Zucchini Bread

This Easy Zucchini Bread Recipe is great to use up any extra zucchini. The Brown Butter Zucchini Bread is perfectly moist and is topped with a brown butter streusel topping. This zucchini bread recipe comes together quickly and is perfect for any time!

Recipe Originally Published in July 2017 - updated June 2021

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Easy Zucchini Bread Recipe

Hi hi! Just popping in to share a re-work of this recipe for Zucchini bread! I first published this Easy Zucchini Bread Recipe in 2017 and decided it was time to give it a re-shoot. I am always pleasantly surprised (and relieved) that the recipes from back in the day on my site still work super well, but I have learnt a lot since then in regards to writing helpful recipes, so it makes sense to revisit them every now and then just to give things a bit of a clean up.

So here we are - a four years later zucchini bread re-work! This one is so, so good, and it's great without the streusel too if you're not feeling too motivated. It's a great way to use up those spare zucchini you may have kicking around in your fridge. We always end up with loads in summer and it's so nice to use some of them up in a sweet application like this zucchini bread.

How to make Zucchini Bread

This Zucchini Bread Recipe was adapted from the one on my friend Deb of Smitten Kitchen's site. I browned the butter and then in a classic Cloudy move, topped the zucchini bread with a brown butter oat streusel. Full credit goes to Deb though for an absolute banger of a base recipe. It's super easy to make, and comes together quickly, even with the streusel.

1. Brown the butter. I'm going to get you to do this all at once, then divide it up to use throughout the recipe.
2. Make the streusel. This step is super simple - just combine the dry ingredients then add the brown butter and mix until clumpy.
3. Combine all wet ingredients and whisk together.
4. Add dry ingredients and mix to combine until a batter forms.
5. Fold the zucchini through. Zucchini adds amazing moisture and is a flavour chameleon - it takes the form of the ingredients it is added to.
6. Transfer to a pan smooth off. Add the streusel. It will seem like loads but don't worry.
7. Bake until done, then leave in the pan to cool slightly. Remove, leave to cool and enjoy!

What is a Pullman Pan?

I made this Zucchini Bread recipe in a Pullman pan. A pullman pan is a square shaped bread pan with super straight sides. It often comes with a lid to use for making bread that slides on, so if you are using a bread recipe that rises a lot you can add the lid and get a nice square loaf.

For this recipe I didn't use the lid, but I love to use my pullman pan as often as I can to make loaf cakes. It gives a beautiful tall cake with perfectly square sides. I love it a lot and I think that a pullman is a great investment to make as it is super versatile.

If you don't have a pullman pan then that is no issue at all - this recipe can just be made in a loaf pan! You can use a 9"x5" (23x132cm) loaf pan which will give you a slight wider flatter loaf. Or, you can pop it into an 8"x4" (20x10cm) loaf pan which will give you something a little taller.

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Brown Butter Streusel Topping

This Zucchini bread has a super simple brown butter streusel on it. I love adding streusel to things as it gives amazing texture. This streusel has oats in it for texture, and is toasty from the brown butter. I also added in some turbinado sugar which makes it a little crunchy - if you don't have any you can just sub in brown or white sugar.

I usually make the streusel then leave it to sit while I put together the zucchini bread. You can choose how you add it - either clumpy or crumbled up. I like to squish parts between my fingers just to make some clumps in it before adding to the pan.

Don't worry if the streusel looks like a super thick layer - the zucchini bread will rise up and it will spread out as it bakes.

Accounting for moisture loss with Brown Butter

You will notice that the initial quantity of butter is not the same as the two quantities of brown butter called for in the recipe. This is to account for the moisture lost when you brown butter. Browning butter cooks off the water and browns the milk solids. This means that you end up with a smaller quantity of butter than you started with. You will see that I call for 255g butter to make the brown butter, but the butter in the recipe only adds up to 195g. This is me accounting for the moisture loss. It's not a typo.

Different butter loses different amounts of moisture when browned due to how it is made. For example most US butter has a higher water content than European or NZ butter, so you will end up with less browned butter relative to the quantity you started with as you are cooking off more moisture. This is why baking by weight is so important. Different butters will yield different quantities of brown butter so it is important to re-weigh your brown butter.

I know that making brown butter can be intimidating. Don't be scared, I will hold your hand the whole way through in my post and you'll be nailing it in no time: Brown Butter 101: The Ultimate Guide

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Recipe for Zucchini Bread

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