Zucchini bread is one of my very favorite varieties of “quick bread.”
Lightly sweetened, with a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg, it’s a tasty way to use up any extra zucchini you may have on hand and will appeal to even your pickiest eaters! In fact, my husband (who tends to be a picky eater when it comes to “healthy” stuff) has been enjoying this bread all week, and has already requested that I make it again. It’s perfectly moist and delicious!
What I love about coconut flour is that just a little bit goes a long way, making it more economical using than blanched almond flour. Treats made with coconut flour also tend to be higher in protein, as you need quite a few eggs to provide structure! While we’re on the subject of eggs, I don’t recommend using flax or chia “eggs” in this recipe, as the result tends to be gooey and under-baked. They just don’t rise and fluff-up the way that real eggs do. However, I do have a vegan recipe in the works, so stay tuned.
In the meantime, you may want to try my Vegan Pumpkin Bread as an alternative gluten-free and egg-free option.
I made this Zucchini Bread several times to get it just right, both as muffins and as a loaf. I actually prefer the muffin version, since they bake faster and are automatically portioned, but both ways taste delicious. (I’ve included instructions for both below.) Enjoy!
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Paleo Coconut Flour Zucchini Bread
Makes 1 standard loaf (or 12 muffins)
Ingredients:
3/4 cup coconut flour
6 eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 cup melted coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini, tightly packed
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350F and line a standard (9-inch by 5-inch) loaf pan with parchment paper. (If you’re making muffins, line a standard muffin tin with 12 baking cups.)
In a large bowl, combine the coconut flour, eggs, maple syrup, oil, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and baking soda and use a whisk to stir well, breaking up any lumps as you go. The batter will most likely be thicker than the cake-like-batter you’ve come to expect when making quick breads. Stir in the shredded zucchini then scoop the batter into the loaf pan, smoothing the top with a spatula. (Or divide the batter into the 12 lined muffin cups.)
Bake the loaf at 350F for 45 to 50 minutes, until the top is golden and firm. If baking muffins, bake them at 350F for 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Because this bread is very moist, I recommend storing it in the fridge for best shelf life. It should keep in an airtight container for up to a week– if you don’t eat it all before then!
Paleo Coconut Flour Zucchini Bread
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup coconut flour
- 6 eggs at room temperature
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 1/4 cup melted coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini , tightly packed
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F and line a standard (9-inch by 5-inch) loaf pan with parchment paper. (If you're making muffins, line a standard muffin tin with 12 baking cups.)
- In a large bowl, combine the coconut flour, eggs, maple syrup, oil, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and baking soda and use a whisk to stir well, breaking up any lumps as you go. The batter will most likely be thicker than the cake-like-batter you've come to expect when making quick breads. Stir in the shredded zucchini then scoop the batter into the loaf pan, smoothing the top with a spatula. (Or divide the batter into the 12 lined muffin cups.)
- Bake the loaf at 350F for 45 to 50 minutes, until the top is golden and firm. If baking muffins, bake them at 350F for 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Because this bread is very moist, I recommend storing it in the fridge for best shelf life. It should keep in an airtight container for up to a week-- if you don't eat it all before then!
Nutrition
Nutrition Info (per 1 slice out of 12): Calories: 142, Fat: 7g, Carbohydrates: 14g, Fiber: 2g, Protein: 4g
*Note: I tried baking this loaf with simply a greased baking pan and it stuck like crazy– I couldn’t remove the loaf without destroying the bottom of the bread. This is why I recommend using parchment paper or silicone baking cups. These silicone muffin cups work like magic!
As I mentioned above, I don’t think flax or chia “eggs” would work well as a substitute in this recipe, but please let me know if you have any success with other substitutions in the comments below!
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Reader Feedback: What’s your favorite quick bread?
Ohh I’ve been craving zucchini bread lately and this looks delicious! Love the idea of making muffins with it for a quick on-the-go snack!
OMG I am making these today – they look so good! I may just add some lime into the mix and boom they will be fabulous!
I would love to make this without any added sweetener. Any ideas how i could make this work? do i need to replace that 1/2 cup sweetener with another liquid? more coconut oil?
Ill just start experimenting but thought i would ask for suggestions here first.
what about using some applesauce from apples that are naturally sweet. Chop up some peeled and cored sweet apples and cook them down. fill a pot with chopped apples and some water to keep apples from burning to pan. add water as needed to keep from scorching. it is hard to determine amt of water as some apples are jucier than others. store bought applesauce usually has added sugar or corn syrup. just a thought. perhaps add some agave nectar as an alternative to the maple syrup.
