This award-winning zucchini bread has plenty of brown sugar streusel, melty chocolate chips, and warm flavors like cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla. It’s simple to make, extra moist, and full of flavor. I always make two loaves because one 8×4-inch loaf disappears quickly!
This award-winning zucchini bread recipe is a family favorite. (You can also find it here: zucchini bread recipe, only without the streusel!)
When my husband was young, he entered this zucchini bread recipe into the Maryland State Fair. It won 1st place! If you make one zucchini bread recipe in your life, this has got to be it. It’s beyond simple, makes great leftovers, freezes well, and can easily be doubled or tripled to make multiple loaves. (Simply double or triple each ingredient.) Use your bounty of zucchini this summer! Try this recipe as muffins, too. For even more zucchini baking inspiration, you can browse my 20+ favorite zucchini recipes.
Not to fret, you can’t taste vegetables. Rather, you taste rich, vanilla, buttery, cinnamon, chocolate chip brown sugar bread. The bread is soft, the oat streusel is aplenty, and the chocolate chips are melty. It’s a classic recipe made even better.
Try a slice warm from the oven, cold from the refrigerator, with a smear of peanut butter or Nutella, slathered with melted butter, or even without the chocolate chips. Any way you try this award-winning recipe, I know you’ll be impressed.
Award-Winning Zucchini Bread with Brown Sugar Streusel
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 55 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours (includes cooling)
- Yield: 1 loaf or 12 muffins
- Category: Bread
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
This award-winning zucchini bread has plenty of brown sugar streusel, melty chocolate chips, and warm flavors like cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla. It’s simple to make, extra moist, and full of flavor!
Ingredients
Brown Sugar Oat Streusel
- 2/3 cup (57g) old-fashioned whole rolled oats or quick oats
- 1/2 cup (100g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 2 Tablespoons (15g) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 cup (4 Tbsp; 56g) unsalted butter, cold
- optional: 1 Tablespoon (10g) semi-sweet chocolate chips
Zucchini Bread & Muffins
- 1 and 1/2 cups (188g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- optional: 1 cup (180g) semi-sweet chocolate chips (or chopped nuts, raisins, etc)
- 1/2 cup (120ml) vegetable oil (or melted coconut oil)
- 1/2 cup (100g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup (130g) shredded zucchini (lightly blotted)*
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Grease an 8×4-inch loaf pan. See notes for muffins.
- Make the streusel: Combine the oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, and flour together in a medium bowl. Cut in the cold butter with two forks or a pastry cutter (preferred). Mix until the streusel resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the chocolate chips. Set aside.
- Make the bread batter: Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and chocolate chips (or nuts) together in a large bowl until thoroughly combined. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk the oil, brown sugar, granulated sugar, egg, vanilla, and zucchini together until combined. Pour into the dry ingredients. Gently whisk until *just* combined; do not overmix. Batter will be semi-thick.
- Spread the batter into prepared loaf pan. Bake the bread for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle streusel on top. Using the back of a spoon, gently press the streusel down into the top of the loaf. The reason you are adding it after 20 minutes is to prevent it from sinking to the bottom of the bread as it bakes. Return bread to the oven and bake for an additional 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. If you notice the loaf is browning on top or on the edges too quickly, loosely tent the loaf with aluminum foil. Baking times vary so keep an eye on yours.
- Remove the bread from the oven and set on a wire rack. Allow to cool completely before slicing.
- Cover and store leftover bread at room temperature for up to 3-4 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: Make the bread ahead of time by freezing it. Bake it, cool it, wrap it up in aluminum foil and freeze the loaf as a whole. Allow to thaw overnight in the refrigerator and bring to room temperature before slicing and serving. Freezes well up to 3 months.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 8×4-inch Loaf Pan | Glass Mixing Bowls | Pastry Cutter | Whisk | Cooling Rack | Box Grater (for zucchini)
- Chocolate Chips: Chocolate chips are optional both in the streusel and in the bread. Feel free to leave out or replace with chopped pecans or walnuts or even raisins.
- Blot Zucchini: Very lightly blot the zucchini. Do not squeeze moisture out, just give it a light blot to rid some, especially if your zucchini is extra wet.
