This One-Bowl Zucchini Carrot Bread comes together easily; all ingredients are stirred together in one bowl. This makes two gorgeous, healthy-ish, and scrumptious loaves. Perfect for breakfast, snack, or dessert.
It’s safe to say that this is the summer our yard was in the saddest shape it’s ever been in.
After the frost of late spring, we discovered our lawn struggling hard amidst sneaky weeds. We promptly took care of the weeds, but that left a sad, patchy lawn that took forever to grow back in. In part, alltheboys of the neighborhood frequently round up on our lawn for hyper games of soccer. So glad we don’t have yard contests around here 😉
However. Our humble little veggie garden blew up into an explosion of herbs and squash.
I’m not talking about normal or even large-sized squash. Our zucchini did The Hulk thing. Like, one day they were just innocent budding blossoms and when we turned around, they exploded into hulk-sized squash approximately 10x bigger than zukes any of us have ever seen. It’s laughable, really.
After giving away herbs and squash to neighbors (and watching their disbelief) we still had more zucchini than we could polish off.
My choices were to freeze the zucchini or bake ’em. I decided on both.
And since we’ve done everything from our favorite Moist Lemon Zucchini Bread to this mouthwatering Chocolate Zucchini Cake, we went with this yummy One-Bowl Zucchini Carrot Bread…
I did a combo of finely grated and coarsely grated veggies.
Grate tip: if you want less visible veggies in your finished loaves, go with finely grated. If you prefer a bold pop of orange and green in your baked bread, go with coarsely grated.
It doesn’t affect the flavor, whichever grate size you use. It’s mostly an aesthetic choice.
I use white whole wheat flour, which is just whole wheat flour that is milder and lighter than usual. You can use half wheat/half all-purpose, or stick with all-purpose.
This Zucchini Carrot Bread is ultra satisfying, tender, and flavorful with yummy spices.
Cinnamon + ginger + nutmeg = Yum.
This Zucchini Carrot Bread is on our healthy-ish list, as it’s baked with olive oil and applesauce.
I pretty much always use extra-virgin olive oil in my baking and nobody can taste the oliveness. Feel free to use coconut oil, canola oil, or other oil if you wish.
You’re also getting a super dose of healthy veggies in each loaf. Plus nuts, if you like.
You could forgo the crazy-good cream cheese drizzle and take this bread from healthy-ish to just healthy.
But um, I didn’t do that. We 💗 this cream cheese frosting, which SO elevates this bread’s yum factor.
May we humbly suggest you do the same 😇
Breakfast, snack, or dessert. Your call.
Fork, plate, or none. Also your call.
Enjoy.
In Case You Missed it…One-Pan Thai Fried Rice:
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This One-Bowl Zucchini Carrot Bread comes together easily, as all ingredients are stirred together in one bowl. This makes two gorgeous, healthy-ish, and scrumptious loaves. Perfect for breakfast, snack, or dessert.
Ingredients
- 3 cups white whole wheat (or half wheat/half all-purpose)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon table salt
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- ½ cup applesauce
- 2 cups grated zucchini, lightly packed
- 2 cups grated carrot, lightly packed
- For Cream Cheese Frosting:
- ½ cups softened butter
- 16 oz softened cream cheese
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 lb powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F, with rack on lower middle position. Grease two 9×5 loaf pans and set aside.
- In a large bowl, gently whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg until incorporated. Add the sugar and whisk to combine. Make a well in the center and add the eggs into the well; lightly beat eggs. Add vanilla, oil, and applesauce to the bowl. Whisk/stir to combine ingredients well (batter will be very thick, which is fine.)
- Stir in the zucchini and carrots, using a wooden spatula to fully incorporate the batter.
- Use rubber spatula to transfer batter evenly into your two greased loaf pans. Bake about 35-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center of loaves comes out with a few tender crumbs attached. Note that actual bake time varies, depending on your oven, so check every 5 min. or so. Let finished loaves cool completely in pans set on a wire rack at room temp. Once cool, run a thin knife around edges of pan and release the loaves onto serving plates or cutting board.
- Make Cream Cheese Frosting: Combine butter, cream cheese, and vanilla. Beat well. Add sugar gradually and beat well. If too thick, add small amount of milk. If too thin, add small amounts of sugar until desired consistency is reached. Frosting naturally thickens and firms up as it sits. Transfer frosting into a Ziploc plastic baggie, press out the air, and seal. Snip a tiny hole in the corner and drizzle frosting over cooled bread.