You could also use Agave Nectar for sweetness. Agave does not raise your blood glucose.
Agave absolutely raises blood glucose just FYI. Only natural non-spiking sweeteners I’d recommend are erythritol (a sugar alcohol), bochasweet (kabocha squash extract, monk fruit (lo han hip), or stevia.
I buy no sugar applesauce in small individual cups to bake with. You can go to the baby food aisle and pick up a veggies-fruit mixture without sugar too. You can also take 2 large medjool dates, put them in some warm water and melt them down a bit and cool. Then I put the eggs and dates in a small food processor to get them incorporated well.
Dates do not process in our bodies like other sugars, a good source of fiber, and they are delicious. Agave is worse than sugar in our livers not raising blood sugar, but making more fat cells. It is not healthy… remember marketing money is what we hear. There is monk fruit, lucema, Xylitol, and coconut sugar alternatives, too.
I have used 2 small envelopes of stevia in recipes like this. A bit of sweetness brings up the flavors. You can always up your spices, too.
DR OZ SAID When you eat fructose-rich agave, your body does not release nearly as much insulin as it does when you eat regular sugar. This can affect how your body releases a hormone called leptin, which helps to control appetite. At the same time, experts believe that fructose is converted into fat more rapidly than glucose is. This can lead to several alarming consequences. The first is that people who eat a lot of agave are at risk for weight gain, especially belly fat. The second is that agave may actually increase insulin resistance for both diabetics and non-diabetics.
Apple sauce
It’s pretty awesome these are paleo. My wife freezes zucchini from the summer and saves it to make zucchini bread now when it’s not in season. But even she admits that hers is super loaded in flour and sugar and butter and we both end of looking like the Pillsbury DoughBoy when we’ve eaten it all. Not good!
I totally agree! My recipe has 3 cups flour, a cup each white & brown sugar, & a cup of oil. I am just starting paleo, so was very happy to find this!
Hello! And thank you for sharing your work with us. I was wondering if there might be an alternative to the maple syrup as I follow Wheat Belly’s diet and this isn’t allowed
Honey would probably work, but I’d use less of it, since it’s sweeter than maple syrup. Maybe try 1/3 cup?
Would applesauce work as a substitute? If so, any guesses to how much? I want my baby to enjoy it but don’t want the syrup:)
I used a half cup of Swerve. It came out great. You could try erythritol or stevia in place of the syrup. Good luck.
Looks great! Can’t wait to try these
I live almost 9,000ft above sea level- any thoughts on how to adapt this for a high altitude recipe? Was thinking of upping the coconut flour to 1c and decreasing the baking soda to 1/4 or 1/2 tsp?
I wish I could help, but I don’t have much experience with adapting recipes for high altitude. If you have any success, please do share it with us all!
I live at 8,200 Ft above sea level in the Eastern Mountains of California. I made this today and didn’t change one thing in the recipe and it came out perfectly. Thank you for the recipe!
This sounds great! I’d like to add cocoa powder, do you have any suggestions for how I should alter the other ingredients to complement the extra dry ingredient? Thank you!
Also, my most favorite quick breads are banana & apple, but I enjoy every kind I’ve had, so far :0).
Hi! I love your recipes. I do not have coconut flour and was hoping to use some bob red mill all purpose gluten free flour. Would that work?
No.
Baking with coconut flour requires a lot of eggs and liquid(such as a Liquid sweetener because the flour (actually, it’s mostly fiber since it’s finely dried and defatted coconut meat) absorbs a lot of liquid.
So you would need to rework the recipe by cutting the number of eggs and using a non liquid sweetener such as brown sugar/ coconut sugar / palm sugar.
Do I need to squeeze moisture out of the shredded zucchini ?
That was going to be my question too! I guess I’ll know in a few minutes as its baking right now. 🙂
I used silicone baking cups and they came out wet on the bottom and hard to remove, so yes I would squeeze the moisture out. My zucchinis were extremely watery though so maybe you won’t have the same problem. The rest of the muffin was perfect.
I’ve made this recipe with freshly shredded Zuchinni, with just a bit of moisture removed, and with frozen that had a lot of moisture come out after thawing. I prefer the end result when using Frozen Zuchinni (I find it almost too moist w/ fresh) so probably best to remove as much water as possible.
I want to try this but cannot eat maple syrup, honey or any sugars…How can I substitute it for stevia? Any recommendations for replacing the “bulk” and “stickiness” of the syrup?
