Baking Sense

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Braided Zucchini Yeast Bread #BreadBakers

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Zucchini Yeast Bread is a nice change of pace from the more typical quick-bread, cakey style zucchini breads. Pureed zucchini adds great flavor, moisture and texture to this tasty yeast-risen bread.

zucchini yeast bread

Today the #Breadbakers are showing off their prettiest braided breads!

This is a recipe I’ve been working on for a while. Because I belong to a co-op farm I get LOTS of zucchini, all summer long. I’m always looking for new ways to use the prolific squash. I mean, there are only so many spiralized salads a gal can eat!

When I use zucchini for baking I basically treat it as added water, since that’s mostly what zucchini is made of. Because it doesn’t have a very pronounced flavor, zucchini is easy to slip it into all sorts of recipes.

For my Zucchini Yeast Bread I simply replaced some of the water in a fairly basic bread dough with zucchini. The first few times I made the bread I used shredded zucchini. But the bits of vegetable were breaking up the gluten strands in the bread dough.

At that point I was also using some Greek yogurt in the dough. Between the shredded zucchini and the extra richness from the yogurt, the bread structure was compromised enough that kept splitting apart in the oven.

Though I loved the flavor and richness from the Greek yogurt, along with the zucchini it just wasn’t working. So I’ve tabled the Greek yogurt for now. But I will be working on another bread recipe using Greek yogurt and will post it as soon as I’ve got it right.

Back to the zucchini…Since the shredded zucchini was breaking up the gluten, I tried making a zucchini puree and that did the trick. Now I had a bread that was soft and moist with a very slight vegetable flavor from the zucchini.

All that was left to do was make a pretty braid, top it with some cheese, bake until golden brown, and enjoy! We ate it with a green salad and smoked salmon for a light dinner. Perfect!

Click through the slide show to see how to make Braided Zucchini Yeast Bread:

zucchini yeast bread

zucchini yeast bread

zucchini yeast bread

zucchini yeast bread

Braided Zucchini Yeast Bread

Braided Zucchini Yeast Bread

Yield: 1 large loaf
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Rising Time: 2 hours
Bake Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours 55 minutes
Fresh zucchini puree gives bread great moisture and flavor.

Ingredients

  • 1 large zucchini (8 oz, 225g) sliced 1/2" thick
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup (4 oz, ml) water, 110-120F
  • 1 tablespoon dry yeast
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, or more to taste
  • 1 large egg, room temperature
  • 2 1/2 - 3 cups (13-15 oz, 380-450g) bread flour 

Finish

  • 1 egg whisked with 1 tablespoon water and a pinch of salt for egg wash
  • 2 tablespoons shredded Parmesan cheese for garnish, or garnish of your choice.

Instructions

  1. Toss the zucchini slices with the 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Set aside for 15 minutes. Spread the zucchini in a single layer on a paper towel. Lay another paper towel on top of the zucchini and press down to absorb the liquid. Puree the zucchini slices in a food processor until it looks like apple sauce.
  2. Combine zucchini puree, water, yeast, salt, pepper and egg in a mixer bowl. Mix on low speed to combine. Add 2 cups of flour and mix 2 minutes to form a thick batter. Switch to the dough hook. Add the remaining flour a little at a time, until the dough gathers onto the hook and clears the sides of the bowl. Knead for 5 minutes. If working by hand, add as much flour as you can with a wooden spoon the turn the dough out onto a floured surface to finish kneading in the remaining flour.
  3. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead into a smooth ball. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, turning once to coat. Cover the bowl and set aside to rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
  4. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, knead a few times and divide into 3 equal pieces. Roll each piece of dough into a 14" long rope. Braid the three ropes, pinching each end to seal together and set the loaf onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap which has been oiled to prevent sticking. Set aside in a warm place for about 1 hour until the dough has almost doubled in volume and springs back slowly when poked.
  5. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350°F convection or 375°F regular. Brush the loaf with egg wash Sprinkle with grated Parmesan Cheese or garnish of your choice. Bake about 30-35 minutes until golden brown. The interior temp should be about 190°F.

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© Eileen Gray
Category: bread

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This month’s Bread Baker’s theme is Braided Breads and is hosted by Gayathri Kumar of Gayathri’s Cook Spot

Here is the collection of all the beautiful braided breads from our team.

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our of lovely bread by following our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated after each event on the #BreadBakers home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send Stacy an email with your blog URL to foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com.

BreadBakers

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Hello Eileen, I absolutely loved your bread. Adding zucchini in pureed form is such a brilliant idea. The braid looks perfect and crumb feels so soft. Bookmarked for sure

    Reply

  3. What a great idea to puree the zucchini and then just replacing the water. That way you don’t have to drain it or wring it out! I have some summer squash looking for a recipe, and i’m going to try this. Gorgeous loaf!

    Reply

    • When my kids were young the game every night before dinner (in the summer) was to find where I hid the zucchini.

      Reply

  6. I have done a zucchini chocolate bread and loved it ! this is the first time I see it in a gorgeous yeasted bread !
    Lucky you, Eileen – here zucchini is so off season through the year, its sold for the price of gold 🙂 I would love to be your neighbour n taste that gorgeous vegetable based bread
    PS :what software / app do you plug in to create that amazing slide show for the step-by-step recipe ? looks cool – can u ping me the details offline ? Many thanks 🙂

    Reply

    • Hi Kalyani. I guess we all take for granted what we have in abundance.

      I use the “meta Slider” plugin to create the slideshow. I like to make a slide show for process photos so those who want to see the step-by-step can, and those who don’t can scroll passed.

      Reply

    • Thanks, Priya! It took about 5 tries to get a texture that I was happy with. Pureeing the zucchini was the trick.

      Reply

  13. I love zucchini and I wish I knew someone who had an abundance each summer. Such a beautiful loaf of bread.

    Reply

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