Zucchini gingerbread loaf is moist zucchini bread sweet bread with the flavor of your favorite holiday. Make this for dessert or breakfast at Christmas time or year round. Breakfast with hidden vegetables is the best.
If you have never tried zucchini gingerbread loaf, you should! Combining two favorite Fall flavors has never been easier and more delicious. Enjoyed for breakfast or dessert I bet everyone in your family will love this one. You can make them as the best muffin recipe ever too. (affiliate links present)
Gingerbread Loaf
We started this delicious combination with the basic moist zucchini bread, then combined flavors with our Copycat Starbucks Gingerbread Loaf and wow. It was so good with a bit of fruit that I thought maybe with a vegetable from our garden! That always added a lot of moisture and with this it was no exception.
Years ago I made this gingerbread bundt cake and it was wonderful. The nice thing about that is it takes a bit less time to bake because of the hole in the middle. It makes it less thick overall so it cooks a bit quicker. If you want the traditional loaf pan style though this is a great one.
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Gingerbread Zucchini Loaf
I explain this and show more photos of what I mean by this in our pumpkin zucchini muffins. Those are a HUGe hit during the holidays. Comments are always that the batter is thick but people trust the journey and when they are done they RAVE about them.
How do you grate zucchini to make zucchini bread?
You will need to start with grated zucchini, but there is a trick to this. This is VERY important to do. The reason there is a specific way to shred vegetables for baking breads is that you do not want to add additional moisture into your batter.
Put a few paper towels on the bottom of your grater to catch it all and then roll it up a bit. This will allow the moisture on the outside to be absorbed. This is important to create the right texture in the bread. If you skip this step you’ll add more liquid into the batter and it just won’t be right.
Just trust me and do it. It takes like an extra 2 minutes and will make a difference so……. Another thing you can do if you want the veggies to be a bit larger and not break apart is to add them right at the end. It isn’t a must but adds more texture. Just gently fold them in right at the end.
Zucchini Ginger Cake
That depends on whether you make it into a cake, muffins, or cookies. All of them should be on the softer side but cake mix gingerbread cookies would be the most stiff of the 3 of them. This loaf or dump cake should be very tender but with the same flavors as the traditional Christmas cookies you love.
I mean if you buy cookies or want to make a diy gingerbread house from the store then those typically are quite hard. NO good if you ask me but you’d need a lot of preservatives to keep them soft for any length of time. Making it more like a spice cake or gingerbread dump cake is way better.
Like any other type of baking project you’ll mix the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients into another. Then combine the two into a smooth batter. Incorporate or gently fold in your shredded zucchini at the end and you’re ready to pour it into prepared baking pans to cook.
How Long to Bake Zucchini Gingerbread Muffins
If you wanted these as muffins, fill 2/3 of the way full and bake for about 18 minutes until the middle springs back when touched. Mini muffins will take closer to 11 minutes. This gingerbread zucchini loaf will make TWO loaves in 9×5″ pans.
- Spray insides lightly with non stick spray and then sprinkle flour around so it sticks. This will help them slide out easily when done. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a large bowl whisk eggs, oil, brown sugar and vanilla together. In a separate bowl mix together flour and all other dry ingredients.
- Slowly incorporate the flour mixture into the egg mixture until blended together well. Then gently fold in shredded zucchini.
- Pour batter equally into the two prepared loaf pans and bake for 35-40 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out mostly clean with some crumbs sticking (but not still wet).
Place on a cooling wire rack for 15 minutes, then slide bread out and put on cooling rack until completely cooled. Then slice and enjoy with a batch of our cake mix gingerbread cookies.
How do you make gingerbread more moist and fluffy?
Make it into a quick bread!! This is a fun and easy way to use one of your favorite sweet bread recipes and add a bit of gingerbread spice inside to give it a Christmas flavor. You can do this with pumpkin, zucchini or carrot bread for a nice twist on an Old Fashioned favorite treat.
2 reasons why this may have happened. You either didn’t follow the instructions on pressing the excess moisture out of the shredded vegetables before adding into the batter, or it didn’t bake long enough.
1. You need to shred zucchini with the skin in tact over several paper towels. Fold over, press to absorb the extra water. Wait until the end to gently fold into the batter.
2. Bake in the middle of the oven for the designated time following your recipe until a toothpick comes out mostly clean with moist crumbs attached. OR gently touch the center and it should spring back. Then cool on a wire rack when done for best results.
If you have a vegetable garden at home or love visiting your local farmers market this is a great recipe to make for your family. Or make with ripe naners to create banana gingerbread sometime. Serve with a cup of coffee with spice inside for a great beginning to the day.
Want to make a more traditional Christmas dessert? Make air fryer gingerbread cookies with cake mix or homemade chocolate gingerbread cake and enjoy.
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Zucchini Gingerbread
Ingredients
- 3 eggs
- 2 c brown sugar
- 3 c all purpose flour
- 1 c vegetable oil
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp ginger
- 1 tsp cloves
- 2 tsp cardamom
- 2 c zucchini shredded with skin on, on paper towels, patted dry
Instructions
- This will make two 9×5" loaf pans. Spray insides lightly with non stick spray and then sprinkle flour around so it sticks. This will help them slide out easily when done. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a bowl whisk eggs, oil, brown sugar and vanilla together. In a separate bowl mix together flour and all other dry ingredients.
- Slowly incorporate the flour mixture into the egg mixture until blended together well. Then gently fold in shredded zucchini.
- Pour batter equally into the two greased and floured pans and bake for 35-40 minutes or until toothpick comes out mostly clean with some crumbs sticking (but not still wet).
- Place on a cooling rack for 15 minutes, then slide bread out and put on cooling rack until completely cooled. Then slice.
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