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This Italian Zucchini Bread is dense, sweet and full of fantastic cinnamon flavor!
Hey there…Do you mind if we share ANOTHER zucchini recipe with you this week? (I promise, it won’t be all zucchini, all the time moving forward – and this is a really good one!)
If you are like us, you’ve got a ton of zucchini growing in the garden so you might be looking for yet another way to use some of them up?
This Italian Zucchini Bread recipe is a very delicious and different version of zucchini bread than anything we’ve seen before. The story goes that that this Italian zucchini bread recipe is from a fellow named Vincenzo who was an employer in Boston’s famous North End – the Italian section of the city that is known for their amazing Italian restaurants and bakeries. This zucchini bread was apparently so popular that it became the go-to recipe for most of the families in the North End.
This Italian zucchini bread is very rich and moist with a delicious and distinctive cinnamon flavor – plus chopped walnuts. This zucchini bread is sweet and hearty – and many of Vincenzo’s original customers have said it is like eating an entire meal. (We loved it smeared with a generous amount of cream cheese, but it’s also delicious with butter or on it’s own.)
We adapted this recipe from the The North End Italian Cookbook
(it’s a fantastic cookbook to have in your own recipe collection if you’re a fan of authentic Italian foods) where the author, Marguerite DiMino Buonopane, shares the story about Vincenzo and his famous Italian zucchini bread recipe.
You may like these other Zucchini recipes:
- Zucchini Brownies
- Prosciutto Wrapped Zucchini Over Melon Pasta
- Zucchini Butter
- Apple Zucchini Corn Bread
- Mock Apple Crumb Pie (Made with Zucchini)
We love seeing what you made! Tag us on Instagram at @afamilyfeast or hashtag #afamilyfeast so we can see your creations!
Italian Zucchini Bread
This Italian Zucchini Bread is dense, sweet and full of fantastic cinnamon flavor!
Ingredients
- 3 whole eggs
- 2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
- 2 cups shredded skin-on zucchini
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup oil (see note)
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 4 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
- Solid vegetable shortening to grease loaf pans
- Flour to coat loaf pans
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- Mix first five ingredients in a large bowl.
- Mix all of the dry except walnuts in a separate smaller bowl.
- Add the dry ingredients to the bowl with the wet ingredients and stir just to combine.
- Stir in walnuts.
- Using shortening, grease the inside of two 9×5-inch loaf pans. Then add flour and tip the loaf pans on all sides so flour adheres to shortening.
- Divide the batter between the two loaf pans and bake for one hour.
- Poke a toothpick into the center of each bread to test for doneness – and it doesn’t come out clean, cook for a five or ten more minutes.
- Cool in pan for five minutes then remove from pans to wire rack and cool to room temperature.
- Cut each loaf pan into eight slices and serve.
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Notes
We used a mix of half extra virgin olive oil and half canola oil in our recipe, but all canola oil can also be used.
I almost forgot the oil because you never mention it in the recipe.
Hi Thomas – Instruction #2 in the recipe says to “Mix first five ingredients in a large bowl.” – the 5th ingredient is the oil.
Having noted that, I can see that this might not be the clearest way to write the recipe…we will fix it! Thank you.
Is there a way to make bread healthier like can I replace oil with applesauce? Could I use almond flour instead of all purpose flour?
Hi Shelley – Without kitchen testing an entirely different recipe, I can’t give you any guidance on making those changes to our recipe. Sorry I can’t be more help.
when it changes from 1 X to 2X, the quantities change in the ingredients but not the directions
Sorry Tony – I know. Unfortunately our recipe card plugin can only change numerical quantities in the ingredients list, not the directions. (We’ve passed along feedback to the developers about this.)
This looks amazing. Two questions: do you squeeze the water the water out of the zucchini first, and my husband and daughter have nut allergies, will leaving them out affect the recipes at all? Thanks!
Thanks Dawn – No – we didn’t squeeze that water out first. Also – no problem at all if you decide to leave out the walnuts. Hope you enjoy the recipe!
I dont mind zucchini recipes 🙂 I still haven’t baked anything with them, so I might get tempted 😀
Oh good – I’m glad you’re still happy to see our zucchini recipes! 🙂
My wife has to make zucchini bread for Church this Sunday and was going to start looking for recipe’s. I really like the addition of cinnamon and walnuts. People are going to love this! My wife does not have to look any further. Thanks.
Thank you Tom! We hope you (and your church group) enjoy the recipe!