Thank you!
The muffins look great!! I love coconut flour and zucchini! I was wondering if you had any substitutions that I could use if I did not want to use a sweetener like the maple syrup, is there a way to make them more sugar free? Any suggestions would be helpful!
Hi Megan,
I love zucchini bread, and I managed to rewrite an old classic recipe filled with flour and sugar, but it never crossed my mind to add a coconut flour – it’s a great idea that I’ll simply had to try 🙂
I love a good quick bread too – and zucchini is always a classic that can do no wrong! I must try your paleo version, I love how healthy it is.
This was such an easy recipe and SO delicious!! Thank you for the great recipe!
This is such a delicious and easy to make recipe. I’ve made it several times already since you’ve posted it. Thank you for sharing!
I have a question about using coconut flour in a recipe that calls for regular flour. Can you just substitute one for the other at the same amount called for in the recipe?
Love the recipe, it is truly yummy.
Nope. Coconut flour is its own thing. If you’re looking for a substitution, you’d be better off finding another recipe that calls for what you actually have.
No, no, no… never! Only use coconut flour for recipes that specifically call for it.
Thanks to you, I will no longer be buying the zucc loaf’s from my local health food store any longer! *head scratch why I even bothered with them in the first place?*
This yummy recipe puts the other to absolute shame! .. My loaf came out just perfect and tasted delish!
xo
mmm looks good.
Can’t wait to make these and freeze them for work-breakfasts!
Can I omit the honey? Will that cause them not to bake up or something?
Any idea how to make this without the sweetner please? Apple or pear? Thanks
This looked so good, but it tasted awful.
This turned out fantastic! I kept the recipe the same except I used 1 cup of zucchini and 1/2 of carrot. Delicious!
You could try sweetening with banana if you don’t want to use maple syrup.
I made this today using banana flour instead of coconut flour, came out perfect!
great to hear! I will use banana flour too and a ripe banana to sweeten instead of maple 🙂
Excellent recipe. Turned out perfect. Thank you so much!
I am excited to bake these! Do you think I could use almond meal instead of coconut flour? I just happen to have almond meal on hand 🙂
Almond meal would not be a good substitute because coconut flour is VERY absorbent so a little goes a long way. If you were to use almond meal you would need to up the amount by a good bit because it’s not near as absorbent, so it wouldn’t keep the bread together the same as coconut flour.
This afternoon my husband brought up some of those zucchini torpedoes that sometime happen in the garden when you aren’t looking! I came across ;your recipe for zucchini bread and, even though I’ve never had a successful coconut flour bread/cake I decided to try it. IT WAS FABULOUS! Best bread/cake I’ve had since going paleo 4 years ago. I can’t wait to try this with grated apple and lemon zest….or pineapple and shredded coconut. It’s a great template to work from. Thanks so much for posting. I’ll be checking out your other recipes!
Pineapple and coconut sounds yummy! I am making this for the first time, I wish I had read these comments first. They are in the oven now, so we will see how it works out without squeezing the water out of the zucchini. I also replaced the map,e syrup with equal amounts of coconut nector….fingers crossed!
I followed the directions as given and am quite pleased with these muffins. They are very light and moist and not overly sweet. Next time I will remember to spray the muffin liners with olive oil spray (like Pam) which has helped in the past. I also might try orange zest but these really are good as is. Thank you:)
This bread has a slight taste of coconut. It is good. I would definately drain the extra fluid out of your zucchini. I will produce a better bread.
Thanks for a great recipe!
I used parchment cupcake cups–Target has them. Nothing sticks to them.
I did find that my usual 2T of batter made a half size muffin so I put 4T per muffin cup the second time–did not see that the recipe is for 12 muffins until I made the 24 small ones. LOL
I am making these muffins tonight! I wonder if they freeze well? I would like to get a head of the back-to-school crazy schedule by freezing a lot of grain and wheat free meals and snacks. These sound like they might freeze well in an airtight freezer bag. Any luck with doing so?
Yes, I think they would freeze just fine!
I made this last night and it came out pretty well, but the texture is more spongey/eggy than cake-like. Some bites even have a distinctive egg taste, even though I thoroughly blended the batter. I may try leaving out one egg next time. The flavor is very good.
Just popped these muffins out of the oven and they’re delicious! I accidentlynused slightly less coconut oil so they came out a little dry, but nothing a little vegan butter can’t fix. I also swapped the maple syrup for honey and they are perfectly sweet. Also added a handful of shredded coconut and it was delicious! Will definitely be making these again and will try using applesauce next time.
