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
The hints of citrus and juicy zucchini in this bread will just have you holding onto summer for just a little longer.
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 extra-virgin 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 (9 x 5) with baking spray and set aside.
- Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and ginger in a medium bowl.
- Whisk together the eggs, sugar, and olive oil in another medium bowl 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 golden brown bread and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Let bread cool in pan for 10 mins, then turn out and cool completely on a cooling rack.
Recommended Products
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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:
This looks really good!
Never had zucchini bread before, looks really soft and delicious!
Thanks Michal!
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 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
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!
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
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?
This sounds like a delicious combination!
Now that cake looks too good!
This looks fantastic! Have a lovely holiday!
You too!!
I’d love to start my day with this fab bread! Looks delish. 🙂
yes!! The day starts great with some sunshine 🙂
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!!!
Sounds like nice combination of flavors! I would like to try that.. 🙂