Olive Oil Zucchini Bread

By Melissa Clark

Updated Sept. 16, 2025

Olive Oil Zucchini Bread
Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Yossy Arefi.
Total Time
1½ hours
Rating
5(5,937)
Comments
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This moist loaf, made with olive oil and yogurt, is less sweet and more complexly flavored than most zucchini breads. Grated lemon zest gives a gentle brightness, while brown sugar adds a caramel sweetness, and cinnamon makes it spicy and rich. Serve slices plain or buttered, or spread thickly with cream cheese for a more tangy and luscious variation.

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Ingredients

Yield:One 8-inch loaf
  • Butter, for the pan
  • 1½cups/185 grams grated zucchini  
  • ⅔cup/140 grams light brown sugar
  • ⅓cup/80 milliliters olive oil (or other oil such as safflower or canola)
  • ⅓cup/80 milliliters plain Greek yogurt
  • 2large eggs
  • 1teaspoon/5 milliliters vanilla extract
  • 1½cups/190 grams all-purpose flour
  • ½teaspoon/3 grams salt
  • ½teaspoon/3 grams baking soda
  • ½teaspoon/2 grams baking powder
  • 1½teaspoons/4 grams ground cinnamon
  • ¼teaspoon/1 gram ground nutmeg
  • 1teaspoon/2 grams finely grated lemon zest
  • ½cup/55 grams chopped walnuts (optional)
Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8-inch loaf pan.

  2. Step 2

    In a large bowl, use a rubber spatula to mix together the grated zucchini, sugar, olive oil, yogurt, eggs and vanilla extract.

  3. Step 3

    Whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, lemon zest and spices in a separate bowl. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Fold in the walnuts if using.

  4. Step 4

    Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 40 to 55 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking. The bread will be done when a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

  5. Step 5

    Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove the bread from the pan and cool on a rack completely before cutting and serving.

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Ratings

5 out of 5
5,937 user ratings
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Comments

Ju

Hi Melissa,

I am nine years old, I live in Brazil and I love your recipes. I enjoy a lot watching your videos.
My favorite vegetable is zucchini.

Thank you
Ju

RLIZA

I divided the batter in a 12-cup greased muffin pan so it's done faster at 18 minutes. Don't have walnuts, used choco chips instead. Perfection -moist and yummy.

Susan

I reduced the sugar to 1/2 cup, and added 1/2 tsp each ginger and/or cardamom. It added a nice complexity to the flavor.

Dana

This my go-to zucchini bread recipe as it’s easy and forgiving. This time, I added blueberries and rascal hangout instead of other spices … bit of a risk, but turned out great according to my neighbour, who had two slices. (It needed a bit more cooking time due yo berries). You can prob use less sugar to make it more of a quick bread (though I haven’t tried this myself).

Ex College President

This is both confusing and funny: “rotating the pan halfway through baking.” Do I rotate the pan 180 degrees (halfway) periodically throughout the baking, or do I rotate it one time at the halfway mark for some nondescript number of degrees? Spoiler alert: I chose just to bake it without any rotating, and it turned out perfectly.

Cherie Blum

This is a favorite go to recipe. The Lemon Zest is the hero, don't skip it.

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