We’ve been doing a series of baking competitions at work, inspired by the Great British Baking Show – and our most recent event was Battle: Bread. Although I am a prior Battle: Cookie winner (best tasting!), this time around I wasn’t going for gold, I just wanted to participate. I knew I wouldn’t have a lot of time to make a more fancy or advanced yeasted bread, so I went for a familiar quick bread that I’ve done many times before – zucchini bread.
While I’ve made zucchini bread a bunch of times before, it’s kind of like chili…in that I’ve never made it the same way twice. I’m always trying a new variation, adapting the recipe to what I have on hand or just plain going rogue for the heck of it. I’ve got to get my excitement from somewhere, right?!
Since I was going for pure participation and knew I’d probably go home with leftovers, I figured I might as well make it healthy. As it turns out, this is the best version of zucchini bread I’ve ever made – enough to make me stop my endless tinkering! – and…I only had one piece left after the competition 🙂 Shhhhhh don’t tell my coworkers it was healthy…
Zucchini Bread
This bread is mildly sweet, mildly spiced and really lets the natural beauty and moisture of the zucchini shine through. Feel free to up the spices, or swap chocolate chips for the walnuts, if you feel so inclined.
Ingredients
- 1/4 c pure maple syrup
- 1/4 c honey I used raw honey, scooped out and melted in microwave slightly
- 1/2 c plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- 1/2 c unsweetened applesauce I keep a pack of single-serve applesauce cups, like the ones that go in kids’ lunchboxes, in my pantry just for baking
- 2 large eggs
- 1 c whole wheat flour
- 1/2 c all purpose flour
- 2 tbsp almond flour this can be omitted if you don’t have it – but it adds a nice lightness
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 t cinnamon
- 1/4 t nutmeg
- 1/2 t salt
- 2 cups loosely packed shredded zucchini 1 medium or 2 smaller zucchini; I shredded it on a box grater and let it rest in a colander over a bowl rather than squeezing it too much – you don’t want to remove all the water, or else you lose the moistness
- 3/4 walnut pieces or chopped walnuts raw is fine, toasted is better
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, whisk together all the wet ingredients (syrup and honey, yogurt, applesauce, eggs) until smooth and well-incorporated. In a medium bowl, combine flours, baking powder and soda, spices and salt until combined. Dump the full amount of dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, add the zucchini and walnuts and, using a wooden spoon or spatula, stir together to combine without overmixing. It helps if you do a few vigorous stirs, then switch to more of a folding motion – you don’t want there to be visible pockets of flour, but lumps are fine.
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Pour into a sprayed 9x5 loaf pan and bake, rotating pan halfway through, until toothpick comes out clean, about 35 minutes. You could also do a dozen muffins, and I recommend checking them after 15 minutes; they’ll likely cook a bit faster (~25 min total).
Kristen says
Can’t wait to make this version… no white sugar, whole wheat flour, applesauce instead of butter or oil…very healthful vs the older recipes. And I still make a delicious chocolate one you gave me the recipe for years ago 🙂