Gluten Free Zucchini Nut Bread Recipe
Oddly enough, it was not my gluten intolerance that prompted me to cook without the use of grains so much as it was my husband’s cholesterol count. When it soared way above 200, his doctor advised him to eliminate starchy carbohydrates and grains from his diet. Basically he went on a low carb diet and I needed to get creative if we were going to be able to sustain that lifestyle for any period of time.
Also, I am basically pretty lazy so all that mixing of different flours to come up with a reasonable facsimile of a gluten-filled counterpoint is just way too much work for me.
I have been tinkering with this Gluten Free Zucchini Nut Bread Recipe for about two weeks now and I finally have a winner! This has all the things we love about quick breads – flavor, crust and even crumbs.
The zucchini is just a jumping off point – I am already thinking of other ways to employ this method using pumpkin or bananas. How yummy would pumpkin cranberry nut bread be? Bananas with peanut butter instead of the almond butter? How about adding grated lemon zest to the zucchini recipe and drizzling with a lemon glaze? Yum! I think there is going to be a bit of baking in my near future!
Gluten Free Zucchini Nut Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 large eggs – separated
- 2 cups medium zucchini – grated on the large holes of a box grater
- ½ cup raw unsalted creamy almond butter
- 1 cup ground almond meal
- 1 teaspoon kosher or fine sea salt
- 2 tablespoons honey or agave syrup
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon aluminum-free gluten-free baking powder
- 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
- ½ cup walnuts – chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- Grease a 5” by 9” loaf pan with butter or gluten-free cooking spray. Cut a piece of parchment paper so that it goes down one side (but not the ends) of the pan, across the bottom and back up the other side extending over the sides by about 2 inches on each side. Grease that also (except the ends that extend over).
- In a large mixing bowl beat the egg yolks until they have lightened in color to a lemony yellow (about 2 minutes). Add the zucchini, almond butter, almond meal, salt, honey or agave, cinnamon, nutmeg and baking powder and mix until well blended.
- In a clean bowl with clean beaters whip the egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff peaks form.
- Take a big spoonful of the beaten egg whites and mix well into the zucchini mixture. Fold the zucchini mixture into the egg whites until no more streaks of white appear. Fold in the walnuts.
- Pour into the prepared pan and cook for 45 – 50 minutes until browned and puffy on top and firm in the center. Let cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. Remove bread from pan, discard parchment and allow the loaf to finish cooling on a rack.
Nutrition
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I want to ease the carbs for my boyfriend. Lord knows what his count is. Nice recipe and I amy be using my zucchinis for this.Im starting to prefer zucchini base to carrot.
Delicious looking bread, I need to pickup some of that fresh almond meal at the farmers market and try this. I for one vote for trying the bananas and peanut butter version!!!!
Be sure to stockpile everything at Trader Joe’s (including their PB) to last until your next visit =).
– The Peanut Butter Boy
Good Heavens, that sounds so good…especially with the lemon. Oh my!
This looks really good. I love the texture of the bread. Where do you find GF baking powder? I’ve never seen it.
I am so making this bread! It looks delicious! I’m leaning towards the pumpkin version with cinnamon and maybe a handful of green raisins.
Sticky gooey creamy chewy – you can use plain bicarbonate of soda and cream of tartar instead of baking powder if you can’t find gluten free. Use two parts cream of tartar to one part bicarb. you need about 1 tsp cream o tartar and 1/2 tsp bicarb for 8 oz flour/nut meal.
x x x
Gorgeous, gorgeous! I love that you used almond flour instead of grains. Great idea!
stickygooeycreamychewy – I got mine at my local health food store. It is produced by Hain Pure Foods. It is called Featherweight Baking Powder.
love this Carol!!! It’s beautiful and looks SO good!! What a wonderful idea!! I cannot get over what you can do without grain!! Amazing!!
Sounds yummy with the almond butter. And I bet cashew butter would be fab.
wow! That looks so beautiful and yummy!
Mmmm…that looks so yummy. Grain free is one of those things that opens up a whole world of possibilities.
Carol,
This sounds really tasty! I’m definitely going to try it.
Congrats on this winning quick bread! I’ll have to get some almond meal to try it out. Will you be making the pumpkin cranberry nut bread anytime soon? I look forward to seeing that! Even the peanut butter/banana combination sounds fabulous!
