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I love incorporating fresh, seasonal ingredients in my sourdough baking. In the summer and fall, zucchini is everywhere—and I’m always looking for ways to use it. I love sautéing it as a side, stuffing it into zucchini boats, baking this chocolate sourdough zucchini cake, or making loaf after loaf of this soft and flavorful Sourdough Discard Zucchini Bread.
This is the best sourdough zucchini bread—light, tender, fluffy, and the perfect way to use up that sourdough discard lurking in the fridge. I wish I could grow my own zucchini, but the deer in my neighborhood have other plans. Luckily, my local farmers market and grocery store keep me well-stocked.
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Why You’ll Love Sourdough Discard Zucchini Bread
- Quick & Easy – It comes together fast – just like my Sourdough Pumpkin Bread!
- Moist and Tender – The texture of this discard zucchini bread is so soft and tender, similar to my quick bread recipe for The Best Sourdough Banana Bread – which you’ll also love.
- Breakfast Favorite – Like my Sourdough Zucchini Muffins and Chocolate Sourdough Zucchini Muffins, this loaf is perfect for breakfast or snack time and is guaranteed to be a family favorite.
Sourdough Discard Tip: I always keep a jar in my fridge to collect sourdough discard. It’s a by-product of feeding your starter, and there’s no reason to throw it away—it adds great flavor and moisture to recipes! Use older discard in savory bakes like sourdough cheddar biscuits, and fresh discard in sweet recipes like sourdough oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.
Important Ingredients
- Sourdough Discard – To avoid a strong sourdough flavor, use sourdough discard that is fresh or no more than a day or two old. If you want to play up the tang in this zucchini bread, use discard that is a couple of days old.
- Zucchini – Fresh zucchini is shredded and wrung out for this recipe.
- Sugar- I like using a combination of brown and white sugar to sweeten this loaf.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities
Substitutions
- Greek Yogurt: Sour cream can be substituted
- Coconut Oil: Vegetable oil, melted butter or any neutral-flavored oil can be used if desired.
- All-Purpose Flour: Freshly milled soft white or red wheat flour can be substituted for the all-purpose flour in this recipe with good results. It may not rise quite as high, but will have delicious flavor.
- Allspice: Substitute with an equal amount of cinnamon or a pinch of cloves.
- Nuts: This loaf would be delicious with 3/4 cup chopped walnuts, pecans or raisins mixed into the batter. I would even try adding chocolate chips!
How to Make Sourdough Discard Zucchini Bread
Grate and Wring Out zucchini
Step 1: Shred zucchini using a box grater until you have 350 grams of zucchini.
Step 2: Use a paper towel to wring out the shredded zucchini, releasing as much water as you can – about 100 grams worth, so you are left with 250 grams of “drier” zucchini.
Did you know that 1 cup of chopped zucchini is made up of 90% water? Because of this high water content, it’s important to wring out the zucchini a bit before adding it to the recipe. This little extra step will help your zucchini bread turn out perfectly moist and delicious.
Mix The batter
Step 3: Gently stir together the flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and allspice in a mixing bowl (Image 3). In a separate liquid measuring cup, combine sourdough discard, eggs, oil, Greek yogurt, and milk. Whisk together until completely combined (Image 4).
Step 4: Add the grated and dried zucchini to the dry ingredients and combine with a fork until the zucchini is fully incorporated (Image 5). Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and stir until just combined (Image 6).
Spread into A Loaf Pan and Bake
Step 5: Scrape the sourdough discard zucchini bread batter into a loaf pan prepared with parchment paper (Images 7-8).
Long Fermentation Option: Mix the batter and refrigerate it overnight (or up to 48 hours). Bake straight from the fridge, adding a few extra minutes to the total bake time.
Step 6: Bake the zucchini bread in a preheated oven for 10 minutes at 425ºF. After 10 minutes reduce the temperature to 350ºF and bake for an additional 45-55 minutes until the zucchini bread reaches a temperature of 200ºF. Remove from the oven and let sit about 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
Amy’s Tip: Starting with a hot oven gives the batter a quick lift and helps set the top before the middle bakes—especially helpful if you’ve had loaves sink in the past! Then decrease the temperature and finish the bake at a lower temperature.
How to Store Leftovers
Once cooled, slice the bread and store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 24 hours. For longer storage, freeze slices for up to 3 months. Just thaw and enjoy!
Amy’s Recipe Tip
Choose discard not more than a few days old for little to no “sour” flavor. The longer the discard sits in the refrigerator, the more “sour” flavor can result in the bread. I always use 100% hydration discard. If your discard is higher or lower hydration, you will need to add a little more flour or add a little milk to the batter.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. This recipe makes a little over a dozen zucchini muffins. Spray a muffin tin. Bake for the muffins for 5 minutes at 425 degrees. Then lower the temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 15-18 more minutes until a toothpick inserted in the muffin comes out clean, with no wet batter. You can also make mini muffins with this recipe. Bake mini muffins for about 15-18 minutes total time (5 minutes at 425 and 10-13 minutes at 350 degrees).
