Recipe Time: 100% whole grain zucchini bread (wheat free, soy free, corn free, dairy free, casein free) and still so good!
So there’s no way that I can bake things that will smell delicious and be off-limits to Emma when she’s around, cuz that’s just mean (and foolish). As a result, I’ve been unable to make much zucchini bread this season, which is terribly sad since it freezes really well and can be made in a zillion delicious varieties and all things being equal is a pretty healthy dessert option. Today however the stars aligned and while Emma was at preschool I was able to knock out a few batches of zucchini bread with the last of the summer squash from the farm. Now all I have to do is air out the joint and hose the place down with Citrus Magic before she gets home to erase any trace of yummy odor.
My recipe eats up a good amount of zucchini, uses 100% organic whole grains, is lower in fat than traditional recipes, and is wheat free, dairy free, and soy free (it is not gluten free or sugar free, and if you add in chocolate chips, all bets are off). I’m giving you the basic recipe here, which is fantastic, as well as a few suggestions for variations, but really anything goes so be creative. Each recipe will make approximately 6 mini loaves, 26 muffins, or 2 large loaves.
I personally do not care for whole wheat a great deal, unless you’re just talking whole wheat bread. I find the flavor to be too overbearing and too “different” to my westernized palette when whole wheat tries to sneak its way into my pasta or baked good treats. I often adapt my recipes to include brown rice flour and oat flour as a whole grain substitute for white flour. I find the result to be delicious and not too heavy. I hope you’ll enjoy it too.
100% Whole Grain Zucchini Bread (soy free, corn free, casein free, dairy free, wheat free)
1 ½ c. organic brown rice flour
1 ½ c. organic oat flour (I buy our organic whole grain flours in the bulk section of Whole Foods)
1 t. salt
1 ½ t. baking soda
1 ½ t. baking powder
3 t. cinnamon
3 eggs (organic preferred)
½ c. coconut oil
½ c. organic unsweetened applesauce (we buy ours at Trader Joe’s)
2 c. white sugar
3 t. organic pure vanilla extract
3. c. grated zucchini (or most any summer squash)
1 c. chopped pecans
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees (my sixth grade home ec. teacher always said to preheat your oven as step one, assuming that you’ve already washed your hands. Of course, she also called pouring Jell-o pudding into a pre-made graham cracker crust “baking” so maybe you can take on more in step one) and grease and flour your pans.
2. Place grated zucchini in a strainer and sprinkle with salt. Set in sink to drain.
3. Sift together flours, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon and set aside.
4. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, coconut oil, applesauce, vanilla, and sugar until well blended. Slowly add the dry ingredients, stirring well to mix.
5. Squeeze zucchini to remove moisture and add zucchini and nuts to the other ingredients in the bowl. Stir to incorporate.
6. Pour batter into prepared pans, filling pans approximately ¾ of the way to the top.
7. Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out with only a few clingy crumbs; 30-35 min. for muffins; 35-40 min. for mini loaves; approximately 1 hour for large loaves.
8. Allow to cool in pan before removing. If you try to remove from pan while still warm, you’re likely to end up with the bottom portion of the bread stuck to the pan. Good news for the person who gets to scoop it out of the pan with a spoon and eat it. Bad news for the person planning to bring the zucchini bread to the school potluck.
The variations here are endless. You can mix and match any of the following to create your own flavors (e.g. double chocolate, chocolate cherry with pistachios, cranberry orange walnut, lemon poppy seed, etc.):
1t.-1½ t. flavored extract (e.g. lemon, almond, etc.)
½-1 c. chocolate chips
½-1 c. chopped nuts (pistachio, walnut, pecan, macadamia)
½-3/4 c. dried fruit (cherries, blueberries, cranberries, apricots, etc.)
1-2 T. citrus zest (orange, lemon, lime)
½ c. chopped fresh fruit (peaches, apples, blueberries, etc) *You might want to decrease some of the applesauce in the recipe if you take this route.
¼ c. cocoa powder
1-2 T. seeds (sunflower, pumpkin, poppy, etc.)
As a final note on the recipe, as soon as Emma walked in the door from preschool (a full two hours after I erased any trace of baking evidence,) her first words were, “It smells like muffins.” Fortunately I had some gluten, casein, corn, and sugar free banana bread in the freezer from another day and she was more than happy to gobble that down and stop pressing me for details (whew!)
September 18th, 2007 at 8:56 pm
Oh wow. I think I love you! I am wheat free and dairy free, although I cheat a LOT. This recipe just might make it easier for me to stay on my diet. I do just with with oats.
