A friend of mine from Books Through Bars tipped me off to this delicious recipe back in 2008. Actually, let me rephrase: she taunted me with slice after slice of this zucchini bread on multiple occasions until I broke down and begged for the recipe.
If you have a glut of zucchini this summer, this is a great way to use some up, but it’s also the kind of recipe I feel like eating year-round. It’s spicy — there’s a whole lotta nutmeg and cinnamon — and it just has a great, warm flavor. I love the texture, too; it’s fluffy and moist with a nice crumb.
I’ve tweaked the recipe a bit from the original and the ingredients are pretty darn wholesome, so if you’re looking to sneak in a few extra veggies onto a picky eater’s plate, this might be just what you’re looking for. If that’s the case, you should probably just call it “Spicy Awesome Bread.” Or if you’re looking to instill fear, Midwestern grandma-style, call it “Spicy Surprise Bread.” While you’re at it, you might as well “sneak in” some chocolate chips, too — they pair awesomely with the flavors in this bread.
- 6 tbsp ground flax seeds
- ½ c warm water
- 2 c turbinado sugar (or light brown sugar)
- ½ c oil
- ½ c applesauce
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 to 2½ c grated zucchini (~3 medium-sized ones)
- 2 c all-purpose flour
- 1 c whole wheat flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 c chocolate chips or raisins, optional
- Grease two loaf pans.
- Mix together flax seeds and warm water.
- Add sugar, oil, applesauce, and vanilla; beat well.
- Add grated zucchini; stir til combined.
- In a separate bowl, sift together remaining dry ingredients.
- Add dry mixture to wet and stir just until dry ingredients are moistened and everything is incorporated evenly; some lumps are fine. If adding additional mix-ins, fold them in now. Divide batter between prepared pans.
- Bake at 350 for 50-55 minutes, or until knife inserted in center of loaf comes out clean. Let cool a few minutes before slicing.
105 comments
Faye says:
Jul 29, 2013
This was excellent! I fearfully watched my mom ( a huge critic of vegan baked goods) take a bite, and she loved it! Only thing I did differently was omit the nutmeg, increased the vanilla to 1T, and I used half white and half brown sugar. Thanks again!
tinajoan says:
Aug 6, 2013
This bread is delicious! I made it with zucchinis from my garden, and I added raisins, walnuts, and pecans (I like my bread loaded with add-ins!). Great recipe
DeDeNYC says:
Aug 10, 2013
This is a luscious recipe! I subbed a chia-flax seed blend for the flax seeds, and it came out quite nice. A lot of vegan z-breads come out either way too dry and hard, or way too “pudding-y” (i.e., wet and dense, with no solid core) but this recipe comes out just right–a solid loaf of bread that is moist yet with a good crumb. A hit with all!
Pam says:
Aug 24, 2013
My first vegan baking experiment was a hit thanks to this recipe! I used coconut oil, subbed in a little barley flour for some of the white flour, and added almonds and dried cranberries. I think I will dial the sugar back a bit next time, and there definitely will be a next time.
Mairead says:
Sep 16, 2013
This looks great. Will be trying it later today with my super sized courgette! Just one thing, what size are your loaf tins? Standard here in Ireland is a 2lb tin, but the pics above look like they might be a 1lb tin… I’m a novice baker so need to check, thanks!
claryn says:
Sep 16, 2013
I typically use a 8.5×4.5×2.5″ loaf pan, which I think corresponds with a 1lb pan. You might want to double-check my math, though!
Leigh says:
Oct 2, 2013
Instead of applesauce, I used mashed up banana and whirled all the wet ingredients (except zucchini) in the vitamix (too lazy to stir). The bread came out real even and is yummy! I just had trouble with it sticking to the pain for some reason (I didn’t coat with enough oil?).
Courgette (zucchini) and carrot muffins | That Hummus Life says:
Nov 4, 2013
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Candice says:
Dec 20, 2013
Damn it’s delicious! I baked this today and subbed unbleached white whole wheat flour and coconut oil. After 45 min. it was ready to come out of the oven. I took the loaves out and cooled them on the rack then went shopping. When I came home I put a slice in the toaster added a bit of coconut oil to the toast and Bam, Delicious! Thank you!
Hilary says:
Jan 22, 2014
Fantastic recipe!
Julie says:
Feb 9, 2014
Excellent!
Here are the changes I made to make it a little healthier:
-Half the sugar (I used brown sugar).
-For the 3 cups of flour: 1 cup Oatsl, 1+1/3 cup Whole wheat flour, 2/3 cup white flour.
-I replaced the nutmeg for “pumpkin pie spices”…I think this spice mix complements every baked goods!
-I used 1 cup of raisins.
It was sweet enough with only half the sugar! The texture was perfect!
Thank you for this great recipe!
Caroline says:
Jul 24, 2014
Made this last night with a mixture of flours that needed using up, but found it was a bit too sweet for me. Otherwise, wonderful texture and taste, and used up some of my surplus zucchini. Shall have another go with half the sugar when the next glut of zucchini appears.
