Orange Zucchini Bread
The hints of citrus and juicy zucchini in this bread will just have you holding onto summer for just a little longer.
Happy Monday friends! Happy Labor Day! I hope you are having a relaxing weekend with your family.
It’s back-to-school season and I got together with some graduate student friends to bring you a themed series on life as a student blogger. This week we are featuring recipes that are low-budget/cost-saving for The Starving Grad/Undergrad Student. This orange zucchini bread definitely fits that bill as it is not only quick to whip up, it uses summer’s juicy vegetable to give you a delicious treat!
But let me back up for a minute. I am sure most of you know, I am a graduate student by day. I am pursuing my PhD in Neuroscience and as fancy as that sounds, it gets exhausting from time to time. I actually started baking (and ultimately blogging) as a way to destress and do something that I love outside of reading science. Little did I know that blogging was a whole other full time job!! But I love it and can’t see myself stopping. Time management skills have yet to be mastered and for now I run on sleep deprivation. I am working on it!
When things get challenging and I need more hours in the day, I rely on quick snacks and breakfasts to make it through the day. Most times, I crave healthy hearty snacks that will boost my energy but being a baker, I love making quick sweets for snack time. This orange zucchini bread was my lifeline this August as I made it twice!! Thanks to my father-in-law’s garden that was supplying us with endless zucchinis, I was enjoying this summer harvest vegetable.
I love sweet bread recipes because they are always so simple to make (perfect for my crazy life) and are ALWAYS moist. This orange combination today was inspired by Allie, over at Baking a Moment. She made a gorgeous zucchini cake a few weeks ago that just sounded perfect. I knew I had to try that combo. And I am so glad I did because this orange zucchini bread was just as delicious as I thought. The hints of citrus and juicy zucchini in this bread will just have you holding on to summer for just a little longer 🙂
Orange Zucchini Bread
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- 3 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1¾ cup sugar
- 1 cup olive oil
- 2 teaspoon orange vanilla extract (or vanilla extract)
- Zest of one orange
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed orange juice
- 2½ cups finely grated zucchini
- ½ cup pecans, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a large loaf pan with baking spray and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and ginger.
- In another medium bowl, beat the eggs, sugar and olive oil together until combined. Add in the vanilla extract, zest and orange juice. Beat until well combined. Add the flour mixture in one addition and stir until combined. Stir in the zucchini and pecans.
- Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 50-55 minutes until bread is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Let bread cool in pan for 10 mins then turn out and let cool completely on a cooling rack.
I am not the only graduate student in this blogging-sphere. Below are some super cool ladies who are also juggling the busy life of school and blogging. Head on over and check out how they keep it all together.
Show our #gradstudentbloggers and #undergradstudentbloggers your support! Check out the whole list of featured Starving Student recipes now:
Brussel Sprouts and Sausage Pizza via Bacon Egg Cheese(cake)
Strawberry Greens Salad via Go Bake Yourself
Chicken and Jalapeno Quesadillas via PicNic
Chocolate Sea Salt Date “Caramel” Bars (GF, V, Raw) via Wallflour Girl
Homemade Spaghetti with Garlic, Chili, and Herbs via Daisy and the Fox
Orange Zucchini Bread via Blahnik Baker
As a fun bonus to this roundup, we asked today’s student bloggers some fun, wacky questions about their (im)balanced school/blogger lives: read their answers now on our hostess’s blog, Wallflour Girl!
Want to join, or know a university food blogger who would? We would love to have you: email Ala at wallflourgirl@gmail.com to sign up!
The #gradstudentblogger and #undergradstudentblogger series showcases the lives and talent of insanely busy food bloggers from across all stages of their higher education pathway. Thank you for joining us, and we hope to see you again in two weeks!
Other Quick Breads you WILL LOVE:
MAKING THIS RECIPE? Share it with us on Instagram using #aclassictwist so we can see what you are baking up in your kitchen!
