Zucchini-Banana Bread
Is your garden bursting with zucchini yet? I don’t eat much zucchini in its natural state (you probably know by now that I’m about the furthest thing from a veggie lover that you’ll ever meet), but I do love it baked into desserts and breads. It doesn’t impart much in the way of flavor, but it does a tremendous job of keeping baked goods nice and moist. While I’ve tried many different recipes to date, my favorites have to be my grandma’s zucchini-pineapple bread, her recipe for zucchini squares, and this double chocolate zucchini bread that will you have you swooning. I enjoy experimenting with zucchini, so when I came across a recipe for a zucchini-banana bread, I wasted no time in getting it into the oven.
This bread is quite similar in texture and flavor to my grandma’s recipe for banana-nut bread, with the same level of rise and the same type of crumb. The combination of bananas and zucchini in this bread means that it is supremely moist – a recipe for bread perfection! This bread was made with pecans, but you could use walnuts, or whatever your favorite type of nut is (or leave them out altogether).
Do you have a favorite zucchini recipe that you turn to when you have an abundance of zucchini on your hands?
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Banana-Zucchini Bread
Ingredients
- 3 cups (375 g) all-purpose flour
- 1½ teaspoons (1.5 teaspoons) baking powder
- 1½ teaspoons (1.5 teaspoons) baking soda
- 1½ teaspoons (1.5 teaspoons) ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 eggs
- 2 cups (400 g) granulated sugar
- 1 cup (218 ml) vegetable oil
- 2 medium ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 cup)
- 1½ cups (186 g) shredded zucchini
- 1 cup (99 g) chopped pecans
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease two 9x5-inch loaf pans and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk the eggs. Add the sugar and oil and whisk until smooth and combined. Whisk in the bananas and mix well. Add the flour mixture and stir gently with a rubber spatula until no flour remains. Fold in the zucchini and pecans.
- Divide the batter evenly between the two loaf pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 50 to 60 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then remove the bread from the pans and place on wire rack to cool completely before serving. Wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, the bread will keep at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @thebrowneyedbaker on Instagram so I can see it!
Loved this recipe so much I made it again tonight! So moist! So Good!
Excellent recipe. Would reduce sugar a bit next time around and perhaps leave some pecans to put on top just before baking. Â Great use of small zucchini or leftover gratings from another recipe. Â Thanks!!
Just made this bread this morning and only thing different that I did was to use about 1/2 cup less of sugar and I made it in a 8 mini loaf pan so I got 16 mini loaves! Turned out great, the moisture in the bread was perfect! Looking forward to sharing it with my adult children this evening when we go out to dinner with them! That’s why i like using my mini loaf pan cuz it’s easy to share my breads cuz my husband and I can’t eat it all.Â
I made the recipe almost as written, adjusting only for altitude (slightly less leavening, slightly higher oven temp). I thought it was perfect. Not too sweet, IMHO. I didn’t squeeze the zucchini and the texture was fine. I’ll definitely make again.Â
Love the moisture of this bread. I made the following changes:
In a convection oven, I only baked them for 35 minutes. Â
I also added chocolate chips. Everything tastes better with cc.
I cut the sugar down to one and a half cups.
Love your site!  Question…I made this bread today and followed the recipe with the exception of using coconut oil in place of vegetable oil.  My loaves didn’t rise much and then sunk in the middle!  I live at 4,000 ft altitude and did not make any changes for that; is that why my bread fell?
Sounds like it to me. I used this site to adjust my recipient and it turned out great!Â
https://www.recipelink.com/msgbrd/board_0/2000/JAN/46117.html
If I needed to bake it in a single 9×13 pan, (for instance, if, say, I had already buttered and parchmented a 9×14) how would I change the recipe to make it work?
The recipe was easy to follow and the bread is amazing
My family loved all. Â Today was a bake day.Â
I made zucchini and banana loaf. Â Then I made choc chip and zucchini muffins. Â Â Then I made lemon and zucchini loaf. Â It was all good. Â First time using almond flour
It just did not raise as much as white flour
Trying to watch carbs.
Do you replace it with exact amount of almond flour.