September 18th, 2007 at 9:35 pm
Carrie-I hope that you give the recipe a try. It’s how I made zucchini bread long before we had any dietary restrictions just because it’s healthier this way and delicious. Please let me know how it works for you.
October 31st, 2007 at 6:28 pm
Hi there,
Is there an altrernative I could use for sugar. I can’t have cane sugar but maple syrup and honey is ok. Can I use these?
Thanks
October 31st, 2007 at 9:42 pm
Hi Sarah!
In general, we use agave syrup, honey, maple syrup, stevia, date sugar, brown rice syup, and other non-cane sugar/non-artificial sweeteners for Emma as she too cannot have cane sugar. I haven’t tried to do much baking with sugar substitutes as I’m sure that the chemistry of the recipe would be thrown off quite a bit by replacing a “dry ingredient” (cane sugar) with a wet ingredient like honey, agave, or maple. I have heard recent talk about people using xylitol for baking, but I’m dubious about it personally s I don’t know much about its impact upon the body, and I have not used it personally.
I have had some success using liquidy sweeteners in place of sugar in some recipes that have a wetter texture (e.g. the rice pudding recipe on this site, and I recently made an apple crisp with agave and honey). If you experiment with non-cane sugar sweeteners in the quick bread recipe, please let me know your results. If you want to learn a bit more about natural and artificial sugar substitutes, look here.
-CP
March 2nd, 2008 at 11:23 am
Hi Sarah,
Thanks for the great wheat free recipe..can’t wait to try it! Can I substitute coconut oil for something else? I wasn’t able to find it.
Thank you!!!
March 3rd, 2008 at 10:57 pm
Jill-
You can use canola oil in place of the coconut oil. You can probably find coconut oil at your local health food store. I use Nutiva brand organic coconut oil which is available through the grocery section of amazon.com.
Happy baking!
-CP
August 7th, 2008 at 8:51 am
Hi Sarah, I would use sucanat in place of white sugar, it’s granulated raw sugar. Would you be able to use that?
Ginny
September 4th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
Sounded great until the 2 cups of white sugar..ouch.
September 18th, 2008 at 7:09 am
Forget the refined white sugar! I used 1/4 C honey, 1/4 C molasses and 1 tsp Stevia (a sweet herb in powdered form that can be found in health food stores). I also fiddled with the flour amounts and included some Kamut and Chickpea flours (1/2 c of each and reduced the oat to only 1/2 c). Tapioca starch helps with the texture of baking when using non wheat fours, I added 2 Table sp. No applesauce since both my kids are sensitive to it(If your kids are complaining of stomache aches see a naturalpath about food sensitivities). I’ll probably tinker with this one a little more but my kids were greedily munching it down after it came out of the oven.
September 18th, 2008 at 7:51 am
Jancy-
Thanks for noting all of your changes. I’ll have to try some of them too. I’m pleased to hear that the liquid sweeteners didn’t yield a totally mushy loaf.
-CP
October 14th, 2008 at 10:29 am
I was told that sugar (white granulated sugar) is considered a “liquid” when it comes to the chemistry of baking, because sugar melts quickly into a liquid once heated. I am guessing that substituting sugars that are liquid before baking (i.e. agave, honey, molasses, etc.) would be more true to a recipe that calls for sugar than using a dry sugar (like stevia) that does not melt. Also, I baked with granulated xylitol, and taste-wise it was fine. I am still learning about xylitol, but info. on xylitol is quite complementary on dental sites. (Xylitol is often used as a cavity preventer in gums, toothpaste, etc. and is FDA approved.)
October 25th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Hi,
Thanks for posting this recipe. I have been searching for a soy free, corn free, casein free, dairy free, wheat free zucchini bread recipe. I have tried many and the texture was either too soft or too gritty. I look forward to trying this one as the picture looks so yummy.
Thanks again,
Sandra
October 27th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Sandra-
I hope that you enjoy the recipe. To avoid grittiness, I would recommend that you use a very finely ground rice flour. Frontier co-op makes a great fine-ground organic brown rice flour. You can also purchase very finely ground white rice flour (non organic) from Asian markets. I hope that helps!
-CP
April 25th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
WOw i LovE tHIs ReCiPe.
iT Is oNe Of ThE BeSt zUcCHinE bREaDS I
hAvE eVer MaDe. :]
THaNKS FoR POsTiNg IT!!