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Lemon Zucchini Bread is a great way to use up garden zucchini; it’s loaded with tangy lemon flavor, super moist, and a tender crumb cake-like texture. Lemon zucchini loaf is bursting with zucchini, and fresh lemon flavor with freshly squeezed lemon juice and lemon zest inside the fluffy bread and in the tangy lemon glaze. It bakes up perfectly each and every time!
For more family favorite zucchini recipes be sure and also try classic Zucchini Bread with chocolate chips, Zucchini Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting, or Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins.
Lemon Zucchini Bread Recipe (Sweet Lemon Glaze)
This lemony zucchini bread is one of those recipes that I wish everyone would make. I want to make a bunch and send them to you all because it is just so so so yummy!
I love quick breads but they can be tricky. Some don’t bake properly, rise properly, the texture is off, and lots just end up sinking down in the middle after you pull it out of the oven. This one will not do that (promise!). It literally bakes up perfectly each and every time, which is why it’s one of my favorite quick bread recipes to make in my own kitchen.
The fresh lemon flavor is so bright not only in the delicious lemon zucchini bread but also in that simple lemon glaze. The addition of the buttermilk in the recipe makes the bread so soft and gives this quick bread an almost cake-like texture – which is why I can safely call it THE BEST lemon zucchini bread 💛
Ingredients Needed To Make It
Zucchini Lemon Bread Ingredients
- All-Purpose Flour : I prefer using unbleached all-purpose flour, but regular bleached flour works fine too. It’s not recommend using whole wheat flour or white whole wheat flour, as that can make the quick bread fairly dense.
- Baking Powder
- Salt : Table salt or fine sea salt works the best.
- Large Eggs
- Granulated Sugar
- Oil : Vegetable oil or canola oil are the best options.
- Buttermilk : Feel free to use a buttermilk substitute here (milk + white vinegar), I prefer buying buttermilk from the store and using it from a carton as I think it tastes better in recipes compared to using a buttermilk substitute; maybe it’s just my experience so use what you prefer.
- Fresh Lemon Zest
- Fresh Lemon Juice
- Shredded/Grated Zucchini : I like to use a vegetable peeler and peel off most of the green zucchini skin; however, you can leave the skin on if preferred, just make sure you wash the zucchini well before shredding it. Use a box grater to grate the zucchini. If the shredded zucchini seems watery, take paper towels and dab up the excess water before adding it into the batter.
Simple Lemon Glaze Ingredients
- Powdered Sugar
- Fresh Lemon Juice
How To Make Moist Lemon Zucchini Bread (Printable Recipe Card)
Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray four (4) mini loaf pans (6″ x 3 1/2″) well with cooking spray. You can also use one (1) large loaf pan (9″ x 5″) if wanted. I prefer this recipe baked up in the mini loaf pans.
In a small bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt until combined. Set aside.
In a large bowl, or use the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the eggs on medium-high speed for 30 seconds. Add in the sugar and oil, and continue beating on medium speed until well combined, until it’s “fluffy looking” and pale in color; about 1-2 minutes.
Add in the buttermilk, lemon zest, and lemon juice and blend together just until combined.
Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients along with the shredded zucchini. Beat on low speed, or mix in by hand using a mixing spoon or spatula, just until combined and no flour streaks remain in the batter.
Evenly divide the lemon zucchini batter between the mini loaf pans (or just dump it all into the large loaf pan if using).
Cook the mini loaf pans for 30-34 minutes OR the large loaf pan for 45-50 minutes. The bread should look done, and when gently pressed with a finger the bread should spring back, and a toothpick inserted into the middle should come out clean or with moist crumbs (not wet batter!).
Let the bread cool for about 15 minutes inside the warm loaf pan, and then remove the bread from the loaf pan and place the bread loaf on a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Make The Lemon Glaze : Mix together the powdered sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl until well combined and it’s a pourable consistency. Add more lemon juice if it’s too thick, and add more powdered sugar if it’s too thin. Drizzle the lemon glaze over top each cooled lemon zucchini loaf with a fork, or you can transfer the glaze to a Ziploc bag (bottom corner snipped) and glaze it over top.
How To Store Lemon Zucchini Bread
- Room Temperature : Leftover bread can be stored at room temperature, tightly covered in plastic wrap or aluminum foil or inside an airtight container, for up to 3-4 days.
- Refrigerator : For longer storage, up to 1 week, store the bread inside the fridge (wrapped well or covered tight in an airtight container).
- Freezer Storage : Store the baked and cooled bread (unglazed) inside the freezer for up to 2-3 months. Wrap the bread loaf tightly in plastic wrap and then again in aluminum foil to prevent any freezer burn. I like to then place the wrapped loaf inside a freezer-safe container or Ziploc bag for storage in the freezer. Let the bread thaw in the fridge overnight, before adding the glaze before serving.
