The Great Zucchini Bread Experiment

I recently had the opportunity to eat everything out of my big freezer (not all by myself) in a very short amount of time. Isn't that fun? I had a lot of frozen zucchini from my neighbors sharing their wealth this summer, and in the name of science, I have decided to conduct an experiment on which zucchini bread is the best. At least of the four recipes I tried. Anyone who came near got a chance to chow down and give me their biased opinion and from all those opinions, I have formulated a winner. Sort of.

So here are the different recipes I used. I'll try to keep them as concise as possible. And just FYI, they all call for chopped nuts, which I'm not even taking the time to type in because I didn't add them to any of the recipes. But if you like that sort of thing, go ahead and add those back in. (If you want to skip ahead to the winner and avoid all the recipes, go straight to the bottom)

Paula Dean's Zucchini Bread

3 1/4 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. nutmeg (I used 1/2 tsp nutmeg and 1/2 tsp cloves)
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
3 c. sugar
1 c. vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
1/3 c. water
2 c. grated zucchini
1 tsp. lemon juice


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl mix together the flour, salt, nutmeg, baking soda, cinnamon and sugar. In a separate bowl combine the oil, eggs, water, zucchini and lemon juice. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry. Spray your loaf pans with cooking spray, pour the batter in, and bake for 1 hour or until a tester comes out clean.

Allrecipes Popular Recipe-Mom's Recipe
3 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
3 tsp. cinnamon
3 eggs
1 c. vegetable oil
2 1/4 c. sugar
3 tsp. vanilla
2 c. grated zucchini


Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Sift the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon together in a bowl. In a separate bowl combine the eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla and beat well. Add the sifted ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix it well. Stir in the zucchini until it is well combined. Grease and flour two loaf pans and pour the batter into the pans. Bake for 40-60 minutes (it's going to be 60), or until a tester comes out clean.

The Real Mom's Zucchini Recipeby: Lynne'

2 c. zucchini
1 c. oil
3 eggs
1 Tbsp. vanilla
1 tsp. salt
2 c. sugar
3 c. flour
1 Tbsp. cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
Blend together the zucchini, oil, eggs and vanilla. In a separate bowl combine the salt, sugar, flour, cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice (I used cinnamon but I actually think the pumpkin pie spice would have been awesome in this), soda and baking powder. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet until well blended. Pour into two loaf pans and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until tester comes out clean.

Healthy Zucchini Breadby: http://www.food.com/
1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
3/4 c. sugar
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 eggs
2 1/4 c. zucchini
1/4 c. oil
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. In another bowl combine the eggs, zucchini, oil and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir well. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan and bake for 40-45 minutes or until the tester comes out clean.

The Results:Now folks, you may think that these are all so similar (minus the healthy one, of course) and yes, they are. And they all tasted great (minus the healthy one of course) (just kidding, kind of). They were all moist. In retrospect, I should have found recipes that were completely different from each other, but come on, it is zucchini bread! There just isn't a lot of variation (minus the healthy one, of course). However, even though there were only slight differences, I believe those differences did make a difference :) And this is what we decided. More cinnamon and spice=better flavor. More eggs means=denser bread. More sticky, crusty crust=more yumminess. Healthy ingredients=not as tasty bread. In the end, according to my professional opinion, the winner was a combination of Paula Dean's recipe and the Allrecipe version. The Allrecipe one had the best fluffiness, overall flavor and a great sticky crust (although my Mom's had the very best crust). There was a lot of cinamon in the Allrecipe version and the one thing that could have made it better was the nutmeg and cloves that were in the Paula Dean bread. Those two spices gave it a little kick of flavor that was delicious and different from all the other recipes. So here is my winning version of Zucchini Bread:

The Zucchini Bread Winner
adapted by: Carolyn

3 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
3 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. cloves
3 eggs
1 c. vegetable oil
2 c. sugar
3 tsp. vanilla
2 c. zucchini

Mix the dry ingredients. Mix the wet ingredients. Combine the two. Bake in two greased loaf pans at 325 for 60 minutes or until tester comes out clean.