Please answer yes/no for the following foodie questions:
- Are you looking to do something with all that summer zucchini around right now?
- Are you looking for an easy baking project for this weekend?
- Are you crazy about zucchini bread?
- Are you still drooling over the zucchini bread/muffin photos I posted on Facebook earlier?
If you answered “yes” to any of the above questions, then I have the perfect recipe for you! Healthy and Oat-licious Zucchini Bread and Muffins.
Ooh la yum! 😉
I have a few squash plants in my garden outside and they are producing like crazy. I accidentally let one get a little on the large side.
For a split second, I was sad that it probably wouldn’t be good in a stir-fry (or soup)…until I realized that the large zucchini in my hands would be perfect for one of my favorite breakfast treats – zucchini bread and muffins!
All I needed was some flour, apple sauce, eggs, lemon, and a couple other pantry ingredients.
Ooh and a food processor (to finely cut that zucchini) and a stand mixer (though you could easily do this by hand).
Mix a little of this and a little of that and before you know it, you have…
Warm, sweet, delicious zucchini muffins and bread (perfect weekend brunch eats). I like doing both the muffins and the bread because I get to enjoy a little variety.
Ok, ok, and my impatient side likes the instant gratification of baking muffins since they take a fraction of the cooking time of the bread (and if I time it right, I can be eating muffins while the bread finishes baking away). It’s like having your cake muffin and eating it, too!
Now, I haven’t always been such a zucchini bread fanatic.
I distinctly remember the first time I heard about zucchini bread (or at least my reaction to it). I was a young kiddo back in elementary school, and I didn’t like vegetables nearly as much as I do now. The only kind of sweet breakfast bread I ever wanted to eat was my mom’s piping hot banana bread.
I don’t really remember the exact conversation around the zucchini bread, all I remember is they (they=adults) said something about zucchini bread, and I was instantly disgusted. Vegetables? In a sweet bread? Whoa. I couldn’t imagine how that could be a good thing. (If only I knew back then that I would one day develop a sweet bread/muffin recipe made with spinach!)
The adults around me claimed that the zucchini bread tasted like banana bread, but I refused to accept that truth. What child listens to an adult, right? In fact, it wasn’t until a few years later that I finally caved. I’m stubborn like that sometimes.
But you know what, I enjoyed every last bite of that first slice of zucchini bread. I even asked mom to make it! And of course, she did. 🙂 And thus, a love for zucchini bread began.
It was a long time before I decided to try making zucchini bread on my own (mostly because I didn’t have a food processor for a long time). When I finally did, I was so pleased to find this tasty recipe (click) by Cooking Light.
I made a few changes the first couple times I made that Cooking Light recipe, but a week or so ago, I decided to do a few more:
- I subbed white wheat and oat flour for the all purpose to utilize less-processed, cleaner ingredients
- I made the overall flavor less sweet by reducing the amount of sugar used (hello Not So Sweet recipe!)
- I don’t like egg substitutes (unless it’s going to be a flax/chia seed egg), so I just used real eggs
- I reduced the amount of oil used by subbing in some applesauce
- I increased the amount of lemon zest used because it is truly one of the signature ingredients of this recipe and deserves to stand out a little more
- I topped my bread/muffins pre-baking with oats and nuts so you can really see what’s inside – I think it looks cool
- And finally, I increased the amount of nuts used in the recipe
The result – pure deliciousness that middle-school-me would have been proud of.
Healthy Oatlicious Zucchini Bread and Muffins
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 16 mins
- Total Time: 26 mins
- Yield: 6 1x
Description
This easy and healthy zucchini bread/muffin recipe has a light flavor with full satisfaction. Feel free to use any flour (or combination of flours) that you’d like. I just used less processed ones because I like that they’re better for you and don’t detract from the tender texture. Be sure to use all the lemon zest suggested in this recipe for full flavor. Bakes 2 loaves, 24 muffins, or if you’re like me – the best of both worlds – one loaf AND 12 muffins. Adapted from this Cooking Light Zucchini Bread recipe
*Vegan if you use vegan options indicated below* *Vegetarian*
Ingredients
- 2 cups white wheat flour (or flour of choice)
- 1 cup oat flour (or flour of choice)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup applesauce
- 2 large eggs (or vegan egg substitute, for example: flax/chia seed egg)
- 1/4 cup canola oil (or oil of choice, preferably a non-flavored one)
- 2 teaspoon lemon zest (be sure to not skip over this ingredient – it’s the key)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 cups shredded zucchini (about 1 large zucchini)
- 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans (or nut of choice), toasted (if you want), plus more for topping, about 1/2 cup
- Cooking spray
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. Pre-pare baking containers of choice (see recipe notes above for options) – I used one loaf pan and one muffin tin – with non-stick spray.
