The first slice of Caramel Apple Zucchini Bread I ever tasted was in a narrow kitchen in Bilbao, on the second floor of a walk-up above a wine bar in the Casco Viejo. The instructor was a woman named Maite who kept apologizing for her English and then explaining fermentation in three languages anyway. The room smelled like brown butter and toasted walnuts and the faint iron of a very old radiator.
I had signed up for the class because a sommelier at the bar downstairs, a man named Iker with silver rings on every finger, had insisted the loaf upstairs paired with a Txakoli he poured me. A slightly fizzy white from the hills outside town. I had never heard of it. He was right.
A Cooking Class in Bilbao That Wasn’t Supposed to Be American
I had gone to the class expecting pintxos. Anchovies on bread. Maybe a tortilla lesson. Instead, Maite pulled a battered loaf pan out of a drawer and told us the surprise that afternoon was an American quick bread her sister-in-law from Portland had taught her a decade ago.
She said it in the tone of someone confessing to a small betrayal. Then she grated a zucchini on the largest holes of a box grater, dumped in diced Granny Smith, and poured a caramel over the top that she had cooked in a saucepan two minutes earlier. The room went quiet in the way rooms do when someone is about to eat something they will remember for years.
What The Class Taught Me That I Had Been Doing Wrong
I had baked zucchini bread a handful of times before that afternoon. Badly. I always wrung the zucchini out in a tea towel like a wet swimsuit because a recipe once told me to.
Maite watched me reach for a towel and said no. Just pat it. The moisture is the whole point. Zucchini bread came out of American home gardens in the sixties and seventies, she told us, as a way to use up the summer glut, and the whole reason people fell for it was the almost impossibly tender crumb. Squeeze the zucchini and you have made something else. A dry loaf pretending.
She also told me not to trust soft baking apples here. They collapse. The caramel is already enough sweetness, and you want the little tart bite of a firm apple pushing back. Granny Smith. Honeycrisp. Something that keeps its edges.
Bringing the Recipe Back to My LA Kitchen
I flew home a week later with the recipe scrawled on the back of a wine list from Iker’s bar. The one for the Txakoli. I still have it pinned to the fridge.
The first time I made it in my own kitchen I was jet lagged and it was a Tuesday morning around six. Nick Drake on the speaker, coffee going cold on the counter, the good morning light coming in through the window over the sink. I get my apples from the Wednesday farmers market at the end of my street when Honeycrisps come in. The zucchini I buy from whichever stand has the smallest ones that week. Big zucchini go watery in a way small ones do not.
My one good chef’s knife, the one with the slightly loose rivet I keep meaning to fix, does the apple dice in about a minute. The rest is a whisk and a spatula and patience.
What I Used
- 1.5 cups grated zucchini, patted, not wrung
- 1 cup peeled and diced Granny Smith or Honeycrisp apple, quarter inch dice
- 1.75 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 0.5 tsp baking powder
- 0.75 tsp fine salt
- 1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
- 0.25 tsp nutmeg, freshly grated if you can
- 0.5 cup packed light brown sugar for the batter
- 0.33 cup granulated sugar
- 0.5 cup neutral oil, canola or grapeseed
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1.5 tsp vanilla extract
- 0.5 cup chopped walnuts, toasted, optional
- 0.5 cup packed dark brown sugar for the caramel
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter for the caramel
- 3 tbsp heavy cream
- 0.5 tsp vanilla extract
- 0.25 tsp flaky sea salt to finish
Cooking It on a Slow Morning in Los Angeles
The batter comes together in the time it takes to drink half a cup of coffee. Whisk the dry ingredients in one bowl. In another, whisk the sugars with the oil until glossy, add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla. Fold the dry into the wet with a spatula. Stop while there are still streaks.
Then in goes the zucchini, the apple, the walnuts if you want them. The batter looks thick and chunky and honestly a little unpromising. Trust it. Scrape it into a parchment lined 9 by 5 pan, tap it on the counter, and slide it into a 350 F oven for 55 to 65 minutes.
My oven runs hot on the left side. Yours might do its own thing. Start checking at 55 with a skewer. A few moist crumbs, not wet batter. If the top browns too fast, tent it with foil around minute 40.
Cool it in the pan for 15 minutes. Then lift it out and let it come fully to room temperature on a rack. This takes about an hour and it is not optional. Caramel on a warm loaf slides off in a puddle. Ask me how I know.
The Caramel and Why You Do Not Buy It in a Jar
Store bought caramel sauce will not set on top of this bread. It will slide down the sides and pool sadly on the plate. The caramel here is really more of a soft toffee, cooked from dark brown sugar, butter, and cream in a small heavy saucepan over medium heat.
Melt the butter with the sugar and cream, stirring the whole time. Let it come to a gentle boil and cook for two minutes until it looks smooth and glossy. Off the heat, stir in the vanilla. Let it sit five minutes so it thickens to the consistency of warm honey.
Drizzle it over the cooled loaf while it is still on the rack, letting it drip down the sides in ribbons. Sprinkle flaky salt immediately, while the caramel is still tacky, so it grabs. Wait fifteen minutes before slicing with a serrated knife.
A Few Notes From the Second and Third Attempts
I have made this maybe twenty times since Bilbao. A few things I have learned. Do not skip the flaky salt. Toast the walnuts if you are using them, in a dry pan, three minutes.
And save a slice for the next morning. Cold, out of the fridge, with black coffee. Better than the day you bake it. I did not believe Maite when she told me that either.
Caramel Apple Zucchini Bread
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a 9x5 inch loaf pan with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on the long sides, and lightly grease the exposed ends.
- Grate the zucchini on the large holes of a box grater. Spread it on a couple of paper towels and pat gently just to remove surface water. Do not wring it out. Measure 1.5 cups loosely packed.
- Peel, core, and dice the apple into pieces about 1/4 inch. Measure 1 cup and set aside with the zucchini.
- In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg until fully combined and no streaks remain.
- In a second large bowl, whisk the light brown sugar, granulated sugar, and vegetable oil until smooth and glossy, about 30 seconds. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking after each. Whisk in the vanilla extract.
- Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture. Using a rubber spatula, fold together with just a few strokes, stopping while streaks of flour remain.
- Add the grated zucchini, diced apple, and walnuts if using. Fold gently until the batter is evenly combined and no dry flour is visible. The batter will look thick and chunky.
- Scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan and smooth the top. Tap the pan once on the counter to settle any air pockets.
- Bake on the center rack for 55 to 65 minutes, until the top is deeply golden and a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out with only a few moist crumbs. If the top browns too quickly, tent loosely with foil after 40 minutes.
- Cool the loaf in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then lift it out using the parchment overhang and cool completely on the rack, about 1 hour.
- While the loaf cools, make the caramel. In a small heavy saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter with the dark brown sugar and heavy cream, stirring constantly.
- Bring the mixture to a gentle boil and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes, until it thickens slightly and looks smooth and glossy. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Let the caramel sit for 5 minutes to thicken to a pourable, syrup-like consistency.
- Set the cooled loaf on the rack over a sheet of parchment. Slowly drizzle the caramel over the top, letting it drip down the sides in ribbons. Immediately sprinkle with flaky sea salt.
- Let the caramel set for 15 minutes before slicing thick pieces with a serrated knife.