Notes
Vegetables can be grated finely or coarsely on your box grater; a finer grate will result in vegetables being more “invisible” in the finished bread. A coarser grate will show off more veggies in your baked bread. It’s up to you!
Add 1 cup of chopped pecans or walnuts into the batter and/or topping, if desired.
Bread keeps well when sealed airtight at moderate room temp for a few days.
Kitchen Essentials:
zucchini and carrot treats…
3. Best Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
4. Chocolate Zucchini Coconut Oil Bread
I have never heard of zucchini bread before but I could see myself totally loving this. The recipe seems pretty easy to so hopefully one day I will try to make this. Thank you for the baking instructions.
I’m a big fan of zucchini and carrots! I have had a zucchini carrot cake before and love trying out such recipes. I will for sure give this recipe a try!
For me the best recipes are the simple, quick, but super delicious ones. I’ve never heard of zucchini bread either! Sooo want to try!
I have never tried zucchini bread before, even if I have seen it in a local coffee shop in London. I can imagine it is delicious! And great work for growing such giant zucchinis in your garden 🙂
Zucchini is one of my favorite vegetables, but I have never tasted it made into bread. Very curious as to how this would taste like. Thank you for this recipe.
I havent done any baking in a really long time except for a quick betty crocker cake! This looks amazing and the recipe is super easy! Probably should get into baking again and try this recipe out!
Ok this looks too good to eat! I don’t like carrots but I love carrot flavored things! Funny how that works. I will have to try this recipe very soon!
The Zucchini carrot bread looks really delicious. It’s also nice that there other zucchini options.
ONE-BOWL ZUCCHINI CARROT BREAD= yummmm. I might try this recipe tonight. Side note… sorry about your yard. Hopefully it will get better when the season changes.
That does look amazing. I love Zuchinni bread, but have never added carrots, before. Thanks for the tip on the grating. I didn’t know that. My garden just went nuts this year – but I was growing mostly Carolina Reapers.
This looks so good!! I totally messed up a batch of zucchini muffins earlier this month so I need to try out your recipe!
I just had zucchini bread at a restaurant and it was so good and I could not put it down.
Love to partner it with a good hot cup of coffee for my morning routine! Looks so yummy!
Pammy -joyfulsource.com
Wow – I am so glad I came across this site. I’m in Iowa and it’s the end of August and already have zucchini and carrots and cucumbers coming in like crazy. Can’t wait to try some of this one, my hubby is a huge fan of quick breads like this! x
I always wanted to have a little veggie garden, is it too much work to care for it? I really have no idea how to do it… On another note, I agree that cream cheese is life!! But for now, I’ll stick to store bought zucchini to try this recipe…
I am now ready for a cuppa and any one of them, they all look so delicious. We love Zucchini and will surely try out some of these recipes.
Made this today! It is so good-nice and moist and yummy! Thanks for the recipe. This is why I keep coming back to visit your blog.
This loaf looks so good and the receipe seems easy enough! I just might have to try it Thanks for sharing! Hope your gardens keeps flourishing!
This loaf looks so good and the receipe seems easy enough! I should definitely try it!
I love this combination and it looks tasty and healthy. Can you post an eggless version of the same?
I like zucchini as it is… so I’m not really sure how zucchini carrot bread will taste (because I like banana as a fruit, but not banana bread)…
this sounds insanely yummy! i noticed it was made with whole wheat flour, have you tried a gluten free option?
Do you know a gluten free receipe for this bread
Hi, Barb! In quick breads, you can sub with your favorite all-purpose gluten-free flour. You should be able to do a 1-1 sub here…let me know how it turns out, as I’d love to find out 🙂 Enjoy!
great way to hide vieggies and get kids to eat them lol, seriously if it wasn’t mentioned no one can even tell there’s a zucchini in it
I am totally for doing something like this for my kids to get them to eat healthy. I swear they can eat sweets all day and this is such a mom food to make. I love it!
You know I hate Zucchini in any form but I guess I will happily eat the cake. And this is so nutritious as well. Never thought this combination could work. I am a bad cook hence can’t promise on trying this, lol!
Wow that’s special, I tried to bake carrot cake and bread before but never think of zucchini.