It used to be that I loved to try new recipes and perfect them. Now that I’m gluten free, I enjoy the challenge of taking a truly perfect recipe that contains gluten, and turning it into a gluten free recipe that holds the integrity of the original recipe. By integrity I mean taste, texture, and visual appeal. My many taste testers concur that this Gluten Free Zucchini Bread holds true to the original gluten containing recipe.
Since I didn’t have a zucchini bread recipe that I just loved, I started going through my cookbooks, and of course, searching the internet. David Lebovitz, of the blog Davidlebovitz.com, has reliably spectacular recipes, and, after riffling through many other gluten free, quick bread recipes, reading comments, and trying a couple, I threw all of those out and based my Gluten Free Zucchini Bread recipe solely on David’s Zucchini Cake with Crunchy Lemon Glaze. There was just no competition. (no affiliation)
This Gluten Free Zucchini Bread is moist, tender, and truly delicious. So many gluten free recipes contain white, white and more white, so I really appreciate that this recipe accepted the addition of Teff flour with open arms. You’d never know that it contains an ancient, whole grain, fiber, and a vegetable!
Baked goods are a persnickety beast, but GLUTEN FREE baked goods are a wicked, fire breathing dragon!
Important Recipe Notes
Although, I state these tidbits of baking wisdom below in the “notes” section of the recipe, they are so important to the success of your bread, that I am going to spell them out here as well.
1.WEIGH YOUR INGREDIENTS
Weights of various ingredients (in grams) are in parentheses in the ingredient list. If you do nothing else, please, please, please, take the time to WEIGH your ingredients. This will keep you from spooning out crumbs into a bowl versus slicing and buttering a lovely piece of Gluten Free Zucchini Bread. Little kitchen scales are quite inexpensive, and don’t have to take up a lot of room. Here’s one like I use.
If you’d like to use different gluten free flours than I have listed. Keep in mind that 1 cup of flour is equal to 140 grams. There are 280 grams of flour (approximately 2 cups) in total used in this recipe.
2. USE THE PROPER RATIOS
Don’t have Teff flour, but Sorghum, Millet, and Brown Rice flours are sitting in your pantry? Feel free to substitute!
Whenever making your own gluten free flour mix you will have success if you keep these ratios: 40% whole grain flour to 60% starch. AllRecipes.com just published a handy little chart to help you figure out which flours are whole grains and which are starches, here.
3. BE MINDFUL WHEN REDUCING SUGAR
Although a little sweet for me, taste testers liked the level of sweetness in the original recipe, so I kept it. That being said, if you’d like to reduce the amount of sugar, please be aware that sugar is moisture, and we all know that gluten free baked goods have a tendency to crumble and fall apart easily. I advise to reduce the sugar by 1/4 cup to start with, and go from there, possibly experimenting with a combination of brown sugar (which has more moisture), honey or maple syrup.
Please keep in mind that taste testers did NOT try a loaf in which nuts were added (because the main taste tester-me :-)-isn’t doing well with nuts right now). Adding the chopped nuts will temper the level of sweetness, plus it add’s protein and fat, which helps you not to down the entire loaf immediately!
4. DON’T SQUEEZE THE ZUCCHINI PLEASE
There’s no need to squeeze the moisture out of the grated zucchini as a general rule. If using small zucchini (no more than 2″ diameter), grate and proceed. If using a large/thick zucchini, simply cut in half lengthwise and then in half (lengthwise) again (so you’ve quartered it lengthwise) and cut out the middle, spongy part of the zucchini and discard. Grate and use the remaining zucchini.
5 from 1 reviews
Gluten Free Zucchini Bread
Moist, tender and truly delicious! gluten free and dairy free.
Author: Alison
Recipe type: quick bread
Cuisine: American
Ingredients
⅔ cups (93g) teff flour*
⅔ cup (93g) white rice flour*
⅓ cup (46g) potato starch*
⅓ cup (46g) tapioca flour*
1 tsp. xanthan gum**
1 tsp. sea salt
½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
¼ tsp. nutmeg
3 eggs
1 cup (250ml) avocado oil (or oil of your choice)
1¾ cup (350g) organic cane sugar***
2 tsp. gluten free vanilla
2½ (300g)cups grated zucchini****
1 cup (135g) toasted nuts (almonds, pecans or walnuts), chopped (optional)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease and flour (with a small amount of white rice flour) 2- 9"x 5" loaf pans, or 6 mini loaf pans. Tap out any excess flour.
Pulse the nuts in a food processor until finely chopped.
In a medium bowl, sift together flours, xanthan gum, spices, salt, soda and baking powder.
In a separate bowl (I use my stand mixer for this part, but you can also whisk by hand), beat the eggs, sugar and oil until light and fluffy. Stop, scrape down the sides, then add the vanilla.
Mix in the dry ingredients a little at a time.
Add zucchini and nuts (if using). Mix thoroughly (Don't worry about over-mixing as you would if making a quick bread using conventional flour.)
Scrape the batter into the prepared pans, smooth the top, and bake for 25-30 minutes (if using mini loaf pans) or 40-50 minutes if using larger loaf pans, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the bread has begun to pull away from the sides of the pan.You might also notice that the bread is slightly glossy on top. An instant read thermometershould read between 190-200ºF.
Cool on wire rack and remove bread from pan.
Notes
* Total weight of flour in this recipe should be 280 grams (approximately 2 cups of flour). For BEST results I highly recommend to WEIGH, not measure your blend of flour! For best results, please see written article above the recipe if you would like to use your own mix of gluten free flours. **A gluten free flour mix of your choice may be substituted in at the weight of 280 grams. If it does not contain xanthan gum be sure to add it, if it does, feel free to omit the xanthan gum called for in the recipe. *** Although I found this amount of sugar to be too sweet for my conservative taste buds, taste testers preferred this level of sweetness. If it is too sweet for you, I'd recommend lessening the sugar by ¼ cup to start with, as sugar is moisture and doing something like halving the amount of sugar called for will leave you with a crumbling mess. ****No need to squeeze the moisture out of the grated zucchini. If using a large/thick zucchini, simply cut in half lengthwise and then in half (lengthwise) again (so you've quartered it lengthwise) and cut out the middle spongy part of the zucchini and discard. Grate and use the remaining zucchini.
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