Super moist and flavorful lemon poppy seed zucchini bread with cream cheese glaze makes the perfect sweet treat for using up your summer zucchini.
For all the delicious zucchini baked goods, check out my recipes for Zucchini Pancakes, Chocolate Zucchini Bread , Zucchini Cake, and Zucchini Cookies.
Why This Recipe Works
So delicious – I can’t even believe there was a time in my life when I wasn’t eating zucchini in sweet treat form. This lemon zucchini bread is absolute perfection. Perfectly sweetened with the perfect texture, and the most perfect use of the lemon poppyseed flavor combination I heart so much. In a word – perfect!
Cream cheese glaze – Sure this zucchini bread is amazing without the cream cheese glaze but it’s even MORE amazing with it. A little bit rich, a little tangy, sweet, melt-in-your mouth glaze that just is really truly the icing on the (zucchini) cake.
Uses all the zucchini – I don’t know about you, but sometimes I go overboard at the farmers market in the summers, buying all the produce because it’s in season and just so beautiful. Then, try as I might, we just don’t end up using it all. This zucchini bread recipe is the perfect thing for using up any zucchini that is at risk of going bad. Plus, you can freeze the bread (but you don’t want to freeze that zucchini).
Perfect “present” – I don’t know about you but in the summer I’m never quite sure what to bring to various cookouts and picnics, baby showers and birthday parties. Sure, I’ll bring the pasta salad, but what about a little something special just for the host? Something he or she can tuck away and not share? This zucchini bread is the best edible present around!
Here’s How You Make It
Make the bread
- Preheat your oven to 350 and then grease a 9×5-inch loaf pan. Set it aside.
- Whisk together the flour, baking powder and soda, and salt in a bowl.
- In another, larger bowl, mix together the eggs, zucchini, sugar, oil, butter, and vanilla. Then add the lemon juice, zest, and poppy seeds and stir again.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix till combined.
- Pour the batter into the loaf pan. Pop it in the oven and bake for 45-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let it cool on a wire rack.
Prepare the glaze
- While the bread is cooling off, you can make the glaze. First cream together the cream cheese, vanilla, lemon juice, and butter.
- Add the powdered sugar and mix until it’s combined.
- Add the milk now, 2 tablespoons at a time, mixing after each addition, until the glaze has reached a pourable consistency.
- Drizzle the glaze over the cooled bread. Slice, serve, and enjoy!
Expert Tips
- This recipe makes one 9×5 inch loaf, about 8-10 slices. Double for extra amounts of delicious zucchini bread. Or eat one now and freeze on for later. (Don’t ice the frozen one until you’ve thawed it.)
- This bread will keep in an airtight container at room temperature up to five days.
- Top this cake with fresh strawberries, peaches, blueberries, or raspberries and some homemade whipped cream for extra decadence!
Customizations
- One fun way I like to change up this lemon zucchini bread is to add nuts to it. Just a ¼ cup or so of slivered almonds, chopped walnuts, or even chopped pistachios go great in this recipe. Mix them in at the end before you pop it in the oven. If you don’t want that much commitment, just sprinkle some nuts on the top of the glaze.
- Make a Bundt cake! Pour the batter into a prepared Bundt pan instead of a loaf pan. Bake at 325 for about 45 minutes. (Depending on the size of your Bundt pan, you might want to double the recipe.)
- Skip the poppyseeds if you don’t like them. Instead substitute nuts, or even dried fruit, or just enjoy the lemon zucchini bread without anything extra.
- For a little more citrus taste, consider adding in some orange zest or a teaspoon of orange extract.
- Make muffins by pouring the batter into prepared muffin tins or muffin liners. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.
More Zucchini Recipes
- Stuffed Zucchini Boats
- Lasagna Stuffed Zucchini Boats
- Balsamic Chicken and Veggie Skewers
- Triple Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Did you try this Lemon Poppy Seed Zucchini Bread recipe? YAY! Please rate the recipe below!
Lemon Poppy Seed Zucchini Bread
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 ½ cups shredded zucchini
- 3 large eggs
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- ½ cup oil
- ¼ cup butter - melted
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 ½ teaspoons lemon zest
- 2 tablespoons poppyseeds
Glaze
- 1 ounce cream cheese - softened
- 2 tablespoons butter - melted
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 6 tablespoons milk - as needed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan and set aside.
- In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In a large bowl combine zucchini, eggs, sugar, oil, melted butter, and vanilla and mix well. Stir in lemon juice, lemon zest, and poppyseeds.
- Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan. Bake for 45-60 minutes until an inserted toothpick comes out clean ( a few crumbs are okay but no wet batter). Allow too cool on a wire cooling rack.
- While bread is cooling, prepare the glaze by creaming together cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and lemon juice. Add powdered sugar and mix til combined. Add milk 2 tablespoons at a time, mixing after each addition, until glaze is a pourable consistency.
- Drizzle glaze over bread. Slice and serve or store in airtight container up to 5 days.
This recipe was outstanding. Makes a delicious product and needed zero tweeking! I cooled the loaves, made the icing, and froze as a whole loaf. Once frozen I sliced it and inserted waxed paper between the slices. Reassembled the loaf, wrapped it and sealed in a zip lock bag. Now individual slices can be removed in perfect shape! Thanks for this wonderful recipe!
That is a fantastic idea, Lori!! YUM! Thanks for sharing your idea!
hi! Do you need to sweat the zucchini or at least squeeze out all The liquid from the zucchini?
No, the moisture from the zucchini is incorporated into the batter. I usually grate the zucchini on a paper towel rather than a plate or cutting board so that any real excess just absorbs into the paper towel rather than pooling on a hard surface. 🙂
Can this be made into muffins?
Check out this brand new recipe that was just posted a few days ago!
https://www.lecremedelacrumb.com/zucchini-bread-muffins/
This was a huge hit. I will skip the icing next time around, it was too sweet. but this bread was fabulous!
Glad you loved it!
Absolutely delicious and so moist! I added some shredded carrots in all and raisins and walnuts in some and my goodness…it was Devine! Thanks so much for this recipe!!
Sounds sooo delicious!!