Rosemary Zucchini Bread

This wasn’t supposed to be a rosemary post.

In fact this had nothing to do with blogging. I had a ton of zucchini in my fridge that needed to be used so I did a simple search for zucchini bread via Food52 and the first recipe I clicked on had rosemary in it! What are the odds? So I stopped browsing because obviously this was the recipe that I was meant to make.

And now this summer, when your garden is overflowing with zucchini and your rosemary bush is huge and fragrent, you will be set. This recipe covers it all.

This isn’t traditional … it has yogurt in it, olive oil, orange juice, pecans and pine nuts. I’d call it hearty. And I always add chocolate chips to my banana or zucchini bread but I wasn’t sure if this savory combo of ingredients would work with chocolate or just be weird.

But those who know me best, know I can’t pass up chocolate, so I went for it!

I had an orange in my house. Just one. And I ate it yesterday. So instead of zest and fresh juice (which I’m sure would have been amazing) I poured just a splash of O.J. in.

As I was getting all the ingredients out, I pulled my Costco-size bag of chocolate chips down from the top shelf of the pantry, ate a few (of course) and set the bag, wide open on the table (dumb move). As I walked away, it promptly tipped over with half the bag ending up on the floor. Maybe it’s a sign from God I should be staying out of the chocolate chips?

The verdict? This doesn’t taste like cake or dessert like many banana and zuchhini breads do, but it’s really good. I’m not sure I get much of the rosemary flavor, but I think it gives it a unique little kick and the chocolate and nuts sure are delicious. I cut both loaves up into big fat slices, froze them and plan to grab them for breakfast on the days I commute.

There is one more rosemary recipe I really want to make. It’s the whole reason why I chose this ingredient for June, just so I could make this specific recipe. Amber ran across it too. But alas it’s not going to happen this month, so I may be posting one more, belated rosemary post in July. Stay tuned.

Rosemary Zucchini Bread

Recipe from Food52

Makes 2 loaves

3 Large eggs

1/2 cup of plain yogurt

1/2 cup of olive oil

1 3/4 cup of sugar

2 cups of zucchini; shredded

2 teaspoons fresh rosemary; finely minced

Zest of one orange (wish I had this!)

Juice from 1/2 of the orange (I used a splash of O.J.)

3 cups of flour

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

1 teaspoon of salt

1 cup of toasted pecans; chopped, or pine nuts (I used both, I like my bread nutty!)

Chocolate Chips (optional)


Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease two loaf pans and set them aside.

In a large bowl beat the eggs. Mix in the yogurt, oil, and sugar. Then mix in the shredded zucchini, rosemary, orange zest, and orange juice. Set aside.

In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and toasted nuts.

Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Add a few big handfuls of chocolate chips.

Once the batter is well combined divide it evenly between the two loaf pans (I lined ‘em with parchment paper and sprinkled extra chocolate chips on top.)

Bake the loaves for one hour, give or take a few minutes, until a tester inserted comes out clean. My loaves took exactly one hour and were perfect.

Remove the loaves from the oven and allow them to cool for 10 minutes inside the loaf pan before transferring them to a cooling rack to cool completely. Slice and eat!