Tips For Success
- Use Fresh Lemons : Using fresh squeezed lemon juice makes such a difference! You can’t get that bright & fresh lemon flavor from bottled lemon juice. With that said, I have had a few readers tell me that they liked bottled lemon juice in the recipe, so if it’s something you want to try then go for it. The recipe will still work with bottled lemon juice. But for best results and taste please use fresh lemons. You will need about 2 large lemons for this recipe. I love this Citrus Juicer and this Citrus Zester.
- No Substitutes For Buttermilk : Do not substitute the buttermilk with regular milk. If you don’t have buttermilk try using white vinegar + milk to make buttermilk. For 1/2 cup buttermilk you will need 1/2 tablespoon white vinegar + 1/2 cup milk. Let it sit for 5 minutes to sour. I do recommend buying buttermilk and using the “real” stuff from the store; I think it tastes better in this recipe compared to using a buttermilk substiute (milk + vinegar).
- Lemon Glaze : For a less intense lemon flavor use milk, instead of fresh lemon juice, in the glaze recipe. Wait to glaze the bread until the loafs are cooled to room temperature so the glaze will stay on the bread. If the lemon zucchini bread loaf is warm, the glaze will just melt/fall right off the bread – it’s still good this way, but it just won’t look as pretty with the glaze lines.
- Pan Size : I prefer using four mini loaf pans when I make this recipe. You can also use one larger loaf pan if wanted. I think the bread bakes up better inside the seperate loaf pans rather than all the batter inside one loaf pan. Plus, this bread freezes perfectly and it’s a great recipe to give to neighybors, family, or friends for a really yummy afternoon snack.
- Lemon Zest : Only zest the top most outer layer of the lemon. If you zest to far into the lemon skin, the zest becomes super bitter and not pleasent. Only zest the bright yellow lemon skin.
- Do I Need To Peel The Zucchini? : No you do not have to peel the zucchini off for this recipe. However, if you prefer it peeled then go for it. I actually do prefer the zucchini peel off, so I use a vegetable peeler to get off most of the green zucchini skin.
- Excess Moisture? : Some zucchinis definitly have more water and mositure to them once they’re shredded and grated. If the zucchini seems really watery, take some paper towels and dab the excess moisture off the zucchini before adding it into the batter. It does not need to be completely dry, but you also should not be adding tons of extra water/moisture into the batter.
More Recipes For Lemon Lovers
Lemon Zucchini Bread
Ingredients
Lemon Zucchini Bread
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon table salt or fine sea salt
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- zest of 1 lemon
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (about 1 large lemon)
- 1 cup shredded zucchini
Lemon Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- juice of 1 lemon
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 350℉. Spray four (4) mini loaf pans (6"x 3½") well with cooking spray. You can also use one (1) large loaf pan (9"x 5") if wanted.*I prefer this recipe baked up in the mini loaf pans.
Lemon Zucchini Bread
- In a small bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt until combined. Set aside.2 cups all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, ½ teaspoon table salt or fine sea salt
- In a large bowl, or use the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the eggs on medium-high speed for 30 seconds.2 large eggs
- Add in the sugar and oil, and continue beating on medium speed until well combined, and until it's "fluffy looking" and pale in color; about 1-2 minutes.1 cup granulated sugar, 1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
- Add in the buttermilk, lemon zest, and lemon juice and blend together just until combined.1/2 cup buttermilk, zest of 1 lemon, 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients along with the shredded zucchini. Beat on low speed, or mix in by hand using a mixing spoon or spatula, just until combined and no flour streaks remain in the batter.1 cup shredded zucchini
- Evenly divide the lemon zucchini batter between the mini loaf pans (or just dump it all into the large loaf pan if using).
- Cook the mini loaf pans for 30-34 minutes OR the large loaf pan for 45-50 minutes. The bread should look done, and when gently pressed with a finger the bread should spring back, and a toothpick inserted into the middle should come out clean or with moist crumbs (not wet batter!).
- Let the bread cool for about 15 minutes inside the warm loaf pan, and then remove the bread from the loaf pan and place the bread loaf on a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Lemon Glaze
- Mix together the powdered sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl until well combined and it's a pourable consistency. Add more lemon juice if it's too thick, and add more powdered sugar if it's too thin. Drizzle the lemon glaze over top each cooled lemon zucchini loaf with a fork, or you can transfer the glaze to a Ziploc bag (bottom corner snipped) and glaze it over top.1 cup powdered sugar, juice of 1 lemon
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?
I’d love to see it! You can share it with me on @togetherasfamilyblog and follow on Pinterest @together-as-family-blog-recipes or Facebook @togetherasfamilyblog for more!
