Ground Clove Is The Perfect Ingredient For Warm And Sweet Zucchini Bread

Most of us are familiar with banana bread, a tasty dessert that's a great way to use up fruit that's been hanging around for too long. Similarly, zucchini bread is moist, tasty, and perfect for when you've got an abundance of the veggie on your hands. Zucchini bread is a quick bread that's made with ingredients similar to those of its banana counterpart, except that it uses shredded zucchini instead of mashed banana.

These two types of bread also usually include spices, namely cinnamon and nutmeg. If you love the flavor of warm spices, why not mix things up and add some cloves? This aromatic spice can give your zucchini bread a cozy flavor and add a new dimension of sweetness and spiciness, perfect for a rustic dessert or breakfast in the cold season. To understand why cloves pair so well with zucchini bread, it pays to know a bit more about this popular spice.

Cloves are a pungent spice that have a warming characteristic to them, as well as a slightly bitter quality. Their strong flavor means you don't need to add a lot to your zucchini bread for the taste and aroma to come through. You'll find that just ⅛ to ¼ of a teaspoon can be enough to give your bread that touch of extra warmth and zest. Add too much, and the clove flavor can be overwhelming and might even make your mouth tingle.

One of the reasons why cloves work so well in zucchini bread is they add a much-needed boost of potent flavor, so long as you use them in moderation. Zucchini has quite a mild taste, so unlike breads made with more flavorful produce — such as banana or pumpkin bread — your loaf needs a little help so it won't taste bland. The bread takes on the taste of the spices or other add-ins in, and when you add cloves, you infuse the whole loaf with sweet and bitter properties and lots of depth.

Cloves also pair nicely with other spices often found in zucchini bread recipes. Cinnamon and nutmeg happen to complement cloves well due to their similarly warm, sweet, and slightly sharp profiles. This makes cloves easy to integrate into virtually any kind of zucchini bread, so feel free to try adding them to your favorite recipe.

Cloves aren't the only spice that can kick zucchini bread up a notch. Ginger can be a good choice, adding a bit of a sweet and spicy bite to your bread for an autumnal twist. Another option is allspice, which has a flavor similar to that of cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Moving away from spices, you can also try adding different kinds of nuts. Pecans and walnuts are two common picks that can add crunch to each tender slice of bread. Or, try adding sliced almonds on top of the bread to not only give it extra flavor and texture, but a beautiful appearance.

Another option is to really think outside the box and make chocolate zucchini bread. You can do this by adding chocolate chips to your recipe or by mixing melted chocolate directly into the batter (or do both!). It's also easy to add some cocoa powder in your recipe. Whether you play around with nuts, spices, or chocolate, there are plenty of ways to ensure your zucchini bread is sweet, moist, and flavorful.