A little sweet bread with a twist… lemon zucchini bread.
How is your garden growing? My garden is doing alright, I have tomatoes, herbs, peppers, cucumbers, eggplant (first time-I love the little purple flower), and zucchini. I always plant zucchini, then I feel like my garden is a success because zucchini always grows well, really, really well.
I have to watch the zucchini daily because there will be a little tiny zucchini one day and the next there is this gigantic zucchini – how it grows so fast I have no idea. And zucchini likes to hide too, they hide under the leaves and under the stems; maybe they don’t like to be picked. If you happen to plant zucchini like I do and the plant has gotten a little carried away, making and baking zucchini bread is a prefect use of that over sized zucchini. The other awesome thing about zucchini bread is there are so many options, regular zucchini bread, double chocolate zucchini bread and now lemon zucchini bread. Enjoy your choices.
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup canola oil
- ⅔ cup sugar
- ½ cup buttermilk
- 2 TBS lemon juice
- zest of 1 lemon
- 1 cup grated zucchini
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- Juice from 1 lemon
- 1 to 2 TBSP of half and half - as needed to thin glaze
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Flour and grease 1 9x5 loaf pan
- In a large bowl, blend together flour, baking powder and salt
- In another bowl, beat 2 eggs well
- Add to the eggs the oil and sugar and blend together well
- Add the buttermilk, lemon juice, and lemon zest and blend together well
- Fold in the zucchini until well coated
- Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and fold together until everything is well blended, but don't over-mix
- Pour the batter into your loaf pan, pat down the pan with a couple of soft thumps to your counter top to evenly distribute the batter
- Place in your oven and bake for 40 to 45 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean
- Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then remove to a wire cooling rack to finish cooling
- In a bowl, mix the powdered sugar, lemon juice, and half and half. Adding only 1 to 2 TBS of lemon juice and/or half and half at a time to get the right consistency that you like.
- Mix together with a fork until all the sugar is thoroughly mixed and glaze is thin enough to spread
- Add half and half and/or lemon juice as needed for more to thin
- Drizzle over cooled loaf
- Let set, then slice and serve
Enjoy this delicious and moist lemony zucchini bread!
What is your favorite zucchini bread?
GET READY TO MAKE THIS SWEET BREAD WITH THESE KITCHEN TOOLS:
You might also like these other zucchini recipes:
Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Just made this recipe and it turned out great as written. I doubled the recipe and it made 9 small loaves (about the size of two muffins). I like sharing baked goods and the small paper loaf pans are perfect for my single neighbors who don’t want a big loaf of bread. Baking time was 45 minutes even in the small pans. Thanks for sharing this recipe for a refreshing summer treat!
Awesome Lisa! I am so glad you like it and I’m sure your neighbors love you for sharing with them!
I made this delicious Lemon Zucchini bread yesterday. It turned out fantastic, however I made 2 small changes; I didn’t have any buttermilk so I used an equal amount of sour cream and I also added 1/4 tsp Fiori di Sicilia, a citrus extract I get from King Arthur Flour. It enhanced the lemon flavor to a new level. It baked in the timeframe the recipe stated and was moist, tender and flavorful in it’s own right that I did not make the glaze or even use powdered sugar. I will be keeping the sour cream exchange in this recipe since it worked out so well. This is a winner!!!
So glad your easy changes worked for you! I bet it was so moist and good with the sour cream! And I think I need to get my hands on that extract!
I’m baking this now. Been in the oven over an hour and still runny in the center? Haha was this supposed to be in two loaf pans?
Sorry I couldn’t respond earlier, it should just be made in a regular 9×5 loaf pan. It’s possible that your oven temperature varies a little from mine. If its not burning, I’d just keep baking it until the middle is done!
I had the same issue. I tried this recipe twice with my usual substitutions (because the first time I’d used thawed, frozen zuccini and I thought that had been the culprit) and both times I ended up with awful, wet, dense loaves. So disappointed. 🙁
Sorry it didnt work out for you Pauline, since you made substitutions its hard to know where the recipe went wrong!
I think with frozen zucchini you really need to use a strainer to get rid of the excess amounts of water.
I was disappointed in this recipe. The bread itself didn’t have much flavor my good thing it had the glaze! Also thought it was dry. Thought if I let it set overnight, it would absorbe some of the glaze flavor and moistness, but it didn’t got heavy and dryer. I love lemon, but this was a disappointment. Taking it out of my favorites.
So sorry that you didn’t like it Donna! If you see, in the other comments it has turned out for several others, and I have made it several times as well without any issues :/ It’s hard to know for sure what would cause it to be dry, its possible your lemons were smaller, you measured the flour slightly differently than I do, or maybe your oven temperature is different than mine. Sorry it didn’t turn out for you!
try using coconut flour. I heard it’s more moist.
I have made the recipe twice but used 1 1/2 cups of yellow zucchine that I grew and 3/4 cups of sugar in the recipe. It turned out great. But I didn’t put a gaze on it. My kids are slicing it up before I can put it away.
