Browned Butter and Cardamom Zucchini Bread
/Looking for ways to use up your summer zucchini? This quick and easy, ultra-moist zucchini bread recipe is for you! A simple recipe for the best zucchini bread, filled with warming spices, browned butter, and topped with mascarpone whipped cream.
Is there anything that screams late summer more than zucchini bread? If you’re anything like me, by the time school is starting, you are finding yourself with a bounty of zucchini and squash, while simultaneously running out of any new ideas as to what to do with it. (Although, I recently stumbled upon a recipe for zucchini butter from Andrea Bemis’ new cookbook that I am looking forward to trying out).
One of you actually requested a zucchini bread recipe earlier this summer and my wheels have been turning for the last few months. This really beautiful zucchini bread is a compilation of a traditional, no frills style quick bread and a much-more extravagant zucchini cake we made the first week of culinary school. The result is a dense, moist loaf cake, stuffed with shredded summer zucchini, nutty browned butter and warming spices, topped with a light mascarpone whipped cream.
how to make zucchini bread
Zucchini bread, like pumpkin and banana bread, falls into the quick bread category of baked goods. I assume we call them ‘breads’ because they are often baked loaf-style, but really, let’s not kid ourselves, they are cakes. Easy, simple cakes! Quick breads are often known for their density (think of those thick, hefty slices of banana bread in coffee shop displays), which can be attributed to a liquid fat, like oil or melted butter.
Pretty much all quick breads follow the same technique: mix together your wet ingredients, mix together your dry ingredients, add dry to the wet and stir to combine. It’s so simple. No creaming butter or whipping egg whites. You don’t need a mixer or any fancy equipment. Quick breads are low maintenance and high-reward.
For this recipe, we follow that same formula, using browned butter as our liquid fat. The slightly cooled butter is whisked with tahini, eggs, orange zest, sugar, and vanilla before the shredded zucchini gets folded in. Then dry ingredients (flour, leavening agents, and spices) are folded in and the whole thing is baked and it’s a work of art.
Quick tip for you: If you are frosting the bread, wait until it is COMPLETELY cooled. (I tried to rush this little photoshoot and learned my lesson on this one.) If you want to enjoy your zucchini bread slightly warm, skip the whipped cream and just plop a pat of butter or a swoop of mascarpone on a slice. It will be just as perfect and far less melty.
ideas for zucchini bread variation:
You know that I’m all about making your baking your own so here are some ideas for flavor variation that you can play around with!
Lime + Coconut Zucchini Bread: Sub the orange zest for lime zest and use melted coconut oil in place of the browned butter. Fold some shredded coconut into the batter and sprinkle some on top before baking.
Lemon + Ginger Zucchini Bread: Sub the orange zest for lemon zest and add grated fresh ginger to the batter. Replace the browned butter with a good, fruity olive oil.
Chocolate + Peanut Butter Zucchini Bread: Replace the tahini with peanut butter and add chocolate chips!
Browned Butter and Cardamom Zucchini Bread
Ingredients
- 14 oz shredded zucchini (from 2 medium zucchinis)
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup (113 g) unsalted butter, browned and cooled slightly
- 3 tbsp (50 g) smooth tahini
- 1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (106 g) brown sugar
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp grated orange zest
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1 1/2 cup (210 g) all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup (50 g) spelt flour
- 1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
- 3 tbsp granulated sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 1/3 cup heavy cream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° F and line a 9x5” loaf pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Place butter in a small saucepan set over medium heat. Cook, swirling occasionally for 6-7 minutes, until butter is foamy and fragrant and little brown flecks are scattered throughout. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
- Grate zucchini and place in a bowl. Set aside.
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together flour, spelt flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cardamom, and nutmeg.
- In a large bowl, combine sugar, brown sugar, and orange zest. Use your fingers to rub the orange zest into the sugars until fragrant.
- Add the tahini, vanilla extract, and cooled brown butter to the sugars. Whisk until smooth.
- Add the eggs and continue to whisk until the batter is homogenized.
- Add the zucchini to the liquid batter and fold in using a rubber spatula. Add the dry ingredients in two additions, folding gently just until everything is combined and no pockets of flour remain.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 55-60 minutes, until cake is deeply golden and a knife or toothpick inserted in the middle comes out cleanly. Let cool in the pan.
- Place mascarpone cheese and sugar in a medium bowl. Beat with an electric hand mixer or standing mixer for about 2 minutes, until well combined and mascarpone is fluffy.
- Add the heavy cream and continue to whip for 3-4 minutes, until mixture reaches soft peaks. Spoon over cooled zucchini bread.
Notes:
Some recipes call for squeezing the liquid out of the zucchini. For this recipe, we are going to skip that step and use some of that moisture in the bread itself. I do like to let the zucchini sit shredded in a bowl for about 10 minutes, while I prep the rest of the ingredients, and then use a fork to transfer the zucchini to the batter. If there is any residual liquid pooling at the bottom of the bowl after removing the zucchini, trash that and don’t add it to the batter.
The mascarpone whipped cream is a nice complement to the bread if you are serving it right away, but if you are making this to eat on for the week, I'd recommend skipping the whipped cream (it won't hold very well). The bread is still delicious on it's own!
