Maple Honey Zucchini Bread is a new improved version of one of my older zucchini bread recipes. The old version calls for agave and is actually very good, but I've been hesitant to use agave lately and wanted to sweeten the bread with syrups I'm more comfortable with. The combination of maple syrup and honey works perfectly! With ⅔ cup syrup total, the bread is not super sweet.
Flavor and Texture
The bread bakes up very dark. It's loaded with nuts and slightly crumbly. I suppose you could leave the nuts out, but I've only tested this recipe with lots of nuts. For texture, I used whole wheat pastry flour, but I think an equal weight of regular whole wheat or all-purpose would work too. The flavor is good. I used extra virgin olive oil, honey, maple, vanilla, cinnamon and two kinds of zests, so there's a lot going on!
Maple Honey Zucchini Bread Ingredients
- Zucchini -- 240 grams (weighed after draining) of peeled and grated zucchini.
- Eggs -- 98 grams of eggs (2 large), weight is without shell.
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil -- Any oil should be fine, but I'm working my way through a giant bottle of California olive oil from Costco. It worked well in the bread and the EVO flavor was not overpowering. Measure with a ⅓ cup measure and leave it slick with oil before measuring the honey.
- Honey -- ⅓ cup, which I measured by volume and weight.
- Maple Syrup -- Same as honey, measured by volume and weight.
- Vanilla
- Whole Wheat Pastry Flour -- Used Whole Foods 360 brand and weighed 250 grams.
- Cinnamon
- Baking Powder
- Baking Soda
- Salt
- Walnuts -- No need to toast. Lately I'm finding that pecans need toasting, but walnuts are better without it.
- Zests -- A few scrapes or orange and lemon for a dash of flavor.
Recipe
Maple Honey Zucchini Bread
Ingredients
- 1 ⅔ cups zucchini (I used the weight, volume is an estimate) peeled and grated (240 grams)
- 2 large eggs well beaten (95 grams)
- ⅓ cup olive oil, extra virgin or any oil you like
- ⅓ cup honey, kind of a "generous" ⅓ cup (120 grams)
- ⅓ cup maple syrup (110 grams)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour 240 grams, weigh or be sure to aerate well and spoon into cups
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ cup chopped walnuts (Feel free to use less)
- ⅛ teaspoon each orange and lemon zest optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8 ½ by 4 ½ inch loaf pan and line with a strip of parchment paper.
- Peel and grate the zucchini into a colander. Set it over a bowl, press down with another bowl and allow it to drain for 10 minutes. My zucchini only released about 1 tablespoon of water, so it may vary.
- Whisk together eggs, oil, honey, maple syrup and vanilla. Stir in the zucchini.
- Mix the flour, cinnamon, salt, baking powder and baking soda together in a second bowl. Add flour mixture to zucchini mixture and stir until blended. Stir in the nuts and zests (if using).
- Pour batter into pan and bake for 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool for about 10 minutes in the pan, then remove from the pan and let cool completely.
Sue
This sounds delicious! I never think to buy zucchini in the winter. We get it right out of my husband’s garden in the summer and then when the garden is put to rest I forget about it until the next summer. Thanks for sharing the updated recipe.