So glad you and your kids liked it, even without the glaze!!
Can’t wait to try this! I have LOTS of zucchini from the garden that needs to be used up. I was wondering…for the glaze can anything be substituted for the half and half?
Hi Judy, yes you can substitute the half and half with milk, I recommend whole milk. It was just so the glaze was a little thicker than what you might get with skim or 2% milk. I hope you love it.
Wonderful recipe! I added 1 cup of fresh blueberries. I had 1 Tb of freshly squeezed lemon juice left over after adding the 2 Tb to the batter. I needed a little more than 1 Tb lemon juice for my glaze but did not want to squeeze another lemon, so I added 1/4 tsp of lemon extract. 🙂 Turned out great! Great way to use my zucchini. Thank you!
The addition of blueberry sounds fabulous! I’m glad you made the glaze work for you with the lemon extract as well. Sounds so fabulous, I want a slice now!
Can egg whites be subbed for eggs? And any vegetable oil or must it be canola?
Thanks!
Egg whites can be subbed for eggs, it just recommends you(Substitute 2 egg whites for each whole egg. This substitution may make baked goods less tender. To compensate, try adding 1 teaspoon of oil per egg called for in recipe.)
And yes you can use vegetable oil instead of canola.
I know Aimee has already seen my new feature Made It Loved It featuring this bread. Before I could even publicize it my son’s aide told me she had seen it and mentioned it to the Vice Principal and Librarian who now want me to e-mail them the link. 🙂 Hope it sends some traffic your way, it was delicious.
Thanks so much for sharing with others! You’re so kind Audrey!
That is awesome. I am so glad you liked it and shared it. Thank you!
I love bundt cakes/bread any thought on baking time to convert to a bundt pan ??
Hi Cathy, I haven’t made this in a bundt pan, but my guess is you at least need to double the recipe for the right amount of batter to fit a bundt pan. I wouldn’t think it needs to bake for too much longer, I’d just watch it after 45-55 mins and see how long you think it will be after that – check it every few minutes with a toothpick. Sorry I dont know more closely how long it’ll take!
I’m making this for my coworkers on Monday. Can this be frozen if I make too many loaves?
I have always frozen sweet breads like zucchini or banana. I have not frozen this particular bread but I would guess you can. Let me know how it turns out.
I am going to make this tonight! I can’t wait! I am going to add some poppy seeds to it as well!
Most amazing recipe I ever made
It delights me that you feel that way. I am so glad you like it.
Can the recipe be doubled? Have zucchini coming out of me ears!
Yes, you can most certainly double this and even triple it if you want. Just make sure you double everything. Use 2 or 3 loaf pans and it should work out just fine.
Really enjoying this recipe! Yesterday I added finely chopped chocolate mint leaves and some white chocolate chips, and skipped the glaze (I love butter). Three loaves gone 🙂
Whoa, that sounds amazing. I am definitely going to have to try it that way. My husband loves butter too on all breads.
A co-worker brought this to work today and it’s so good! I just HAD to make it. We’re waiting for it to cool now……thank you for sharing!
Awesome, so glad you like it! What a great co-worker to share.
I found the glaze very runny, and I didn’t add any half and half! I had a large lemon, but only used half of it (used the other half of the juice in the loaf). Perhaps a measured amount of lemon juice would be helpful for the glaze? Thanks!
Sorry your glaze was too runny, I guess I am used to a smaller lemon and/or not being so exact. I can suggest using a tablespoon at a time to get the right consistency that you like. Thanks for the heads up.
So glad you liked it and I am with you there never can be too much frosting.
This was very yummy and delicious! Had a bit left over icing – haha but that was no problem 🙂
This bread is delicious! Made it last night and the whole family loved it. My 12 year old couldn’t get enough. Said it was his favorite zucchini bread ever! Thank you for the delicious recipe. Definitely a keeper.
So glad you guys loved it so much! Its one of our favorites too!
I made this with yellow summer squash and it was very moist and tasty. I think I will add some vanilla next time, and or cinnamon & nutmeg like some other recipes I have found, for a more complex flavor.
I would have never thought of using summer squash instead of zucchini. It looks like you have created a great recipe that sounds yummy.
Could you make this in a 9×13 pan also? Would you reduce the baking time or would you cook it the normal amount of time?
Sorry, I didn’t respond to this sooner but I honestly don’t know.
That’s what I meant to say, lol. I glazed again this morning and made it thicker with more sugar and less half and half. My son loved it!
Haha. Awesome! I’m so glad!!
I made this last night. My son loves the poundcake from Starbucks and I was hoping he might like this. It’s really yummy. The only change I would make is with the glaze. It seemed really runny so I would probably cut back on the sugar next time. Thank you for the recipe!
I’m glad you liked it! However more sugar in your glaze will make it thicker, so you’ll actually want to cut back on the amount of half and half in your glaze if you want it thicker!
This looks flippin delicious Aimee!
Thanks, let us know what you think.
This looks delicious! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
You bet. Did you get a chance to make it?