- Muffins: Grease a 12-count muffin pan or line with liners. Prepare streusel (step 2) and batter (step 3). Spoon the batter evenly into each liner, filling 3/4 full. Spoon a heaping spoonful of streusel on top of each and, using the back of a spoon, gently press down into the tops so the streusel can stick. Bake the muffins for 5 minutes at 425°F (218°C) then, keeping the muffins in the oven, reduce the oven temperature to 350°F (177°C). Bake for an additional 13-16 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The total time these muffins take in the oven is about 18-21 minutes, give or take. Allow the muffins to cool for 5 minutes in the muffin pan, then transfer to a wire rack to continue cooling.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Hi Sally
I just made a double batch into muffins for my daughter to take to work this evening. I used a combo of walnuts & choc chips in both the streusel & muffin batter. I just had to taste test one & oh my goodness!! Super yum!! Just perfect. I’m so glad I doubled it. There may have been a riot with just a single batch to share
I was looking for a simple but yummy zucchini recipe, and I came across this one. It was a hit in our house, the topping adds a nice touch. I made a second batch and since I had pears also, I added grated pears and oats in the mix, as opposed to the top, it came out great too! Thanks for sharing:)
I’m going to use flax eggs with this as we have an egg allergy. It works in my other muffins and breads so I will let you know.
I just pulled mine out of the oven using flaxseed egg. And it is perfect. I used a bundt pan and doubled it but I’m sure it would work in a loaf pan also. 1 tbsp ground flax and 3 tbsp water = 1 egg.
Made these muffins tonight! simply amazing!lol First taking them out of oven they were good size,topping all browned up nice.every bite you could taste a light crunch of topping ,inside was very moist and light.best muffins I have had in along time.have a ton of zucchini from garden im gonna freeze to make these again when the weather cools down.thank you for this great recipe.
Just made this recipe with the abundance of Zucchini I had from my garden this season. I made the muffins for my family and I and it was The best we’ve ever had! The struesel definitely makes a huge difference. So delicious!
This is my all time favorite recipe!! I substituted some of the flour with almond meal and coconut flour and cut back the choc chips and didn’t add the topping to try to make them a little healthier. I have made these like 4 times in the past few months. Thank you!!
As always, your recipe is fabulous. To be honest, for some reason I always mess up with streusel toppings – not sure if I cut the butter too much or too little, but I always melt the butter instead. Not sure how the topping is supposed to come out, but with the butter melted it came out so good! Nice and crunchy and a big hit — and the bread is fantastic. Love, love it! I can see why it’s award winning.
The best and the most moist bread I ever made! I didn’t have chocolate chips so I substituted it with raisins, liked it a lot. I’m going to make one this week with dried cranberries.
Thank you Sally!!!
Thanks for the recipe! I’m gluten intolerant so I subsituted the flour with a prepackaged gluten-free flour mix (using corresponding weight measurements) and they turned out great. I was told by those who can eat flour that it was some of the best zuchinni bread they ever had.
YUM! I went with muffins because I’m also making your banana bread with cream cheese icing tonight. I used mini chocolate chips which I prefer in muffins. That streusel is amazing. So dang good!
Just made this bread and did it without any chocolate chips or the strudel topping and I think it holds up as yummy zucchini bread just on its own. My comment about sweetness — I reduced the sugar to 3/4 c and thought it was still plenty sweet (and that’s without the strudel and chips mind you). So if you happen to like your bread on the not so sweet side like me… I’d say you can safely reduce the sugar by at least 1/4 cup… next time I will probably make it with just 1/2 c sugar. Thanks for the great recipe!
I would love to make this in a bundt pan! Do you think it will hold up or are there changes to the recipe that should be made?
Absolutely! The recipe would have to be doubled for a Bundt pan.
Wow these are awesome!I made these into muffins and tripled the recipe, they turned out great! I substituted half the oil for apple sauce as suggested and were delicious! My family can’t stop eating them! The topping is like eating the top of an apple crisp! Thank you for posting this recipe Sally!
I didn’t have all the ingredients to make this exactly, so I made some substitutions this time: I used 1/4c melted coconut oil and 1/4c shredded apple for the 1/2c vegetable oil (in the bread). I also used 1/4c honey instead of 1/2c brown sugar (in the streusel). My boyfriend liked it better this way, but I like it better using the original recipe because it’s more firm.