Yes—it’s a thick batter! Don’t worry, the zucchini releases more liquid as it bakes, keeping the bread moist. If you think it’s took thick, you can add a few splashes of milk to the batter. However, the zucchini will release more of the liquid (even though you squeezed some out) as it bakes which adds more moisture to this bread, so you don’t need to add much more!
Sourdough discard zucchini bread has sourdough discard in it – which has fermentation benefits. It also has a whole lot of zucchini and Greek yogurt and eggs. If you substitute whole wheat flour, it can be a whole grain recipe. With that said, there is also a lot of sugar and oil. We like to eat it in moderation.
You can still make an awesome loaf of zucchini bread. You can use regular sourdough starter instead of discard or leave out the sourdough starter completely and add 60 grams of extra flour and 60 grams of extra milk to the batter.
Sourdough Quickbread Recipes
If you tried these Sourdough Discard Zucchini Bread or any other recipe on my website leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. Happy Baking!
The Best Zucchini Bread with Sourdough Discard
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Equipment
Ingredients
- 350 grams zucchini, wring out the water until the zucchini weighs 250 grams, about 2 medium-sized zucchinis
- 240 grams all-purpose flour, about 1 3/4 cups, can also substitute freshly milled soft whole wheat flour
- 100 grams granulated sugar, about 1/2 cup
- 100 grams brown sugar, scant 1/2 cup
- 4 grams baking powder, about 1 teaspoon
- 4 grams baking soda, about 1 teaspoon
- 7 grams salt, about 1 teaspoon
- 3 grams ground cinnamon, about 1 teaspoon
- 1 gram allspice, about 1/2 teaspoon
- 120 grams sourdough discard, about 1/2 cup, see recipe notes
- 2 large eggs, about 100 grams
- 60 grams vegetable oil or liquid coconut oil, about 1/4 cup, any neutral flavored oil works
- 90 grams Greek Yogurt, about 1/3 cup
- 30 grams milk, about 2 Tablespoons
Instructions
- Wash the zucchini and trim off the ends. Using a box grater, shred the zucchini until you have 350 grams. Wring out the excess moisture by squeezing the shredded zucchini over the sink, allowing the liquid to drain away. Alternatively, use paper towels to help soak up the moisture as you squeeze. Continue wringing until you are left with 250 grams of drained zucchini, meaning about 100 grams of liquid has been removed. Set aside.
- To a bowl, add the flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and allspice. Stir together with a fork until fluffy and combined. Add the zucchini and stir until the zucchini is spread throughout the dry mixture and thoroughly combined.
- To a liquid measuring cup, combine sourdough discard, eggs, oil, Greek yogurt and milk. Whisk together until completely combined. Discard can be used straight from the fridge cold or room temperature.
- Pour the discard mixture into the flour mixture and mix together with a fork or spoon until just combined. Scoop the zucchini bread batter into the prepared loaf pan.
- Bake for 10 minutes at 425ºF. After 10 minutes, reduce the temperature to 350ºF. Bake for 45-55 minutes. The zucchini bread is ready if it registers 200ºF and a toothpick or sharp knife inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean with no streaks of batter.
- Let the zucchini bread cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before removing from the loaf pan to a wire rack to finish cooling. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Can I substitute sour cream for Greek yogurt ?
Thank you
I haven’t tried it that way, but I think it should work out just fine!
Not too sweet & wonderfully spiced, this sourdough discard bread is moist and absolutely delicious!
So glad you loved the recipe – thanks for your review!
I want to mix zucchini and crushed canned pineapples. Do you have any suggestions on quantities?
I don’t, I’m sorry! I haven’t tried it with canned pineapple and I think that would change the moisture content quite a bit, so you’d need to adjust the liquid for that.
Great recipe! I didn’t add the allspice, only because I’m not a fan of the spice. I followed the rest of the recipe as-is though and it was amazing! I baked into cupcakes so I could freeze them. They freeze and thaw perfectly!
So glad you loved this recipe! Thanks for sharing your review.
When I doubled the ingredients from 1 to 2 loaves, you still had the flour at 1 3/4 cups. I guess I should have weighed instead of measure. Please fix this.
When you click to double ingredients it only doubles the first number. I develop my recipes by weight so they are more accurate. Unfortunately I can’t change the technology for how this works, or I would.
ABSOLUTELY delicious. The bake was perfect and the flavor is amazing!
So glad you loved this one!
This is not a good way to bake the loaf at all. The high temp at the beginning makes forms a crust at the top before the loaf is baked. When it continues baking. The batter inside has no where to rise and will spill out of the sides. Overall tasty recipe though.
Sorry this didn’t work out for you. I love baking at high temp for the first little bit and then reducing the temperature to get the best rise out of my quickbreads. Did you use the weight or cup measurements? Cup measurements are easy to go over and maybe your loaf had a little too much batter in it? Glad you liked the flavor. I’ll make sure to take a look at the recipe this spring and double check the pan size.