Do you squeeze the moisture out of the zucchini or leave as is? I am interested in trying this recipe due to the Greek yogurt as one of the ingredients. Might vanilla also work and then reduce the sugar a bit?
oops,wrong recipe. But my question about whether of not to squeeze the zucchini stands as is. Thanks
Hi Deb, Yes, squeeze the moisture out, sorry that’s not specified above.
I made this last night and it was a hit! I replaced the vegetable oil with 1/2 cup avocado oil and 1/2 cup coconut oil. I also halved the sugar. It was plenty sweet and tastes so delicious spread with butter. Yum!
I made this last nite, except I used 1/2 c butter and 1/2 c coconut oil (all ingredients need to be at room temp else the coconut oil will solidify) and approximately 2c zucchini, 4 bananas, 1 1/2 c real cane sugar and 1/2 c brown sugar, 1 bag chocolate chips, 1 c pecans, and 1/3 c plain yogurt and voila…party in our mouths! *The only thing I would do differently is spray the pan and lightly flour! It kind of stuck on the bottom…but not very badly.
Thank you, Michelle, so much! I am so very grateful for your recipes and advice! I didn’t even have to freeze it! It’s so delicious that everything was eaten before I knew it! :-)
Hi Michelle!
Can I freeze this bread, and for how long if it’s possible? Thank you.
Hi Yelena, Yes, definitely! You could freeze it for up to 1 month.
I had too many zucchini and didn’t know what to do with them. I found this recipe and tried it out, however I made muffins instead of a loaf. They turned out fanatic! They’re a tad sweet but the crispness of the zucchini is a nice surprise. A wonderful breakfast muffin!
I baked 24 muffins for about 18 minutes at 350.
This recipe is awesome, I was trying to decide what I was going to do with all the loaves of zucchini and banana bread and then I stumbled on this. I added chocolate chips and made into muffins for easy treats! The kids love em!
This recipe is great as is, but I’m trying to bake with as little sugar as possible. The second time I made it I cut the sugar to 1 cup and increased the banana to 1.5 cups and used melted coconut oil instead of vegetable oil. This is now one of my regular summertime baking recipes. Thanks!
i started volunteering at a senior centre (kitchen) last week and it was my job to make muffins today. i remembered making this loaf last year, so i suggested this recipe and the chef approved so i doubled the recipe and made into muffins. the kitchen staff approved my choice when it came out of the oven, yumm!!
Could I possible cut this recipe in half in order to just bake one loaf?
Hi Viktoriya, I think this could be halved without a problem. Enjoy!
Had some banana’s AND some zucchini’s that had to be used up. Went searching to see if a there was even such a thing as a Zucchini-Banana Bread recipe and lo and behold there was yours…just made it and YUM!!!! Because I’m me I couldn’t leave well enough alone. I had just been to Penzy’s spices and gotten some whole Nutmeg, so I added a teaspoon of that, also added a teaspoon of vanilla and substituted Coconut Oil for the Vegetable oil. It’s so yum and moist. Thanks : )
Is there anyway or what can I use in place of the oil??
Hi May, You would need to substitute another fat. I have not tried these, so I can’t vouch for how substituting may affect the bread, a couple of common replacements for vegetable oil are coconut oil and applesauce.
you can use unsweeted apple sauce :P i use that all the time to replace butter and oil in cakes or bread
I made these today as muffins, they turned out wonderfully! I followed the recipe as written, but baked at 350 for 23-25min for regular size muffins.
I should add that the recipe as written made 30 muffins.
Hi! I love your blog. I recently started a recipe blog of my own about cooking and baking on a boat circumnavigating the world. I would love to hear what you think of it and any suggestions or comments would be greatly appreciated. Thought you might like this entry http://sallyinthegalley.net/cherry-almondbowline-banana-bread/
I just made this yummy bread. I one and s half times it and got nine mini loaves. Baked about 35-40 min. Followed exactly and did add some nutmeg. Great recipe and will mske again and again. I never go wrong when I use one your recipes!
I’m making this right now! Very excited to try. Thanks!
I am going to make this yummy looking bread this weekend. But I would like to make mini loaves. How many do you think this recipe will make and long to bake them?
Hi Robin, It all depends on the size of the miniature loaves; I’ve been many varying sizes.
sorry about that. They are the foil minis 5x3x2 if that helps. I should probably just check on time but not sure how much to fill them. how much does this rise?
