Paleo Zucchini Bread – moist, tender, and naturally sweetened. Enjoy along side a cup of coffee or as a light snack any time of day! Gluten Free + Dairy Free
Homemade Paleo Zucchini Bread
I’ve been making this paleo zucchini bread recipe every zucchini season for years since I originally shared it back in 2016.
Though this has been a favorite in my home and in many of yours throughout the years – I figured it was a good time to revisit the recipe and tweak a few things based off the feedback I’ve been given.
What’s changed?
- Pan Size: I now recommend using an 8×4 inch loaf pan instead of a 9×5. The loaf doesn’t rise much in the end, so the smaller pan allows it to bake up into a neater, taller loaf.
- More Almond Flour: The old recipe asked for 1/2 cup almond flour. I’ve increased it to 2/3 cup. The extra flour adds a bit more fat (moisture), flavor and texture to compliment the coconut flour.
- More Cinnamon: One of the biggest comments I have received over the years is that many readers loved the bread, but wished it had more cinnamon. Frankly, I agree and don’t know why I made it so low before!
- Oven Position: I now recommend baking the bread in the lower third of the oven to keep the top of the bread from browning too quickly (this happens with almond flour baked goods).
Key Ingredients
- Coconut Flour: Coconut flour is an extremely absorbent flour and need a lot of moisture to work. If using cups to measure the flour, I recommend you spoon the flour into the measuring cup instead of scooping.
- Almond Flour: Almond flour provides a nice texture and flavor balance along side the coconut flour.
- Eggs: This recipe needs the moisture and binding of the eggs to work with the coconut flour. If you’d like to see some egg free zucchini bakes I recommend you check out some of my other vegan friendly recipes: Gluten Free Chocolate Zucchini Bread, Banana Zucchini Muffins, Vegan Zucchini Brownies
- Coconut Oil: You can use butter in place of coconut oil if desired.
- Maple Syrup or Honey: Either work! You can try a combo of maple and honey.
- Fresh Zucchini: The star of the show! Check out the tips before for zucchini selection and prep.
Steps
Altogether this is a super easy recipe to throw together. The process basically comes down to three main steps:
- Mix the wet ingredients: Whisk together the eggs, oil, sweetener and vanilla extract until combined then stir in the grated zucchini.
- Mix the dry ingredients: In a different, large mixing bowl whisk together the flours, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
- Combine & bake: Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients. Mix until no pockets of flour remain, then transfer to the prepared bread pan and bake.
Tips for Baking with Zucchini
A few final tips and notes when working with zucchini:
Weigh the Zucchini
For best results, a kitchen scale will give you the most accurate zucchini amount. If you don’t have a scale, a good old fashioned measuring cup will still do the job.
As a general rule of thumb: One loosely-packed and blotted cup of zucchini weighs about 4 oz or 115 grams. You may find that this amount vary depending on the recipe creator, but this is the amount I use in all my zucchini recipes.
Select the Right Zucchini
- Size: Look for small to medium zucchinis, about 6-8 inches. Large zucchinis are typically more watery, and pulpy. They also are more likely to have large seeds inside.
- Stem: Choose a zucchini that still has the stem attached. Zucchini with longer stems will last longer.
Prep the Zucchini
- Skin: No need to peel the skin. Just wash and dry the outside and you’re ready to peel.
- Seeds: Unless you’re working with a large zucchini with large seeds inside, you don’t need to worry about removing the seeds.
- Grate: Use a regular box grater (cheese grater) or food processor with a fitted grating attachment.
- Blot: Don’t worry about squeezing out the excess moisture before baking. A quick blot with some paper towels is more than enough.
How to Store Homemade Zucchini Bread
After baking, allow the zucchini bread to cool completely before storing.
Once cooled, store the bread in an airtight container or wrapped up tightly in plastic wrap/aluminum foil. Leave it out at room temperature for about 2-3 days or store in the fridge for up to a week.
Freeze for Later
You can make the bread ahead of time and store for a later date. Bake, cool, then wrap in foil and freeze the loaf as a whole. Thaw overnight in the fridge and bring to room temperature. Once thawed, go ahead and cut into slices before serving.
Alternatively, you can freeze individual slices of bread for fast and easy storage and defrosting. Wrap each slice tightly in plastic wrap and or foil then store in a freezer safe bag. Let thaw at room temperature or reheat in the microwave until warmed through.
