among plates. Top with jam and crème fraîche if desired.
Leave a Review
Reviews (37)
Back to TopVery liquid dough, came out a little stodgy, but still tasted delicious. However I found the topping was too much and it did not really stick to the top. It remained just crumbly and falls off right away when you cut the bread, even that I pressed it into the wet dough before baking. If it would have been solid crumbs the recipe would deserve 5 stars. Just giving it four (although this page insists I already gave it 5 stars and does not let me change it - just weird.)
Cornelia
South Orange, NJ
6/4/2021
As the other reviewer mentioned, the batter was much soupier than pictured in the recipe. Even with an extra 30 mins bake time, it came out stodgy. I recommend squeezing out the water in 2-3 batches- you can get a lot more moisture out that way. Also, the photos show an almost orange color to the bread, but nothing in the recipe would make it that color. My thought is that maybe turmeric was accidentally excluded from the instructions, since it appears in the crumble but not the batter. However, I do love the flavor combination. Next time I make zucchini bread, I will likely try to adapt a different recipe to include cardamom and ginger.
Jess A
6/28/2021
Delicious! After reading everyone else's review I was concerned about it turning out stodgy. So, I divided the shredded zucchini in three different batches and spread them in a towel and rung the juice out of each batch. I also added two extra tablespoons of flour to the mix. Then I bake them in two different bread loaf pans so that it would not be too thick. It turned out absolutely beautiful and delicious..
Lucy C.
Virginia
6/30/2021
I used cheese cloth to wring out the zucchini and had no problems. I added some 1 tsp of turmeric to the batter. It was delicious. Will definitely make again
Anonymous
7/3/2021
I doubled this because I had farmers market zucchini that needed to be used and I'm tired of ratatouille. My batter was a gorgeous yellow. I also ground my spices fresh and tossed my super squeezed calavasas in about 40 grams of flour. We made it as a coffee cake and it's just delicious.
Jana T.
Denver Colorado
7/21/2021
Loved this! Also a hit with a teen who doesn't eat green things. I tweaked it a bit because, well, I gotta be me. First, I ground up all the spices in a dedicated coffee grinder, which made a paste. I split the paste proportionally between the streusel and batter. I love allspice so I tossed in a single berry. Due to a brain cramp, I didn't have lemon or vanilla on hand, so I skipped 'em. I did squeeze out the shredded Z in two towels, but I wasn't confident in the batter after I mixed it all up. I make carrot cake ALL THE TIME, and this batter was too soupy to my eye. I tossed in an extra scant 1/4 c brown sugar (because I had it and not white), and a heavy 1/4 c flour. The batter looked WAY better. Maybe I could have squeezed more water out, but really, I don't want baking to include a laundry project or an Olympic strength element. I put it into a greased 9x12 baking pan because I don't do parchment paper and I wanted it to bake more quickly. I used a traditional German streusel (1:1:2 sugar:butter:flour) and tripled it. Because teenager. DONE in 30 minutes! Will do again--and again, and again!
Betty Rubble01730
7/30/2021
Finished product is very delicious, crumb is scrumptious, lemon zest makes flavor pop. Excellent.
Kathleen Brown
Pa.
7/31/2021