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Cheesy Zucchini Bread made with fresh and healthy zucchini, shredded cheddar cheese, and chives is a delicious and easy savory quick bread loved by the whole family. No fancy mixers or kneading required.
If there is one thing on my bucket list I could easily check off, but don’t, it’s to learn how to make fresh bread. No, not the quick-cooking kind. The kind of bread that needs yeast to rise and strong muscles to knead. Yes, that kind of bread. For whatever reason (maybe because it takes forever), baking my own crusty sourdough bread isn’t on the top of my to-do list. I mean, I have made my own homemade focaccia bread once and it was a pain in my…
Anyway, what is at the top of my list? Quick bread. I love quick bread. All kinds of quick bread. Sweet quick bread, savory quick bread, healthy quick bread…all the quick bread. Quick bread recipes are, well, quick. Meaning, I get to eat my food sooner and with less effort. What’s not to love?
Love quick bread too? Check out these recipes: Lemon Poppy Seed Quick Bread and Banana Bread.
Table of Contents
Key Ingredients
- all-purpose flour
- sugar
- baking powder
- baking soda
- salt
- buttermilk
- egg
- butter
- EXTRA SHARP cheddar cheese
- zucchini
- chives
How to Make Your Own Buttermilk
Making your own buttermilk is easy. All you need is:
- Milk
- Vinegar, fresh lemon juice, or cream of tartar
Hopefully, you have milk (yes, dairy milk) and one of the other things, otherwise, I hope you live super close to the grocery store or you have super friendly neighbors…
- To make with vinegar or lemon juice, simply add 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice or vinegar to a measuring cup and fill with milk until it measures 1 cup.
- To make buttermilk with cream of tartar, mix one cup of milk with 1 3/4 teaspoons of cream of tartar.
How to Make Zucchini Bread
To make this cheesy zucchini bread recipe,
First things first, start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees F and spray a 9 x 5 bread loaf tin with non-stick cooking spray. Next, in a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients – flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt. Set aside. In a separate bowl, combine the buttermilk and egg. Whisk well to combine, then add the butter to the buttermilk mixture.
With the wet and dry ingredients prepared, add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture and mix until just combined. Do not over-mix! Stir in the shredded cheddar cheese, shredded zucchini, and chopped chives.
Finally, transfer the mixture to your prepared loaf pan and transfer to the oven. Bake for approximately 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow the bread to cool for at least 10 minutes before inverting it over a cooling rack to remove it from the loaf pan.
Tips and Tricks
This savory quick bread is about as easy as it gets. In fact, it’s pretty hard to mess this one up. However, I have a few simple suggestions on how to make this delicious cheesy zucchini bread even better.
- Get all the water out of that zucchini. I mean it, my friends. Just trust me here. The best way to do this is to transfer your shredded zucchini to a flour-sack towel, wrap it up, and squeeze the water out. You won’t believe how much water comes out.
- Use stinky, extra EXTRA sharp cheddar cheese. Just because you may not want to eat the stuff plain, by the slice, doesn’t mean it won’t taste delicious in this bread. This savory quick bread is begging for stinky cheese, don’t let it down!
- Make an extra loaf and freeze it! Ok, so this isn’t going to make your cheesy zucchini bread taste any better, but you will be so happy on a cold and rainy soup day that you have a loaf of this delicious, cheesy goodness just waiting to be eaten.
- For an extra cheesy surprise, sprinkle the top of your zucchini loaf with extra shredded cheddar and chives and place it under the broiler for 2-3 minutes.
What to Serve with Cheesy Zucchini Bread
This is not a light bread. I’m so (not) sorry about that. Some things in life are better left packed full of delicious cheese and all-purpose flour. With that in mind, I like to serve this cheesy zucchini bread with a soup like Broccoli Cauliflower Soup or this reader favorite Chicken Soup, or a healthy salad like the Chickpea Buddha Bowl or Creamy Pea Salad.
This zucchini cheese bread tastes best fresh out of the oven. Unless you plan to feed a large group or your entire family, you’ll probably find yourself with leftovers. To reheat, simply pop a slice of this cheesy zucchini bread in the microwave or toaster oven and voila, warm and cheesy once again.
More Zucchini Recipes,
Cheesy Zucchini Bread Recipe
Ingredients
Ingredients:
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tablespoon sugar
- 1.5 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup butter, melted but not scorching hot
- 1.5 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (get the aged, stinky stuff)
- 3 tablespoon chives, chopped
- 1.5 cups shredded zucchini, squeezed of excess water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk and egg. Once mixed, add the butter the the buttermilk mixture. Whisk until fully combined.
- Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture until just combined. Do not over-mix!
- Mix in the shredded cheese, shredded zucchini and chopped chives.
- Spray a 9 x 5 bread loaf tin with non-stick cooking spray and bake for one hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow bread to cool for at least 10 minutes before inverting over a cooling rack to remove from the loaf pan. Allow bread to cool for an additional 5 minutes before serving. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Can I use this recipe to make muffins instead of bread ?
Yes, you can. The bake time will be less, so start checking after 20-25 minutes or so 🙂
It’s official! My family said this is the BEST savory bread I’ve ever made. I used Asiago and Parmesan cheese instead since I was making pasta and it was closet I could get to “stinky” cheese on hand!
Thank you for the BEST comment Toni 🙂
This was great! I used green onions (in place of chives) and added diced jalapeños and garlic.
I made this yesterday, it taste very good but…even though I cooked it more than the time needed, the toothpick test was dry and clean, the bread still collapsed and the bottom half of the bread was dense and more like heavy Thick quiche. The top half was more bread like. If I was to try again, I would possible try in smaller pans with less dough in each.
Came out great and was a big hit!
Hi from Quebec, Canada, I made this today from a zucchini from a friends garden.
It is sooo good! I used gluten free all purpose flour and at the end covered in old cheddar
and chives and broiled for a few minutes. I will make this again! Thanks so much for the
recipes.
Thanks for the kind feedback Jane 🙂
Hi! I can’t seem to find a 9×5 pan, is there another size I can use?
Hi dear ! I made this bread today and it turned out super and finished in 10 minutes . But the bread texture is not like bread but like some mashed potato when I cut
What was the reason ? May be I didn’t squeeze the zucchini
Properly
Great question Aisha. It is hard to say exactly without watching the entire process all the way through. But yes, it sounds like the Zucchini wasn’t squeezed enough as you seem to be thinking the same 🙂
I made this yesterday. It fell in the middle and I squeezed the zucchini thoroughly. I don’t think there is enough flour in the ingredients but that’s just me and I am not a baker. But I can follow any recipe with successful results. It had good flavor though.
Delicious! I was in the mood for caramelized onions so I chopped up a 1/2 large white onion and caramelized the onion bits using the 1/4 cup butter. I then added them with the butter and eliminated the chives. Additionally, I used shredded Parmesan cheese. The result was really tasty! I like how versatile this recipe is!
Such a great bread – thank you!