One Bowl Cheesy Zucchini Bread

Three slices of zucchini bread on a wooden board.

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One Bowl Cheesy Zucchini Bread

This wonderful cheesy zucchini bread is THE recipe for any zucchini you have hanging around. Part quiche, part frittata, it's gorgeously soft, moist, and couldn't be easier to make. There's no need to drain the zucchini - you just mix everything in one bowl, transfer to a loaf pan, and bake. Packed with cheese, scallions, and bacon, it's a wonderful prep-ahead breakfast, weekend brunch, snack, or light lunch.

I'm using a regular 9 x 5 inch loaf pan here.

Prep Time10

Cook Time50

Total Time1

Course: baking

Cuisine: American

Keyword: courgette bread, zucchini bread, zucchini loaf

Servings: servings

Calories: 187kcal

Author: Kate Phillips

Ingredients

4 eggs
¼ cup olive oil
1 cup all-purpose flour (plain flour)
2 teaspoons baking powder
400 g zucchini roughly 2 medium zucchini, or 2 ½ cups of grated zucchini
3 scallions (spring onions), finely sliced
3 slices bacon
½ cup sharp cheddar cheese grated (plus extra for topping)
½ cup feta crumbled
1 tablespoon fish sauce
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons chili flakes
Black pepper
1 tablespoon everything bagel seasoning or sesame seeds optional
Zest of 1 lemon optional

Instructions

Prepare your loaf pan.
Line your loaf pan with parchment paper, leaving a little overhang to make lifting the bread out easier, and heat your oven to 400°F (200°C fan).
Cook the bacon (optional).
You can add the bacon into the mixture without cooking it first (it will cook in the oven), but cooking it first gives you lovely crispy pieces and a little extra flavor. It's up to you.
If you're cooking the bacon, add it to a pan over medium-high heat and cook for about five minutes, flipping a few times as you do, until the bacon is super crispy. Remove from the pan and chop into small pieces.
Grate the zucchini.
Coarsely grate the zucchini using the large holes of a box grater. You don't need to peel, salt, squeeze, or drain it.
Add your ingredients to your mixing bowl.
Crack your eggs into a large mixing bowl and whisk them. Add ¼ cup olive oil, 1 cup of flour, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1 tablespoon fish sauce, the grated zucchini, chopped scallions, chilli flakes, chopped bacon, grated cheddar, crumbled feta, ½ teaspoon of salt, a good grind of black pepper, and the lemon zest if you're using it.
Mix the zucchini bread.
Mix until no streaks of flour remain. The mixture will be reasonably wet - that's what you want. Pour it into the prepared lined loaf tin and spread it out evenly. Scatter over the extra cheese and everything bagel seasoning if you're using it.
Bake the zucchini bread.
Transfer the tin to the oven and bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until the top is deeply golden brown, and you can cleanly insert a skewer or knife into the middle (there shouldn't be any sticky, uncooked batter on it).
If there is sticky residue on the skewer, keep the bread in the oven for another 10 minutes and check again.
Cool and serve.
Remove from the oven and let cool in the tin for 15 minutes, then carefully remove the parchment paper and transfer the bread to a wire rack to cool for at least another 15 minutes before slicing it.
Serve as it is, or with softened butter if you like.

Make sure you let the bread cool. It will be quite delicate and moist when you first take it out of the oven and needs time to set properly before slicing. You'll have a better end result if you're patient with it.

Notes

TEXTURE: This is naturally a soft, super moist, and delicate loaf, more like a cross between a crustless quiche, frittata, and savory muffin than a traditional quick bread. That's why it's important to let it rest and cool before slicing it - it continues to set after you remove it from the oven.

INGREDIENT NOTES: Skip the bacon to make the bread vegetarian, or you could use chorizo. Play around with the cheese too - Gruyere, blue cheese or Emmental would be lovely swaps.

STORAGE INSTRUCTIONS: The bread will keep for roughly 4 days, stored in the fridge. Let it cool completely before transferring to an airtight container to store. It freezes very well too. I like to slice it, place parchment paper between the slices to prevent sticking, then store in ziplock bags to freeze.

WANT MINI MUFFIN VERSIONS? I used this mixture to make mini zucchini bites for a party recently - this one batch was enough to make 48 mini bites. They went down very well, and I'll definitely be trying it again! They only need 20 minutes in the oven.

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