Super soft, moist, and topped with the BEST frosting ever!! One bowl, no mixer, EASY recipe for the best apple zucchini bread that everyone LOVES!!
Prep Time15 minutesmins
Cook Time50 minutesmins
Cooling Time45 minutesmins
Total Time1 hourhr50 minutesmins
Course: Bread, Rolls, Muffins & Breakfast
Cuisine: American
Keyword: apple zucchini bread, brown sugar frosting, moist zucchini bread
Servings: 10
Calories: 407kcal
Author: Averie Sunshine
Ingredients
Bread
1large egg
½cupvegetable or canola oil
½cupsour cream or Greek yogurtI used full fat sour cream
1teaspoonvanilla extract
½cupgranulated sugar
½cuplight brown sugarpacked
1 ½cupsall-purpose flour
1teaspooncinnamon
1teaspoonground gingeror to taste
½teaspoonbaking soda
½teaspoonbaking powder
¼teaspoonsaltor to taste
¾cupfreshly grated Granny Smith applepeeled first, blotted, and fairly firmly packed in measuring cup (see Notes)
¾cupfreshly grated zucchiniblotted, and fairly firmly packed in measuring cup (see Notes)
Frosting
¼cupunsalted butter
½cuplight brown sugarpacked
2tablespoonsmilk or cream
1teaspoonvanilla extract
½teaspoonsaltor to taste
1 ½ to 1 ¾cupconfectioners' sugarif your sugar is particularly lumpy, sift before using it
Instructions
Bread:
Preheat oven to 350F, and spray a 9x5-inch loaf pan with floured cooking spray, or grease and flour the pan; set aside.
To a large mixing bowl, add the egg, oil, sour cream, vanilla, sugars, and whisk to combine.
Add the flour, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and stir to combine; don't overmix.
Add the grated apples and zucchini and fold to combine, don't overmix.
Turn batter out into the prepared pan, smoothing the top lightly with a spatula, and bake the bread for about 50 minutes (start checking earlier) or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean from any raw batter. I highly recommend draping a sheet of foil, i.e. tenting the pan, at the 25 to 30-minute mark while baking to reduce excessive browning on the top and sides of your loaf. See Notes for baking tips.
Allow the bread to cool in the pan for about 30 minutes, or until it's cool enough to remove.
Frosting:
To a high-sided small saucepan, add the butter and heat over medium-high heat to melt, whisking constantly until it melts.
Add the brown sugar, milk or cream, and whisk to incorporate. The mixture should be bubbling around the perimeter of the saucepan. Allow the mixture to come to a boil so that in the center of the saucepan it's boiling. This will only take another 30-60 seconds.
Once it comes to a boil in the center of the saucepan, turn off the heat, add the vanilla, salt, 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, and whisk vigorously to incorporate the confectioners' sugar. If you want a slightly thicker frosting, add the additional 1/4 confectioners' sugar after you check and see how it looks after the initial 1 1/2 cups.
Immediately pour the frosting over the bread, noting you may not need quite all of it. I discarded about 10-15%. The frosting sets up very quickly so make sure after you whisk in the confectioners' sugar you move quickly and get it poured over the bread.
Allow the frosting to set up fully before slicing into the bread.
Notes
1. Grating, Wringing Out, and Measuring The Apples and Zucchini - Place the grated apples and grated zucchini (separately) in doubled up paper towels and wring it out. You don’t have to wring like you are trying to wring out a wet swimsuit, but you want to blot up some of the moisture, if I were guessing, I’d say wring out 50% of the moisture.Then place measure out 3/4 cup of each, measuring cup fairly firmly. Don’t hard-pack it into the cup, but use more pressure than if you were just laying it in the cup.
You want 1 1/2 cups total of grated, blotted, semi-packed apples and zucchini combined.
2. Baking Tips - It is very important to bake your bread though, and approximately 50 minutes should do the trick, but that is not written in stone so you need to watch your bread and not the clock when evaluating doneness. Do not be afraid to bake your bread for 70 minutes if that’s what it needs in order to get it cooked through.Because of the moisture content of your particular zucchini, exactly how much water you blotted out, your oven, you climate, the brand of flour used, and so forth, will all effect baking times. The bread is done when a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out free from any wet batter.I recommend draping a sheet of foil, i.e. tenting your pan, at the 25 to 30-minute mark to avoid excessive browning on the top and sides of your loaf.Storage: Bread will keep airtight at room temp for up to 5 days, in the fridge for up to 8 days, and in the freezer for up to 4 months noting that if you are planning to freeze this bread, I would frost the bread upon thawing and not before freezing it because the frosting could change textures with the freezing/thawing.Bread adapted from The Best Zucchini Bread.