The Best Zucchini Bars
These are the best zucchini bars! They taste like a moist spice cake with a cream cheese frosting. You'll find cinnamon, shredded zucchini and carrots, and walnuts in these zucchini bars. This is one of the best zucchini recipes I can think of!
Zucchini Bars
The best, folks. I got this zucchini bars recipe from my aunt and I have to tell you these are amazing. My aunt named this recipe literally "the best zucchini bars." I can't argue.
This is a healthy zucchini bars recipe, too. It has to be. It has zucchini AND carrots. I'm kidding! I know it's not healthy. The bar is cinnamony, moist, nutty, and heavenly. The cream cheese frosting I whipped together was the perfect complement to these bars. It's the same frosting I use on my cinnamon rolls. SO perfect.
You can see the bits and pieces of shredded zucchini and carrots in the zucchini bars. I think this is why my husband was hesitant to eat them. The man freaks out anytime a vegetable is involved in baking.
I tried to just say that they were spice bars, but that was a big FAIL. The bits of colorful veggies gave it away. So, I'm not sure how many pieces he ate of this, but myself, mom, and my uncle scarfed these zucchini bars with cream cheese frosting right down.
This zucchini bars recipe makes a huge pan of bars! You can serve a large family dessert with this recipe or eat a dozen yourself. Get yourself a large jelly roll pan.
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If you don't have a jelly roll pan, I would recommend using two square pans but pay close attention that the bars aren't too thin. They bake up to be about an inch thick. They come to the top of the jelly roll pan when I bake them.
Questions About the Zucchini Bars Recipe
- Do I have to add nuts in these zucchini bars? Of course not!
- Do I have to use shredded carrots? No. You can substitute the carrots for more zucchini.
- Can I leave the cream cheese frosting off of the zucchini bars? Noooo. They're so good with the frosting.
How to make the best zucchini bars
The Best Zucchini Bars
Ingredients
Zucchini Bars
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- 2 cups shredded zucchini
- 1 small carrot shredded
- ¾ cup rolled oats
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
Cream Cheese Frosting
- ½ cup salted butter room temperature
- 8 ounces cream cheese room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
Bars
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.Grease a 17x11x1 or 15x10x1 pan.
- In a large bowl, add oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Mix with a hand mixer for 1 minute until well combined.
- In a separate bowl, sift flour, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Whisk to combine.
- Add the dry ingredients in with the wet ingredients. Mix with a hand mixer on low until the dry ingredients are incorporated.
- Fold in the shredded zucchini and carrots.
- Fold in rolled oats and walnuts.
- Spread out on prepared pan. Place in the oven and bake for 24 minutes. Let cool completely and frost.
Frosting
- In a large bowl, combine butter and cream cheese. Beat with the hand mixer until the mixture is smooth and well combined.
- Add in vanilla and powdered sugar. Mix on low until the powdered sugar is well incorporated. Turn mixer on high and mix for an additional minute or two.
- Spread on cooled bars with an offset spatula.
Nutrition
(Nutrition facts are an estimate and not guaranteed to be accurate. Please see a registered dietitian for special diet advice.)
This looks so good so I'm going to make some right now. I think I'll throw in a few raisins!
Thanks for sharing! Do they keep long?
I would say they last 4 to 5 days.
These look so good! I love all the fiber-ous ingredients!
I made this and it was good. I wouldn't exactly say it was a bar consistency - more like tiny cake squares. But very good. And easier than zucchini bread...didn't take as long to cook. Next time I'll try it without the leavening and see if it's more dense like a bar. Definitely saving the recipe though! Thanks for posting!
I made these last night! INCREDIBLE! My boyfriend said it was the best zucchini cake he ever had. I did not have the appropriate pans, so it came out quite thick and like a cake (I had to leave it in the oven for about 10 extra minutes). But, wow. I am totally smitten with this recipe! The addition of the carrot and the walnuts gives it that perfect fall touch. Now to add the cream cheese frosting- I can hardly wait!
I’m totally in for hiding veggies in anything...including this cake! Looks delicious and my crew will eat anything with a yummy cream cheese frosting. I could even pull this off as a birthday cake. Thanks for the recipe.
I lovelovelove walnuts in my carrot cake, so in a zucchini bread, it's a most welcome addition. The contrast of crunch and moist cake is pure perfection! I need to give these a go. What a great way to use up all of that excess zucchini from the garden!
This is a fantastic idea -- bars instead of bread. I have some extra zucchini and I wanted to make something different but needed some inspiration. What a great idea and this will be nice to cut into bars and share with the family. They'll love that topping on it.
My family was always dubious when I'd make a zucchini bread or carrot cake -- because obviously "vegetables don't belong in dessert" until you put cream cheese frosting on it -- and then it's more than acceptable -- it's fought over. I love that yours puts a double whammy of veg in the batter -- and if the recipe from an Aunt, it's got to be really good!
If you can get zucchini to taste like cake, I am so in! It looks like a gorgeous melt in your mouth bar and I can't wait for a pan of this to be cooling on my kitchen table! The frosting is just the perfect touch too - no one has to know the bar's secretly healthy 😉