Sounds like nice combination of flavors! I would like to try that.. 🙂
I am always starving at uni, but I would be more than happy to enjoy your gorgeous bread so I wouldn’t be 😀
Yay for under/grad student blogging, your site is beautiful!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
So great to meet you Uru!!!
I’d love to start my day with this fab bread! Looks delish. 🙂
yes!! The day starts great with some sunshine 🙂
This looks fantastic! Have a lovely holiday!
You too!!
Now that cake looks too good!
This sounds like a delicious combination!
I’ve wanted to try bread like this. Can ya taste the zucchini?
Yes you can!! If you do not like zucchini, then maybe reduce the amount in the recipe?
I hear you on time management skills have yet to be mastered and sleep deprivation!! Zainab, love love love this bread .. so elegant and beautiful and love the flavor combo!!! Pinned! and will check out the other recipes!
Thanks Alice! maybe one day I will master this whole thing called time management lol
Love this series. I have a PhD in Biochemistry (5 years) and then did a postdoctoral fellowship in Cancer Biology (another 4 years). So I lived the life of a stressed out and underpaid student for a LOOOOONG time! This bread looks delicious!
I had no idea Liz! I know I will be reaching out to you soon for some advice lol!
This is such an awesome series and I’m glad you’re a part of it, Zainab! Girl, this loaf is the real deal. I’ve been printing out zucchini recipes like crazy lately and this one is going on the top of the pile. I love that you used citrus. Your photos are gorgeous and I can tell just by looking how moist ‘n perfectly crumbed your loaf is. As for time management…by the end of law school, I just stopped doing whatever was a low priority time-suck and focused on the important stuff, like planning our graduation dinner ‘n dance 😉
Hahhah now, that is the kind of time management I need! So far, sleep is all that is suffering as I refuse to stop baking, or taking pictures or seeing my nieces or girlfriends lol
What a great series Zainab! You work so hard and are doing an amazing job with balancing school, life and blogging – so so proud of you girl 🙂 Love coming here to drool at your gorgeous recipes like this one! Such a pretty loaf and I love the addition of orange – sounds amazing!
Awww thanks Kelly! I get burned out sometimes but thank God for my many blessings every day!!
This looks really good!
Never had zucchini bread before, looks really soft and delicious!
Thanks Michal!
You are amazing with all that you do. This bread looks super amazing. I haven’t ever tried a tang of orange in my zucchini bread. It sounds pretty darn yummy!
You will love orange with your zucchini bread!!
Divine! I never would have thought to add orange to zucchini. Sounds fabulous!
Hope you had a great weekend!
Thanks Melanie! Orange was a great addition!!
Hi! Another neuroscience PhD student here (Nicole from PicNic!). This bread sounds fantastic! I love the flavor combinations that you have incorporated 🙂
So glad to meet you Nicole!! We ought to catch up soon and share our experiences. I presume culturing neurons is the same is different continents 🙂
This bread looks incredible, and I love the addition of the orange. I use orange anywhere I can! Pinning. 🙂
Thanks Marcie!!
I’ll be following along on this series too, because even though I have been out of college a very long time I am trying to cook more on a budget these days with looming college expenses…I’m a year away from sending my oldest son! Your bread looks delicious…pinning!
This orange zucchini combination sounds amazing and has been calling my name to try it! Judging from your blog, I would say your time management skills are pretty awesome! I love your creations!
What a great flavor combo (and blogging series), Zainab! This bread looks delicious!
Orange and zucchini is such a fresh combination. I love sweet bread for breakfast and afternoon snack 🙂
I can’t tell you how happy this new blog segment makes me!!!!!!! 😀 I’m pursuing a post graduation diploma in marketing and it drains even the slightest vestige of energy from me at the end of the day and I still have to stay awake like an owl to get the blog functioning without any issues! But I love every minute of it and this recipe is just perfect when I need something real quick and can’t have a proper sit down meal. If a simple course as marketing wears me down I can totally imagine how much MORE difficult it must be for you when it comes to managing everything and can I say, you do so BRILLIANTLY!!!!!! :* :* This zucchini bread with the lovely citrus-y orange is the perfect example of that!
