Zucchini Bread & Muffins (Allergy Friendly Recipe)

With the coronavirus scare, I stocked up on fresh fruits and vegetables for my family. One of the kind of vegetables I purchased were fresh zucchini. Does anyone else have trouble deciphering between a zucchini and a cucumber? No? Oh, me neither 😉 . Anyways, after a couple days of sitting on my counter, I decided it was time to put the zucchini to good use and make some delicious muffins and a loaf of bread. Finding a zucchini recipe that is free of dairy, eggs, soy, gluten, and dairy is hard to come by. After some searching, I found a recipe from A Little Insanity that I was able to easily adapt to create an allergy friendly, yummy snack that my little munchkins love.

Making zucchini muffins is one way to get vegetables in your kiddos. You can find many muffin recipes that include vegetables like zucchini, carrots, squash, and/or sweet potatoes. With a little added sweetness found in muffins, kids tend to eat them even with the vegetables mixed in! This particular recipe includes zucchini only but you can also add carrots to the batter if you desire.

Benefits of Zucchini:

• low in fat, calories, and carbs
• high in vitamin A
• source of vitamin C, potassium, magnesium, manganese, calcium
• rich in antioxidants such as carotenoids
• high in water
• source of dietary fiber

I like this recipe because it is free from refined sugar, and overall is low in sugar content. I used coconut sugar to sweeten both the muffins and loaf of bread I made. For the dozen muffins, I used 1/2 cup of coconut sugar. With a mix of coconut sugar and added raisins, these muffins contained the perfect amount of sweetness.

My husband watches his sugar content because sugar consumption increases his anxiety. After tasting the muffins, he requested I make a loaf of zucchini bread with half the amount of coconut sugar and no raisins. I made the zucchini bread with 1/4 cup of sweetener (coconut sugar) with no raisins and it surprisingly tasted great! SO feel free to add as little or as much sweetness as you desire. Of course, the less sugar you add, the healthier!

Whether you are making zucchini bread or muffins, this recipe is quick and simply to make, nutritious, and kid friendly.

How to Make

First start by preheating the oven to 350F. Prepare a 9×5 loaf pan or a muffin pan with oil. In a large bowl, mix all wet ingredients until well combined. The wet ingredients include flax eggs, choice of sugar, canola or coconut oil, and grated zucchini. If you do not have ground flax, you may use regular eggs instead. To make a flax egg, combine 1 tablespoon ground flax seed with 3 tablespoons water. One flax egg can be substituted for 1 egg. For this particular recipe, you will need 2 tbsp ground flax seed with 6 tbsp water.

For a lower calorie, less fat alternative, replace the oil with equal parts applesauce (1/2c oil=1/2c applesauce). You may use plain applesauce or flavored like cinnamon applesauce. I recommend using unsweetened kind to limit the added sugars.

If you want to add carrots to this recipe along with the grated zucchini, you may replace the cup of zucchini with a 1/2 cup grated zucchini and 1/2 cup grated carrots. Carrots are a good source beta carotene, potassium, vitamin K, and antioxidants.

To grate the zucchini, begin by cutting off the ends. Then using a grater over a bowl or plate, carefully grate the zucchini into shredded pieces. Since zucchini is high in water content, make sure to squeeze the shredded zucchini to remove some of the liquid. You may use clean hands to do squeeze the watery liquid from the zucchini. I grab a handful of the shredded zucchini and squeeze over the sink.

Next, add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and mix until well combined. The dry ingredients are simple to measure: 1.5 cups gluten free flour and 1/2 teaspoon each of baking powder, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice (optional). You may fold in optional ingredients as desired such as nuts like walnuts, raisins, chocolate chips, etc.

Once the batter is mixed and ready, pour into prepared loaf pan for bread or muffin pan to make a dozen muffins. I used muffin liners but liners are not necessary. I plan to make them without muffin liners next time as this will save paper and money.

Depending if you make bread or muffins, you will need to bake them for a different span of time. Since the bread is a larger surface of batter, the bread takes longer to bake. Bake the loaf of bread for 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. For a dozen muffins, bake for 20-25 minutes. To check if the muffins are done, insert a toothpick in the middle of a muffin and if it comes out clean, the muffins are done.

Once the zucchini bread/muffins are cooled down, serve for breakfast, snack or as a nutritious dessert. For best storage, store in an airtight container in the fridge. ENJOY!