Rebekah says:
Mar 11, 2014
Yum!!! Just made this, my toddler and I loved it. Halfway through I realized we were out of all purpose flour, so instead I used two cups of whole wheat flour and one cup of brown rice flour. I added extra coconut oil and applesauce because of the density. To my surprise it worked out well, even with that substitution. Thanks for another awesome recipe!
Bridget says:
Jun 2, 2014
Yum! This is great. I only had 1 loaf pan, so I made the rest into a dozen muffins, which took about 25 minutes to cook.
claryn says:
Jul 10, 2014
Sweet. Thanks for the tip, Bridget!
Danielle says:
Jun 14, 2014
Are you sure 6 TBSP of flax seed is right? That would be the equivalent of 6 eggs, which is twice the number of what most non-vegan recipes call for. I followed this exactly, but mine would not cook through in the center, no matter how much extra time I left it in the oven. It was soupy even after 90 minutes. I had to throw it out. I think it might work better with 3T of flax instead of 6 but am afraid to waste ingredients trying it again.
claryn says:
Jul 10, 2014
Yep, 6 Tbsp between the two loaves. In other words, the relative equivalent of 3 eggs per loaf. I’m confident you could make it with less flax if needed. You divided it between two standard loaf pans, right? Zucchini also vary in moisture content, so if you used the larger amount, the loaves might need a longer baking time. Even then, there’s no reason this batter would turn into an uncookable soup.
Donna says:
Jul 15, 2014
This was delicious, substituted Almond flour for the whole wheat and added pecans, omg sooo good!
Mali says:
Jul 20, 2014
It’s almost gone. not even 10 mins out the oven. Love this recipe. I used chia seeds instead of flax (no flax in the pantry), apple butter instead of applesauce (all i had in the fridge) and two almost bananas. Surprisingly it still came out good. Thanks.
Cassca55 says:
Jul 20, 2014
Great bread, BUT TOO MUCH SUGAR!
YUM. The texture and the rise was amazing for a vegan bread. Fluffy and chewy, like a dream. Like another commenter, I had chia, not flax, seeds on hand, so I used those instead.
BUT – this recipe has WAY too much sugar for me. I gave it the benefit of the doubt since it was the first time trying it, but it came out tasting like cake. Why? With all that sugar, you can hardly taste the zucchini — which is sweet as it is!! I will literally halve the sugar next time.
julie2793 says:
Jul 27, 2014
I just made this today and it was fantastic! Thank you so much for sharing!
Robin says:
Aug 1, 2014
Our garden is overflowing with humungous zucchinis and this was the perfect opportunity to put them to use! I made this recipe yesterday afternoon and it was flawless. Followed as written other than using 1c turbinado + 1c coconut sugar- ran out of turbinado. I’m not sure why the previous commenter had such trouble with it cooking through! Also drizzled the finished product with a simple lemon juice/zest glaze which I highly recommend doing! took it over the top.
I added 1 cup blueberries (tossed with flour to prevent sinking) to half of the mixture and made blueberry muffins (threw walnuts into half of the muffins). Superb. The walnuts add a great texture/crunch.
Fresh picked blackberries were added to the other half of the mix which I baked in a standard 9×5 pan.
The muffins took about 35min, give or take. The loaf was about 60min and could have used 2-3min more, but no big deal! I sliced half of the loaf into squares and packed them up with a few muffins to take to my coworkers. They raved about them! I’ll definitely be making this recipe again with some other fun fruits/nuts/etc.
Emma says:
Aug 9, 2014
I made this recipe this morning and it turned out great!! I was low on flax so I used just under 5 tbsp flax and 2 tbsp chia and popped them into mini loaf tins. Definitely recommend and will make over and over again!!
Lisa Plummer-Ladd says:
Aug 9, 2014
I made two batches of this recipe with a couple of tweaks. The first one is what I call my “Chocolate Chunky Bread”. I added a chopped organic dark chocolate bar and some halved walnuts. I also halved the sugar.
The second batch was my “Tropical” batch, where I substituted crushed pineapple for the applesauce, used coconut oil, and added a whole very ripe banana. I added some organic shredded coconut in with the dry mix. I halved the sugar with this one as well.
In both cases I made muffins instead of a loaf.
Both were awesome! ☮ ♥ ☺
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CB says:
Sep 12, 2014
The flavor of the recipe turned out great! I had a hard time to get it to cook all the way through though . . . any suggestions?
Laura says:
Sep 21, 2014
SO IMPRESSED!
I’m also gluten free, so I substituted Bobs Red Mill gluten free all purpose baking mix for the 3 cups of flour. I also used 1 cup of coconut sugar instead of the 2 cups regular sugar. This made for not a very sweet loaf, which is what I like, but others may like a bit more sugar. I also used pumpkin pie spice in place of the 2 spices. I only have one loaf pan, so I made one loaf plus 6 muffins. The muffins took a bit less time, the loaf a bit more. VERY YUMMY and a definite keeper. I’ve made a delicious loaf with no white sugar, eggs or gluten that actually worked! Yayyyy.
Renee says:
Nov 21, 2014
Super delicious, have made a few times!
Here are a few changes I made:
Used 3 Tbsp Chia seeds and 3 Tbsp flax meal in place of all of the flax
Used ripe bananas in place of applesauce
Cut the sugar to 1 cup