I love sweet breads so much–you’re right, they are totally easy to whip up (yay for no free time) and soooo budget-friendly (yay for being poor!). But seriously, I love all your recipes and zucchini breads are the best, so if you’ve made it twice already then I absolutely must give it a shot. SO glad to have you on board with this series, it’s going to be a blast and I can’t wait to hear more about your grad life! I’m loving it already!
Ooh, Zainab – this is my kind of sweet bread! Totally bookmarking and pinning this now to bake this week. Will check back in to let you know how it went! :))
I hope you try it!!
Sounds fab and I’m always amazed at how you have the time to be a student and to run a blog.
what a fun series! as a recent grad school graduate myself, i hear ya on all that! love the sound of orange in zucchini bread. i made a lemon zucchini bread last year that was amazing.
Thanks Sarah!
I am had a relaxing weekend too. I needed it. But we all do time to time. I love the orange mixed in with zucchini moistness. Awesome.
I remember how hard it could be at times to be an undergrad student and a blogger, and I have often wondered how you do it as a grad student!! Props to you for keeping it up. 🙂 This bread looks so great! I love the zucchini and orange flavor combinations. It looks like the perfect texture on the inside too! Yum!
It happens lol! Thanks Beth!
PhD + blogging is definitely like 2 jobs! this zucchini bread looks so moist and delicious 🙂
Agreed!! I feels that way most days 🙂
sounds delicious, I love zucchini bread!
Wooo moistness!! (only my favourite word 😛 )
gotta love a good sweet bread! and you’ve smashed it out of the water 🙂
we always have some zucchinis lying around in the fridge, so i reckon it’s time i put them to go use in the form of your bread!
and wowzaz! Neuroscience! you must be smart. super duper smart! 😀
so glad i got to meet you and the blog by doing this fun as series together! 🙂
Bec {Daisy and the Fox}
So so glad to meet you! And thanks 🙂
Ohhh, I love the addition of the orange. Though because I make everything worse for you I would totally throw orange glaze on it as well. 🙂
So so true!!! 🙂 Thank you very much Peabody!
Wow I missed this student blogger series by two months haha. I know how challenging it can be and congrats on always keeping up with the craziness! This bread looks so delicious!
I know!! Ala asked about you and I told her you graduated lol!
I don’t know how you do it! I hope you had a good Labor Day break – goodness knows you deserve it! Haha, only twice? 😉 When I get hooked on a quick bread, it doesn’t last a week 🙂 if that! Orange is an underappreciated flavor and it sounds incredible in this zucchini loaf. A zucchini bread flavor I’ve never tried! Pinning, and hopefully making asap!
Thank you Mary Frances! And I agree, orange is really under appreciated!
Now I know just why that dark green zucchini was calling it’s way ‘home’ from the Farmers’ Market!! Soup? Chips with panko and parm? baked with fresh tomatoes? oh, no…..it was your great bread recipe!! All here but the orange…. Will take this beauty to Kick-off the Gourmet Season RIGHT gathering….rave reviews coming from that gang, I’m sure!! You are awesome…..and in overdrive 24/7….SLEEP keeps beauty, brains, and YOU here for your GIANT FUTURE! Thanks again!!
I love this zesty twist on zucchini bread – one of my favorites. And I love this student community. I started my blog with just over a year left in my PhD program. When I decided a few months later that History Professor wasn’t my calling, I decided to finish up the program and focus on my blog. It’s been a year since graduating and I’m so happy I made that decision (though it isn’t for everyone). I wish I could have been a part of a community like this!
Luci
Luci’s Morsels – fashion. food. frivolity.
Thanks Luci! It’s so great to meet you! Love your site and I need to talk to you about your lovely looks 🙂 I do agree it is hard to do both blogging and the PhD. I am currently trying to finish in the next year and will decide what to do!