Wow, Jessica, this bread looks amazing! I can see why it doesn’t last long, and such a pity at that because it looks so pretty! I haven’t done really any cooking with buttermilk, but it sounds like it would be really good. Definitely pinning this to make! Thanks!
Hope you made it back from the airport okay! 🙂
AJ
Thanks Aspen! We survived. Only got lost twice along the way (for real). Thanks so much for pinning and commenting 🙂
Oh yum! These look amazing, can’t wait to try them out. I’m not going to even attempt to give any away. 🙂 Pinning!
I know! Next time I make it, I will just plan on keeping it all to ourselves! I had good intentions with it 😉 Thanks so much for visiting. Hope your weekend is wonderful!
It looks fabulous! thanks for making it a printable
Hi Mary! You’re welcome for the printable. I always like to print out the recipes I find. This bread is by far one of my favorites 🙂 Thanks so much for visiting and commenting. Have a great day.
This looks like a fabulous breakfast treat! Thanks for linking up with What’s Cookin’ Wednesday!
Double yum! This looks so delish. It would go great with coffee at breakfast. Thanks for sharing at Merry Monday.
Thanks Sherry! 🙂
My husband has made this recipe a couple of times now, always intending to share with neighbors, but it never makes it out the front door!! Too luscious and delicious and refreshing! Thanks for the recipe!
Thank you Deonn! Your comment made my day 🙂 I have the same problem when I make this bread too! I always make it intending to share but it never lasts that long. I am so glad you guys enjoy this. Thank you for coming back to comment.
Absolutely delicious! Have to make everything gluten free for my daughter, this recipe is so great you couldn’t even tell. Only thing I did was add lemon zest to the frosting also. I LOVE lemons! 🙂
Thank you! Will definitely make again.
So happy to hear this! I love lemons too so I definitely add a little extra when I make this. Thanks for your comment.
Absolutely the best lemon bread I have ever eaten. I love zucchini which makes this bread ever better. Many people don’t “like” zucchini bread if they know it is in the bread. It is impossible to tell there is zucchini in this recipe!
Thank you so much Linda! It’s very easily one of my favorite things to make. I agree about the zucchini, it hides well in this bread and if you grate it on the really fine side of the grater then it hides even better 🙂 Thanks so much for leaving your comment and review. I appreciate it so much.
Hi! I want to make this recipe: Lemon Zucchini. My question is: should I remove the mini breads from the foil pans to let cool completely and then put them back in the pans? I will be sending these to my sister in Chicago. And I’d like to send them in the tins. If I let them cool completely in the tins (foil), will they overcook?
Thanks so much!
I always let mine cool in the bread pan and I’ve never had a problem with it being overcooked. I think you’ll be just fine leaving it in the foil pan. If you’re worried about overcooking, let them cool in the foil pan for like 15 minutes after baking and then just take them out to let them cool completely on a cooling rack. Then place them back in the foil pan. I don’t think it would matter either way.
Do you squeeze the liquid out of the zucchini before adding? Other zucchini breads that I’ve made in the past required this step, so I wanted to be sure! Thanks!
If the zucchini is giving off a ton of water then go ahead and do that. I’ve never had this issue (i use the fine side of the grater and then just pick up the zucchini from the plate, leaving the liquid on the plate). You don’t want it dripping water as you put it into the bowl but it also done not need to be dry. Hope that helps a little.
Are those nutritional facts per serving or is that for the whole shebang ?
It’s for 1 slice. Each mini loaf makes 4 slices and each slice is fairly large so you could easily get more slices per mini loaf for less calories per slice.
I made muffin with the recipe and was totally delighted with the results. Everyone enjoyed them. I love anything lemon and this delivered.
Thank you so much for letting me know and I am so glad everyone enjoyed this!
I have made this recipe twice now, left the skin on as it is pretty with the pale cake and the flecks of green then the brightness of the lemon, It is such a surprise of a recipe, what a lovely lovely combination. Than you so much for this scrumptious recipe, I will enjoy making this and gifting this over and over again.
I didn’t have a 5×9 pan so I used my 4×8, it took almost 75 minutes before I could insert my tester and have it come out clean.Hop it’s still as good as it looks.
Yea, it does take longer to cook when you use a smaller pan. I hope it still turned out for you. I know this reply is so late, so hopefully you loved it.
I would like to make this, but I would like to substitute the oil for butter. Would that be OK to do?
I think that would be fine. I have only ever made it as written so I can’t say for sure.
The bread came out great! I added a little on sweetened coconut. Delicious.
I love the idea of adding coconut! Thanks for sharing!
My batter was really watery and did not even seem enough to barely come half way up the mini loaf pans. Bread is really flat. Was I supposed to use self rising flour?