Hi Robin, It’s not very high-rising. I hope that helps!
Made this last night and hands down it is the best zucchini/banana bread I’ve ever baked, and I’ve been baking for 40 years. Only change I made was to double the cinnamon because the hubs loves cinnamon.
I absolutely love zucchini bread so I can’t wait to try combining it with banana bread!
Made this and your Chocolate-Zucchini bread this weekend – you ROCK! these are both amazing and a great use for the extra zukes from the garden!
Thanks!
Two of my favorite things to have in the summer. Yum, yum!
Both banana and zucchini breads are wonderfully moist and delicious. Combining the two into one loaf must be fabulous. Yours looks great.
Fabulous. Thanks!
I’m excited to try this! I was looking all over for a banana zucchini bread recipe last weekend. Thanks for sharing!
ciao Michelle, I have made zucchini bread but not with bananas. The last batch I made was zucchini with chocolate chips. I will definately make it with bananas. sounds delicious. ciao
Love how moist this is thanks to the zucchini and banana combo. My mother used to make chocolate chip zucchini muffins when I was a kid to us into eating more veggies. It worked — they were delicious!
This bread looks delicious! Our garden did not do so well with zucchini. Too much rain and not enough sun!
I’ve never had any zucchini and banana baked good. I bet it’s so good. I recently made zucchini bread cookies, a recipe from Martha Stewart, that was amazing. I hadn’t baked with zucchini in ages and it was definitely a reminder of how good it is.
This looks delicious! I love baking with zucchini – it makes me feel like I am being a little bit healthier! I made a chocolate zucchini bread earlier this year that I loved
This bread looks like the best of both worlds with the zucchini-banana combo!
Any way to use up zucchini of baking is a star in my books! no wonder everyone loves it!
This looks great! I have a zucchini bread with lemon recipe that is really good. My favorite is to just sauté zucchini with onions and paprika. :)
Your bread looks great! I would love to make a few batches of this bread and give out to friends as a little “happy end of summer” gift! :)
I think I’m even worse than you when it comes to veggies! I do love me some zucchini bread too :) Anything where I can barely taste the veggie is alright with me!
I love zucchini bread, and I’d love it even more mixed with banana. Two for one — I love it!
Yum this sounds good! In the UK we call zucchini courgettes, but I much prefer your US word for them!!
I have a savory zucchini cheese bread posted on my blog that I absolutely love. It’s a nice break from all the sweet breads usually made with zucchini.
I love banana and zucchini treats, they are so moist! This bread looks incredible!!
Ohh this looks so good! Perfect use for the zucchini I have in my fridge!
Your traditional zucchini bread recipe you posted about a month or so back is incredible! It is now my go to ZB recipe. I think I need to make some TODAY!
:)
https://www.browneyedbaker.com/2009/08/11/zucchini-bread/
Now I know what I will be making tonight with the brown bananas on my kitchen counter. Thanks for a new recipe to try and congrats on your recent marriage. Are you changing your name to Mrs. CCC?
I will be changing my name :)
any hints on how this could be made gluten-free. A granddaughter has Celiac
Hi Nancy, Unfortunately, I’m not familiar with gluten-free alternatives, so unfortunately I don’t have any suggestions for substitutions. If you find anything that works, please feel free to stop back and share your feedback!
You can use gluten free flours as long as they are in some type of ratio to the kind you’re using: brown rice flour, gluten free flour, coconut flour, almond flour, etc. You can look up the ratios online and substitute them with this recipe or look on the back of the Bob Mills bags. :)
I want this in my life soooo bad! Such a classic!
Love zucchini bread but never thought of adding banana. Bet it keeps it sweet and moist :)
Right about this time last year I posted a banana-zucchini bread and still remember how moist it was. Your bread looks wonderful! I bet it was so soft and moist!
This looks delicious! I’ve never actually baked with zucchini (courgette in England!) but I keep meaning to, so I’ll give this recipe a go!
I find that if I fry some zucchini up in olive oil, I’ll add it to most dinner/lunch foods as a side. It’s super easy and a good way to eat some more veggies :)
The bread looks very nice!