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I would like to increase the amount of zucchini in my zucchini bread recipe. Can I? How much? Does increasing the amount of zucchini make other changes necessary?

Cascabel
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terri kandis
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    It might be worth adding some more details on your existing recipe so someone can give you some more specific recommendations. – PeterJ Jul 25 '15 at 14:27
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    Also you might add why you want to do this (what is the intended result you are looking for). – user3169 Jul 25 '15 at 18:47
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    when you say "increase" does it mean that it already has zucchini in it? Are you making a standard yeast bread, or a zucchini bread, which is a very different thing? – rumtscho Jul 26 '15 at 20:10
  • You'll have to adjust the other liquids so you don't get baked goop, but it should be doable. Grating vs blending the zukes will also alter the liquid situation. Checking a bunch of zucchini bread recipes online might be the best way to answer this. – Wayfaring Stranger Dec 20 '15 at 17:15

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Zucchini bread is a quick bread. It is chemically leavened and bound together mostly with egg but some gluten.

Adding more zucchini will add liquid and fiber which will interfere a little more with gluten development. Both of these changes will result in a bread that is more moist and tender- to the extreme of not holding together enough.

You can increase the zucchini- how much is difficult to answer because the bread will be different and how much is ok will be a matter of taste. I have found that for the quick breads I make, such as banana and zucchini, I can up to double the titular ingredient.

The resulting bread is always very moist and dense. Sometimes it is too tender to slice. The flavor is more pronounced and sometimes that's what I'm in the mood for.

Interestingly, bread made in this way has a much shorter shelf life because of the extra moisture.

I've tried adding another egg to hold it together but that quickly becomes too "eggy". Of course adding more flour means you are just making a bigger batch of your original recipe.

Sobachatina
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    I wonder what the effect would be if you increased the amount of zucchini, but also reduced the water content of the zucchini (e.g. by grating, salting, waiting 15 minutes, and squeezing the liquid out). Would you end up with a stronger flavor without impacting the texture as much as you would by merely adding more zucchini? – mrog Dec 22 '15 at 00:01
  • @mrog- it's a interesting idea. I fear the salt would be too strong. You could rinse it but you'd lose a lot of flavor which is often the point of increasing it in the first place. – Sobachatina Dec 22 '15 at 00:06