Zucchini cream cheese bread

This recipe comes from my Grandma Donna’s collection. When we went through her cookbook collection several years ago to put together a family cookbook, I wanted to include a zucchini bread recipe because I remember her baking it at least a few times when I was growing up. I believe this recipe came from a church cookbook that she owned.

I adjusted that zucchini bread recipe slightly here. I used less oil, salt, nutmeg and walnuts and just increased the vanilla extract.

Although zucchini can be found in grocery stores pretty much year-round these days, it is grown locally in season from about May to September in the United States. It’s a fairly versatile summer vegetable. There’s a lot you can do with it. But for my somewhat picky family, I thought I would try adding it to quick bread to get a bit more vegetables in our diet.

This isn’t the healthiest muffin recipe, I have served to my toddler, as it has a fair amount of sugar, and tastes like cake. If you’re looking for more muffin recipes, try my carrot apple muffins or sweet potato muffins.

This zucchini quick bread is soft and sweet from the cream cheese, and it has a great balance of flavor from the walnuts, cinnamon and nutmeg. It tastes like cake really, just in a different shaped pan.

Zucchini cream cheese bread

3 eggs
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
2 cups shredded zucchini, squeezed dry

Heat oven to 350°. Grease and flour two 9 x 5-inch loaf pans or seven 5 3/4 x 3 x 2-inch foil loaf pans.

In a large bowl, beat eggs, sugar, oil and vanilla until smooth, about 3 minutes. Beat in the cream cheese.

In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg. On low speed, gradually beat into the egg mixture.

Fold in walnuts and zucchini. Evenly divide batter between the two prepared pans or the seven smaller pans. Bake at 350° for 60 minutes (for the large size) or 35 minutes (for the small loaves) or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Or, you can divide the batter between two muffin pans and bake at a slightly higher temperature for faster results. Bake the two muffin pans at 375 for 23 to 25 minutes.

Here’s what I actually did: I divided the batter evenly between one muffin pan and one loaf pan. You can see this in the pictures. I baked them simultaneously at 375. The muffins were done after 25 minutes and the loaf pan was done after 40 minutes.

Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes on a wire rack. Turn out of pans and allow to cool completely.

Note: Grate the zucchini, then measure it. After measuring, squeeze as much liquid as you can out of it. You don’t want the zucchini liquid in the batter.