Enjoy
This bread makes for a great healthy dessert or snack! Enjoy a thick slice with a spread of nut butter. I recently tried this with some homemade hazelnut butter and it did not disappoint!
More Delicious Zucchini Recipes To Check Out
If you still have spare squash hanging around I have plenty more zucchini bread recipes and bakes to choose from!
- Zucchini Oatmeal Cookies – GF & Vegan (all purpose gluten-free flour & oats)
- Banana Zucchini Muffins (all purpose gluten-free flour)
- Gluten Free Zucchini Bread (all purpose gluten-free flour)
- Chocolate Chip Almond Flour Zucchini Cookies (almond flour)
- Almond Flour Paleo Zucchini Brownies (almond flour)
- Vegan Zucchini Brownies (chickpea flour)
Paleo Zucchini Bread
Paleo Zucchini Bread - moist, tender, and naturally sweetened. Enjoy along side a cup of coffee or as a light snack any time of day!
Ingredients
- 4 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 6 tablespoons pure maple syrup (120g) or honey (125g)
- 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted & cooled (105g)
- 1 1/2 cup shredded zucchini, lightly blotted dry (170g | 6 oz)
- 2/3 cup almond flour (65g)
- 1/2 cup coconut flour (55g)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Place an oven rack in the bottom third of the oven then preheat your 350°F (180°C). Grease an 8x4 inch loaf pan, or line with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a medium sized mixing bowl whisk together the eggs, vanilla, maple syrup (or honey), and oil until combined. Stir in the shredded zucchini.
- In another large mixing bowl whisk together the dry ingredients.
- Pour the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Mix until well combined and no pockets of flour remain. Make sure to scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl as needed.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
- Place in the oven and bake for 55-65minutes, or until a knife going into the center of the loaf comes out mostly clean (no raw batter, only crumbs). About halfway through the bake, turn the loaf pan around so ensure the top colors evenly. If you notice the top of the loaf starts to look too dark, loosely cover the pan with some foil.
- Remove the loaf from the oven and place on a wire rack. Let cool for about 30 minutes before removing the bread from the pan. Finish cooling on the wire rack then slice and enjoy.
- Storage: Store leftover bread in an airtight container, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, foil or a sealable bag. Leave at room temperature for about 2 days, or keep it in the fridge for up to a week.
Notes
- Freeze for later: Leftover bread will keep in the freezer up to 3 months. Freeze individual slices of bread for fast and easy storage and defrosting. Wrap each slice tightly in plastic wrap and or foil then store in a freezer safe bag. Let thaw at room temperature or reheat in the microwave until warmed through.
toby says
hey,
can i just use almond flour. i dont have coconut flour
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Toby! I’m not too sure how well using all almond flour would work, but I do think it might work. You’d need to swap out the coconut for more almond flour here but I think you’d probably need to double the amount of flour you’d need though. Instead of 1/2 cup coconut you’d need at least 1 cup almond (plus the 1/2 cup almond flour that the recipe already calls for). Coconut flour is a much more absorbent flour than almond which can make subs like this difficult without tweaking the amounts of flour.
Vanessa says
Thanks for sharing! Does it keep long?
Sarah Nevins says
Thanks Vanessa! This should keep about 4-5 days stored at room temp
Suzanne says
This looks so good! what a great way to use up some zucchini and bring a treat to friends!
Mary says
This looks so great and I can’t wait to make it!!
I was keen to make one for morning tea – with cinnamon apples or raisins…and maybe some nuts.
Wondering if you or anyone else had any advice about quantities / results!
Thanks again !!!
Sarah says
Hi Mary! I’d be weary about adding apples to this as it’s already a very moisture rich cake – more apples might throw off the balance of ingredients a bit too much without adjusting the amounts of other ingredients. That being said – adding nuts/raisins is easy to do. You can add about 1/2-1 cup nuts/raisins to the batter just before baking and you should be good to go!
Jericca says
Made this yesterday. Super yummy! I used 3 eggs and a half eaten banana I didn’t want to waste. Also used 5 tbsp rapadura instead of honey. It’s a bit loose and crumbly but tastes amazing especially with some butter and whipped raw cream! Baked it for 55 min in a stone loaf pan and it got nicely golden, not burnt looking at all. I’m wondering how the recipe would turn out if I double it and bake it in my bar pan… thank you for this recipe, I’ll definitely be making it again!
