Zucchini Bread Recipe for Everyone – Optionally Gluten Free and/or Vegan!

Loaves are boring. If you’re not making sandwich bread, there’s no good reason to make a loaf shape, I think. And when you freeze loaves of bread, you need to separate the slices with wax paper or something so that they don’t stick together or break apart if you want to take out just one slice. That’s just annoying. So no more loaves! We like these adorable zucchini bread donuts (both heart shaped and circle), muffins and mini-muffins. The kids love the shapes and they are so much easier to freeze and defrost individual portions. And sometimes, zucchini bread is the only way to get veggies into my kids, so I’m going to increase the chances of them eating it by making it more fun, gosh darnit!

Zucchini bread season is upon us! This is our first year of growing zucchini in the garden, and we chose this sexy golden variety. It’s been a lot of fun to find full-grown zucchinis pop up in what seems like just a few days. Now, zucchini is growing like crazy and is in abundance at the store, so what to do with all of it? Make the best zucchini bread, of course.

This zucchini bread recipe is my mom’s, and when she makes it, everyone always asks her for the recipe. I have modified it many times over the years to accommodate our various allergies and sensitivities. My mom makes this with wheat flour and eggs, but it is very easily tweaked to be allergy friendly. I make it gluten free with brown rice flour and, more recently, make it egg free as well. Her recipe calls for one cup of sugar, but I’ve been making it with 3/4 cup of sugar for a while now and it’s plenty sweet. It even gets a nice sugary crust on the bottoms! I’ve made this recipe many, many times and it always comes out great. Thanks Mom!

Notes:

• Makes approximately one loaf, 12 to 15 muffins, or 14 to 15 donuts, depending on size. Not sure how many mini muffins this makes because I usually just make minis out of any batter leftover after I fill the donut or muffin pans!
• If you make this gluten free with brown rice flour, be sure to add the 2 tsp. of xanthan gum. You can omit the xanthan gum if you’re using wheat flour.
• When making this egg-free, I make muffins or donuts. I have never made it egg free in a loaf pan, so I’m not sure how it would turn out. I imagine it will be fine, but may have to bake longer due to the higher moisture content.
• I’ve tried replacing the eggs in this recipe with egg replacer. It worked out fine, but was slightly less moist, and I preferred the all-applesauce variation. But you may prefer the egg replacer version if you’re making a loaf. What I did was mix 1+1/2 tsp. powdered egg replacer with 2 T. water, and add that plus an additional 2 T. of water and 1 T. of applesauce to the mixture instead of the eggs. If you try it this way, let me know what you think.

The Best Zucchini Bread Recipe for Everyone – Optionally Gluten Free, Egg Free and/or Vegan

Dry Ingredients:

1+ 3/4 cup all-purpose (wheat) flour, OR brown rice flour (to make it gluten free)

3/4 cup white sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. salt

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. xanthan gum (use only if you are making this gluten free)

Wet Ingredients:

1/2 cup oil (I use extra light olive oil)

2 eggs, beaten, OR 1/3 cup natural, unsweetened applesauce (see Notes, above)

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cups shredded zucchini (about 2 small zucchini)

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray or oil your baking pan(s) if not nonstick, or use cupcake/muffin liners if making muffins.

In a large mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients (flour through xanthan gum, if using). Add oil, eggs or applesauce, and vanilla. Mix well with a spoon until everything is moist.

Dough will look like this before you add zucchini!

The dough will be clumpy and not runny as all – that’s how you want it. Add shredded zucchini and mix well until the zucchini is evenly distributed.

Spread or scoop batter into prepared pan(s). Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. This will be approximately 70 minutes for a loaf pan, 12 to 14 minutes for donuts,  20 to 25 minutes for muffins, and 12 to 15 minutes for mini muffins. Let cool for a few minutes in the pan before turning out onto a cooling rack.