My first thought when you say the batter was watery so that the zucchini needed to be dried more before being added to the batter. Next time you make it try wringing out the zucchini in cheesecloth or a thin fabric tea towel to get rid of excess moisture. Hopefully that helps!
Amazing! So moist and loaded the taste of lemon. I will definitely make this Lemon Zucchini bread again! Thank you for sharing!
You’re welcome! I’m so happy that you liked it!
Made this today and it is absolutely delicious! Perfect consistency and bold but not overpowering lemon flavor, and the glaze gives the best little crunch once it starts to dry. I ended up making my own buttermilk with fat free milk and vinegar in the amounts suggested and it was perfect.
10/10 and will be making it again for anyone and everyone I know (if it manages to make it out of my own kitchen!)
Thank you so much for your comment! I love when an ingredient substitute works out!
I exhanged the buttermilk with plain Greek yogurt. All I had. very good. A keeper. Thanks
That’s a great idea. Thank you for sharing!
Was really moist. I used GF flour and avocado oil baked in ninja’s air fryer 300 for 32 min
Love to hear that it turned out good in an air fryer! I have yet to try baking in mine!
very good and moist. I didn’t have buttermilk so I made buttermilk with whole milk and vinegar. I didn’t have enough lemon, so I graded a lime in the lime juice and I added coconut. Still delicious.!!!!
That sounds delicious! I’m so glad you were able to enjoy the recipe even with the substitutions!
Everyone liked this bread.
Wonderful! Thanks for sharing!
I did make this recipe and it is quite good.
I tried several times to open the recipe on my IPad & although I’m able to open many other sites, not yours. Not sure why it won’t open unless it’s because of the size of your blog.
So I had to open the recipe on my phone which isn’t as easily read as it would have been on the IPad.
Just thought you might want to know. Also found another of your recipes and couldn’t get that one to open as well )the cannoli one)
Thank you for letting me know. I pay several hundred dollars per month for my site to be able to load quickly so I hope it’s not my site causing your iPad not to load it. Everything is in good shape on the backend of my site so it may have possibly just been your wifi or internet connection? I am not sure. I hope it works better for you next time.
Making this tomorrow night, using GF 1for1 baking flour, also using unsweetened almond milk and vinegar to make the buttermilk, to make it gluten free and dairy free , for a friend. Hoping it’ll do well!
Please let me know how your substitutions work! Good luck!
Did not have any buttermilk so used plain milk- added some cinnamon. Baked 1 hr- turned out dry. Won’t make again.
Sorry it didn’t work out. Buttermilk is very important for the bread to turn out moist and cake like.
Next time you don’t have buttermilk- 1 cup buttermilk= 1 tbsp vinegar (or lemon juice) + 1 cup milk
There are other substitute options out there but that’s my preferred method.
Can I add nuts to this bread recipe .
I’ve never done it but I can’t think of a reason why it wouldn’t work. Let me know what you try and how it turns out!
I just made this lemon zucchini bread. I love it! Great combination. Moist and delicious. I baked it in a loaf pan for 55 minutes. It’s a keeper.
Wonderful! Thank you for your comment 🤗
Awesome!!! I made the recipe as muffins (made 14 muffins) they baked for 20 min on 350° and they came out perfectly. The texture of the bread is soft and fluffy while still holding shape and not dry at all! I did press the water out of the zucchini using some paper towel. I’ve been making zucchini bread a lot this season and the step that seems to be so important, is mixing the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients just to hydrate the dry ingredients and to not over mix. I encourage others to try this recipe, it’s a great one!
Thank you for your wonderful comment! So helpful to read what works for people. I’m so happy you like the recipe.
I loved it. It turned out so delicious. I’m making it for the second time. My friend that I gave a loaf to she loved it and wanted mirr
Wonderful! Thanks for your sweet comment 😊
This was delicious! It got great reviews from my friends when I took it to a dinner party. Very moist and yummy!
Yay! So glad it was a success! Thank you for your comment.
Very good used stevia instead of sugar needed longer to brown
Thank you!
Oh my goodness this bread looks delicious…im definately going to try this since i have a lot of zucchini..
Thank you! Let me know how you like it!
Absolutely Delicious!
Thank you ❤️
Can this recipe be used for muffins?
Technically it could, I’ve never tried it so I can’t promise the result. The suggestion is to increase the baking temp by 25-50 degrees and reduce the bake time by 50%. But to be safe check the muffins halfway through the bake time. Good luck and let me know how it goes!
I substituted Trader Joe’s gluten-free flour in this recipe and it worked really well! This bread is moist with just the right amount of lemon. I will definitely make this again. It is hard to find a good gluten-free bread recipe.
Thank you for sharing that the gluten free flour worked for you. It’s so nice to hear from people how different substitutions work in recipes.