Sarah says
Love that! I somehow always end up with half eaten bananas that I don’t know what to do with 😀 So glad it all worked out! Thanks so much for letting me know what you thought!
Stephanie says
My fiance is allergic to almonds is there a way to substitute the almond flour?
Sarah says
Hi Stephanie! I haven’t done it with this recipe specifically, but I have been able to sub out almonds for tapioca flour in a few other recipes that are very similar to this one. I do think that should work here!
Betsy says
Question – I want to make this lovely recipe. In your ingredients list, it mentions squeezing out the liquid from the zucchini. But I need to know for sure – do I measure 1.5 cups of grated zucchini and then squeeze out liquid? Or do I grate a bunch of zucchini, squeeze out liquid, then measure 1.5 cups? Thanks. Also apparently someone made it without squeezing any liquid out (using small zucchini?) I really need some good direction on this.
Sarah says
Hi Betsy! I measuring out 1.5 cups and then squeezing out the extra moisture to be on the safe side
Betsy says
Made the bread – so great! I would upload a photo but I didn’t see a way to do that in comments. I stuffed as much grated zuch as I could get into a 1.5 cup measure, then squeezed the liquid out twice with absorbent cotton dishtowels (both were rather wet when squeezing was done). Again it was so delicious – but I felt it could use a little something. I made it with honey so it definitely has that flavor. I’m guessing the maple syrup would give a stronger flavor? And I can’t taste the 1/4 tsp cinnamon much, have you ever tried adding more cinnamon, or another spice perhaps? Have you ever added a pinch of salt to bring out flavor (don’t know if this is Paleo approved…) Any thoughts or suggestions? Maybe my zucchini method resulted in more zucchini than usual going into the recipe, muting the flavors a bit. It is good with subtle flavor but I wondered whether you experimented with spices or salt? Thanks! Betsy
Sarah says
Ooh I’m glad you liked it! I definitely recommend playing around with the spices if you like – as is this bread has a pretty subtle flavour as far as sweetness goes. I do think maple makes it taste a little sweeter than honey. I like adding A LOT of cinnamon when I make this – I’ll add a whole tablespoon in because I love it
Anna Ames says
I did the opposite! I squeezed out the liquid and then counted 1.5 cups. It took very long which I was going to comment about the 10 minute prep time but maybe I grated too much! Regardless, it was delicious!
Sarah Nevins says
Glad you still enjoyed it even with the grating!
Jennifer Norman says
I made this today and followed the directions exactly. My bread is only 1” high. Still super moist and yummy, but what could it be? I live in Utah so could my problem be a altitude issue?
Sarah says
Hi Jennifer! Weird! It could have something to do the different altitudes. If you tend to have high altitude baking issues I’d lean towards that. What size loaf tin did you use? Typically a 9x5inch works/looks the best with this. I do occasionally use a 9 1/2 x 6 1/2 and it definitely doesn’t look as tall
Erika says
Mine was terrible :/ like a weird greasy omelette. I just threw it out. But this is coming from a non-paleo person. Is all paleo baking like this?
Sarah says
Hi Erika! Sorry to hear that!
While this is very moist it shouldn’t feel greasy. That being said if you’re not someone who does a lot of paleo baking it might not be what you expect. If you are interested in paleo baking I’d recommend starting off with using recipes that are more almond flour based without any (or just very little) coconut flour. Almond flour baked goods are a lot more like traditional baked goods where as coconut flour really does take some getting used. I go into more detail about it more in this post here. It’s a really absorbent flour that needs moisture which is why it’s often used with a lot of eggs.
Samantha says
I made this quick before I left for vacation and brought it with me. Everyone LOVED it.
It’s so delicious!!
It was pretty soft. So not sure why. But so good!
Sarah says
So glad everyone liked it! Thanks so much for coming back to let me know what you thought!
Laura says
I made this today and my boyfriend called it “cocaine bread” because he can’t stop eating it. He asked if I would make another tomorrow “in case there’s none left”. Lol so clearly we are both a fan. We like how moist and delicately sweet it is. I like how it gets a nice golden edge. Truly isn’t far off from the “real thing”. Thanks so much!
Sarah says
Ha! I love that! SO glad you guys both liked it – thanks so much for coming back to let me know what you thought!