Made this last night and had them for breakfast this morning, they were outstanding! Very moist and full of flavor. I used about a 1/3 of the flour whole wheat and the 1/2 applesauce and 1/2 oil combination. These were wonderful. Thanks Sally 🙂
This bread was DELICIOUS! I used mini chocolate chips in the strudel which just made my muffins that much cuter. My neighbor came over and ate one (she HATES vegetables) she had no idea until I told her after!! She loved them 🙂
I didn’t have oats and chocolate chips, so I’ve made it without streusel and substituted choco chips with raisins. Amazing! Looking forward to make it with streusel and chocolate chips next time. Thank you Sally!
Sally this recipe is absolutely amazing!!! I made the loaf of bread on Monday and tonight I made it into muffins. They tasted just as amazing as the bread did. The only problem is I followed your recipe to a t on the muffins and baked them exactly as you said but for some reason my muffins spilled over and sunk in the middle. I have made a ton of your muffins recipes but this happened to your peach muffins recipe I made last week as well. Do you think that it’s from my baking soda or baking powder being bad or am I doing something else wrong. I made sure and baked them at 425 for 5 mins and then at 350 for the rest of the baking time. I made your blueberry recipes from your cookbook and your banana nut muffins a few weeks back and those had a great dome shape to them. I can’t figure out what I am doing wrong.
Hi Lindsay! Perhaps the muffin cups were filled a little too high. How about adding a little less into each cup, which will yield a couple more muffins. And perhaps an extra minute of baking. Replacing your leaveners is also a good idea. I replace mine every 2-3 months.
Made this twice in one week! My hubby and I ( and our 18 month old, haha!) absolutely love it! Definitely a keeper! Thanks Sally 🙂
Just made this bread tonight and it is indeed AWARD WINNING in my hubby and my book! Yummy, thanks for the recipe.
Awesome is all I can say!!!!!!!! My boys and I love it!!!!!!! Thank You!!!!!
I made this recipe as muffins and left out the chocolate chips and used applesauce for half the oil as suggested. They were fabulous!! This recipe is definitely a keeper.
I doubled the recipe and made a loaf of bread and a batch of muffins. (couldn’t decide which to bake, I figured I couldn’t go wrong with both!) Followed the directions exactly as written and this is beyond delicious. Thanks for the only zucchini bread/muffin recipe I’ll ever make again! 🙂
Hi Sally! I made this fantastic zucchini recipe as muffins today. They are just scrumptious! The best muffins I ever made. I’m not a great baker (only enthusiastic) but whenever I make one of your recipes, the end product is always a masterpiece. My family are here to testify. 🙂 You are the best! I hope you will continue to share your recipes with us for a long time.
Hi – I made using half whole wheat flour and half regular – tasted good. Threw in some flax seed too. Mixed the wet ingredients using a vitamix and added a large handful of spinach (have to get creative to get my kiddos greens…). They gobbled up. I will definitely add some chopped nuts too next time.
I have made this recipes as muffins several times now and even my husband the zucchini hater loves them. I use cinnamon chips instead of chocolate chips. So good, thanks for the recipe.
I made this over the weekend using yellow crookneck squash that is growing on my deck. I also used a mix of coconut oil and applesauce and thought it tasted amazeballs! I had no chocolate chips (!!) but did have cinnamon chips so subbed those. For reals…my husband and I ate nearly the entire loaf over the weekend. Lucky me has a slice with me here at work! The streusel is CRAZY good!
O.M.G. I made this today with pecans instead of chocolate chips and it is seriously SO GOOD. I was blown away. My preggo self could eat the whole loaf! Thanks so much for sharing!
This recipe looks amazing! Probably a huge no-no for this award-winning recipe, but how would I go about using a whole wheat flour? Would I use white whole wheat, whole wheat pastry, or straight-up whole wheat? I know I’d probably have to adjust the amount of flour in ratio to the AP. Thanks so much! Think I’ll try them in muffin form :)!
I just made these into muffins! I made them with one cup of whole wheat and half cup of white flour. I think they are pretty good!
Just tried this last night. This recipe is AMAZING! My family gobbled these up while they were still HOT! I halved the oil with the applesauce and the consistency was perfect. I agree on the streusel TONs and TONs of streusel!