Thanks for all your great recipes. Can egg whites be substituted for the whole eggs and what substitutions can be used for the coconut oil. Can i replace with equal applesauce for low fat version???
I can’t comment on substitutions that I haven’t tried myself. I assume the egg whites would work (two whites = one egg) but you never know for sure until you try. Please come back and share your results so we all can benefit!
And do you know if I can replace the coconut oil with applesauce?
I haven’t tried it myself, but I assume it would work okay– with a slight change in taste and texture.
I love this recipe. I wanted to add some protein into it for extra sustaining snack power. For each 1 scoop of SFH chocolate pure whey powder, I added one-half of a mashed banana for some extra moisture! So yummy. Likely our favorite coconut flour bread recipe so far!
Looking at the caloric content.
Can you show us how you got 150 calories per slice?
I’ve done the count and find over 200 cal per slice.
Thanks!
I plugged all the ingredients into myfitnesspal’s recipe maker and set it at 12 servings. I actually added some sunflower seeds to mine so it came out at about 180 per muffin (I did muffins not slices). Seems like without the seeds it would be about 155-160.
I’m vegan so how can I make this bread without eggs?
Thank you
Chances are good that you can’t make it without the eggs unless you also find a very similar vegan replacement. The proteins in the eggs combined with the fiber and protein in the coconut flour is what keeps it together. I would google a vegan paleo zucchini bread recipe and see if you can find one already adapted.
For people looking at this later, try 1 T of powdered chia seed to replace an egg. I’ve seen people say to add 1 T of water to that, but I add water until it looks about the right amount of volume for an egg. Whisk together before you use.
Instead of maple syrup I substituted 1 banana and put in only 1 tablespoon of maple. But you could leave it out altogether and leave the banana to add sweetness. Also you could blend a few dates for a sweetness substitute.
This is an excellent recipe, I’ve used honey instead of maple, my kids asked why the banana bread had green bits in it! Delicious, thanks for sharing
This is good! Thank you!
It came out a little spongey which isn’t my favorite. Does the coconut flour make it spongey?
I also used sweetener instead of the syrup because I made it for some friends who are diabetic.
I had a piece with my coffee this morning! Awesome to have a gluten free bread packed with protein!
This bread looks amazing. However, I cannot eat eggs. Can I use an egg replacer to bind the bread?
Thx Deb
Check out my previous comment, Deb. 🙂
I usually love detoxinista recipes, so I figured this one would be amazing. But, unfortunately, this bread was awful. It was incredibly egg-y, making both the texture and favor disappointing. I certainly won’t be making this one again =/
My bread turned out perfectly and my husband & son (who are not healthy eaters!) loved it. My son asked if it was banana bread. Before making the recipe I read all the comments which was helpful. I put the shredded zucchini in a colander and pressed down on it with my fist to squeeze as much water as I could out of it. I also baked the bread for a full 55 minutes. The resulting bread is moist but holds it shape. I will definitely make this again. Thank you for creating and sharing your recipe.
Thanks for this recipe. Looks Delish! Wondering if I need to a squeeze the water out of the zucchini?
Thanks.
Kristi
How did yours turn out? My loaf using the oven right now and it is taking forever to bake. Going on 40 minutes now and the center is still wobbly wet! And I did squeeze some water from the zukes!
Anyone tried it with chia seeds or poppy seeds in it?
The taste was good, however, there were too many eggs called for in the recipe. It almost seemed like a soufflé instead of zucchini muffins.
These are delicious! They just came out of the oven and are flavorful, moist and delicious! The only way I deviated from the recipe is I added 1/4 tsp sea salt and used a blend of honey and maple syrup (same measurement as given recipe). I am the world’s worst baker and these turned out great, so I am thrilled! I also drained the zucchini for about an hour on a towel. I believe this prevenues some of the problems others were having with damp muffins/bread. Thank you for sharing your gift!
Do we need to put in that many eggs? It seems like an awful lot!!
Thank you for this recipe!!! I think it’s my favorite coconut flour recipe.
When I started making it, I cut the maple syrup in half and replaced the other half with chocolate chips – super good!
I’ve been trying to cut down sugar lately so have made this recipe with 1.5tbsp of maple syrup and doubled the spices to offset the lack of sweet. Adding 3tbsp of cacao powder (to the low sugar/spicier version) also makes an excellent loaf and would make a great base for a cupcake!!
This was very good. I made the muffins, substituting banana for the maple syrup.