I’ve alway wanted to make zucchini bread, hope it come out as good as your’s. Thanks for checking out the veg carnival. Hope you can send me a recipe for the next one.
ahhhh… looks good. I”ll be trying this. Thank you!
This looks great! It reminds me of the zucchini bread my mom makes in the summer!
A wonderful creation Carol! The almond meal is a great substitute and am looking forward to trying some of the other versions.
I sent my friend to your website. He said it was great, he’s trying to add more gluten free cooking to his diet. He was very impressed.
This one looks another winner.
Looks delicious! I love zucchini bread! I also like the fade-out effect in the photo. Nice contrast with the purple flowers:)
Oh Carol! Keep them coming! I am going to make ALL of your grain-free recipes. :)
You did a wonderful job on your bread. It sounds simply fabulous.
Natalie @ Gluten a Go Go
I just tried my own combination, based on your grain free moffins and this bread, with a little inspiration from Straight Into Bed Cakefree and Dried’s Sweet potato pitas. I’m about to post it. Thanks so much!
Lovely bread – although i found it a bit wet (maybe my oven is a bit cold). Have tried it with a cup of besan flour as well as the almond meal, and added a tblspn of 'gluten free gluten' for substance. Just fabulous. Texture very similar to lovely 7-grain walnut loafs.
I can't thank you enough for this recipe. I have SIBO and I try and steer clear of grains completely; many substitutes like flax meal have too much fiber for me – its almost impossible to find a recipe that isn't harmful…We baked this bread tonight and it was just amazing. We couldn't tell from your recipe if we were to use all the egg white or not; we did and it turned out just perfect. Thanks so much!
It's been a while since you wrote this, I know, but I'm wondering if you could estimate how much those two medium zucchini should weigh, together? I have a gigantic zucchini from the farm where I work that I'd like to make zucchini bread with and I'm wondering if I should use the whole thing for this recipe or not– it weighs just over 4 lbs.! Thanks! – Bekah
Carol,
I was wondering if you knew anything about soaking almond flour? I know you can soak almonds to make them easier to digest but I already have the almond flour. Do you soak your actual flour and if so, how, because usually recipes don't call for enough liquids to soak it. Thanks!
Carol,
I was wondering if you knew anything about soaking almond flour? I know you can soak almonds to make them easier to digest but I already have the almond flour. Do you soak your actual flour and if so, how, because usually recipes don't call for enough liquids to soak it. Thanks!
Awesome! So glad I found your blog. I will try this out tonite.
I'm making this now. Do you have any bread recipes or even tips on buying at the store to allow us to eat sandwiches again – like a simple peanutbutter and jelly or ham and cheese sandwich?
legend_018….If you can tolerate g/f grains, Rudi’s Multi-grain is very good. Udi’s is good also, I just prefer Rudi’s.
I tried this recipe and for some reason it didn’t work. It looked FABULOUS and appeared cooked when I took it out of the oven after 50min of baking, but when I cut it a couple hourse later, it was completely raw and mushy inside. I have lots of experience baking gluten free with almond flour and this has never happened to me before. Any idea what might have gone wrong? Thanks
Wow, that is so strange. Coincidentally a friend of mine just made this recipe from my site and brought it to a function, it was perfectly cooked. The only thing I can think of is that zucchini contains a lot of moisture and some more than others which may have effected the results. I am going to make this again myself and see what happens, will get back to you! Thank you for letting me know.
I just made this tonight since I have recently realized I am gluten intolerant. I love baking and on a mission to try new gluten free desserts. This did not turn out and tasted horrible. I am a good cook too! Maybe I am not used to the missing sugar? Just something was missing. I even made my own almond meal! Better luck next time. ;-) Also, I don’t see where you actually put in the walnuts (think you missed that step). I added just before the egg white folding.
Ok, just realized that I put in the entire grated zucchini! Meant to make 2 batches of bread and was so tired after work that I put the whole bowl in. Jeez. Better luck next time.
I completely understand what it is like to be tired! Yes, better luck next time!
Hi Shanon,
Thanks for letting me know about the walnuts, I fixed that on the recipe. This is not as sweet of a bread as you may be used to with zucchini bread. To be honest it is not a bread for every one – it has what I call an “earthy wholesome” taste. I like it and many do but there are those who are used to more of a refined tatse. I would also not call this a dessert. I am sorry you didn’t like it – there are lots of other recipes on this site that might fit the bill more of what you are looking for.
xo,
carol
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