Zucchini Cornbread
My mom and planted a garden this year, and it’s just a tiny bit possible that we may have planted a few too many plants. We currently have an out-of-control jungle situation going on. We planted one (very large) raised bed with a few pickling cucumbers, a couple regular cucumbers, three zucchini, one eggplant, six tomato plants, five jalapeno plants, four red bell peppers, green beans, Swiss chard and assorted lettuce and greens. Everything has positively taken off, which is awesome, but it’s seriously out of control. We’ve picked a dozen zucchini in just over a week. I have over 10 jalapeños in various stages of growth (at least three ready to be picked) on just one of the plants. Needless to say, there will be no shortage of zucchini recipes here this summer! I’ve done a lot of zucchini baking over the past few summers with recipes such as Zucchini Bread, Zucchini-Pineapple Bread (a favorite from my grandma’s recipe box!), Zucchini Squares, Zucchini-Pineapple Cupcakes with Orange Sour Cream Frosting and Garden Zucchini Pizza Casserole. This year I’m on the hunt for new and unique recipes since it looks like I’ll have a lot of zucchini to experiment with and this easy cornbread was the perfect way to kick off my zucchini baking for the summer.
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I am a huge fan of cornbread (see classic cornbread and jalapeño cheddar cornbread for a couple of my favorite variations) and was excited to give this a try. I was also able to use up most of the remaining buttermilk from my blueberry-lemon Bundt cake, score! This batter bakes up just like most quick breads – whisk together the dry ingredients, whisk together the wet ingredients, and then fold the two together with a spatula. Pour into a pan, bake and voilà! Golden brown and perfectly moist cornbread studded with flecks of gorgeous green zucchini. As with just about everything that zucchini is baked into, it takes on the flavor of what’s it’s baked with, so what you have here is a fabulous cornbread that’s tremendously moist. This bread is an absolute winner, and definitely has a permanent place on my summer zucchini baking list!
Three years ago: Pistachio Gelato
Zucchini Cornbread
Ingredients
- 1 medium zucchini, about 10 ounces
- 1½ cups (187.5 g) all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup (119.25 g) yellow cornmeal
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon (0.75 teaspoon) salt
- ½ cup (113.5 g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup (120 ml) buttermilk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan; set aside.
- Trim the ends off the zucchini and thinly slice 3 to 5 rounds from one end of the zucchini and reserve for garnish. Shred the remaining zucchini, toss with 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar and place in a colander. Allow to drain for 30 minutes, then gather it in a clean kitchen towel and squeeze out any excess water.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk together the butter, eggs and buttermilk. Gently stir the zucchini into the butter mixture. Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and use a rubber spatula to gently fold together until no traces of flour remain. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and top with the reserved zucchini slices.
- Bake until the bread is golden brown and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 55 to 65 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn the loaf out onto a wire rack to cool completely. The bread can be stored at room temperature, wrapped in plastic wrap, for up to 3 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!
I made this recipe twice. The only thing I added in was a little more sugar and didn’t totally drain the zucchini. I love it. First time making corn bread. First time using a zucchini for ANYTHING. The bread turned out great I felt confident to gift friends and even my picky children and husband loved it. Thank you for the recipie. I have your page saved on my fone and my laptop haha. Will definitely try more of your recipes
The batter was a bit thick( i think i squeezed out all the water in the zucchini), i was afraid it will be too dry but it turned out well, not too sweet, i am proud of my self.
Thank you Michelle
I am philosophically opposed to sugar in cornbread, so I cut the amount in half. (I also used 3/4 tsp. instead of a tbsp. of sugar to drain the shredded zucchini.) It was still too sweet for me, but my husband thought it was perfect. The texture was moist and lovely, and other than the sweetness, the flavor was great. I am always happy to have a new cornbread recipe in my repertoire.
It was a fabulous recipe! We made a double batch. I did not have a medium zucchini, I had a Giant one, and no kitchen scale. I used 4-5 cups of shredded zucchini for the double batch, which seemed perfect. The inside was moist and the outside crispy. Unfortunately I didn’t have a cup of butter, but coconut oil works, it just wasn’t the taste I was hoping for, so I recommend butter as listed in the recipe. I do not recommend coconut oil, but that’s purely for the taste. It’s possible the coconut oil would not have overwhelmed the recipe had I used cornmeal, but who knew that the unlabeled bulk foods bag of grainy yellow was in fact malt-o-meal and not the cornmeal you had asked your husband to pick up… Despite all the unforeseen ingredient switches, all 4 adults and 9 kids loved the coconut oil malt-o-cake!
Michelle, this is my most favorite cornbread! I recommended it on my blog today with a link to this post. I hope you stop by and check it out. Thanks, again, for the recipe. http://myoverflowingcup.com/best-ever-enchilada-soup/
Great recipe! I made it for work last week. And then I made it again today, only this time I turned it into muffins, and added some crumbled up bacon and dried chives. These will be perfect to have for breakfast!!
We love zucchini and are always sure to plant a couple in the garden. This year’s crop wasn’t outstanding due to the excessive heat, but I still managed to make this corn bread twice in one week. Delicious. I had it bookmarked with epicurious.com for so long, and am glad that I finally tried it. I think some of the shredded baggies of zucchini in the freezer will find their way into more cornbread…and cakes…and muffins…and :-)
I just made a double batch of this… This is the best corn bread I have ever had!! I’ve never had any this moist! Thank you so much for this recipe!!!
Funny enough, my bff just handed me 3 monstrous zucchini this morning. I can’t wait to try this!
That bread looks yummy!
Hi,
I made this cornbread today and realize u didn’t say what step to add the 1/2 cup granulated sugar. I had to revert to the original recipe. If anyone is wondering add the sugar to the flour mixture. Great recipe!
Thanks for sharing.
Hi Jackie, So sorry for the omission; I have edited the recipe so it includes when to add the sugar. I’m glad you enjoyed the bread, and thank you for the heads up!
I made this over the weekend, came out a little dry. Very tasty though. I will make it again and add a little more liquid. Thanks for posting.
yum… my uncle always makes his delivery rounds form his garden trying to get rid of his zucchinis… I always find myself looking for recipes that include zucchini!
I wish I had a green thumb (and a yard!) to grow my own vegetable garden! Right now, I am testing my window sill out with a basil plant that I am hoping the sun gets to. Looking a bit grim as of now. But fingers crossed!
Looking forward to trying this recipe outside of my staple zucchini bread!
Awesome! I am always looking for new ways to use up excess zucchini. I love, zucchini bread, but I can only eat so much of it every summer! Thanks for sharing!
Made this tonight for dinner for a “farmers market” meal. I purchased “homemade” pasta, fresh tomato and mozzarella for a caprese salad, as well as the zucchini I used in the bread at our local farmers market. I used Bob’s Red Mill medium ground cornmeal. Gave it a bit of a crunch! The bread was excellent and I will definitely make it again. We didn’t even let it cool. Ate it 15 minutes out of the oven :) Thanks for the idea! I’d never thought to put zucchini with cornbread.
Oh! And congrats on making Top 9!!!!