- In a large bowl, combine white wheat flour, oat flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda. Whisk till evenly combined.
- In a medium bowl, combine applesauce, eggs, oil, lemon zest, and vanilla extract. Whisk till evenly combined. Whisk in sugar. Stir in zucchini.
- Pour wet ingredients into bowl with dry ingredients. Stir gently to combine, just till all dry ingredients are mixed in (careful to not over-mix). Fold in 1/2 cup pecans, if using.
- For muffins and loaf (like I made) – Using an ice cream scoop, put one scoop worth of batter into each cup of a 12-cup muffin tin (should fill muffins cups about halfway up the sides). Repeat if making 24 muffins total. Otherwise, pour remaining batter into your prepared loaf pan.
- Sprinkle oats and reserved nuts, if using, over batter evenly. Bake muffins for 14-17 minutes and bread 50-60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffin or loaf comes out clean. Note: I chose to put both my muffin tin and loaf pan in at the same time, removing the muffins when they were ready while my bread finished in the oven (so I could enjoy the muffins whilst waiting for the bread to finish baking).
- When the muffins and/or bread are safe to consume, serve and enjoy.
Notes
Note #1: muffins and bread will be a little shorter than most recipes I’ve seen, but they will be just as tasty as ever.
If making all muffins, evenly distribute batter between 24 muffin cups.
If making all loaves, evenly distribute batter between 2 loaf pans.
Note #2: this is a Not So Sweet recipe. I’ve reduced the sugar by a bit, so if you like a sweeter bread, you may wish to add about 1/2 cup of sugar back in.
You may also like:
- Green Monster Muffins (similar to this recipe but with spinach!)
- Green Monster Muffins (vegan version)
- Spelt Banana Bread
- Mini Matcha Green Tea Banana Nut Muffins
- Individual Apple Breakfast Cakes
Did I mention the muffins (or bread slices) are tasty on their own or served with a lovely cage-free fried egg and some bacon and OJ? Yummm…hello weekend brunch!
How old were you when you first tried zucchini bread? Did you think the name sounded weird, too?
mm, looks delicious!!
Yum, this looks absolutely divine!
looks good! the first time i had zucchini bread i was actually 22! 🙂 now i’m addicted.
I am 29 and I have never had zucchini bread, but if I can find a good sized zucchini I am going to try to make it this weekend!!!
Saw your note about the bread on my Facebook wall. So glad you liked it! Are you a zucchini bread fan now? 🙂
Yes ma’am!!! I am a fan and I shared my bread and your recipe, so hopefully it has many more fans now!!! 😉
So glad you posted this recipe, thank you! I have a huge zucchini from my veggie garden and was going to look up a healthy zucchini bread recipe to make this weekend. I love the muffin idea too, easy to take to work for breakfast. On a side note, I didn’t have zucchini bread until I was in my 20’s and a co-worker brought it into work. Since I love carrot cake, I thought I’d give it a try and I’ve loved it ever since!
You’re so welcome!
Good point on the muffins being good to take to work. I think they freeze better, too! 🙂
A few years ago I made chocolate and zucchini cake and it was so good, as the zucchini kept it so moist it was as though there were bits of molten chocolate still inside. As for zucchini bread, I made some for my boyfriends lunches last summer – I used the recipe from the Sunset cookbook – and it emerged with such a good texture and a slightly crunchy top. I was however alarmed at how much sugar went in!
You’ve inspired me. I think I need to add chocolate to my zucchini bread next time. Yum!
Yea, a lot of breakfast recipes have SO MUCH sugar in them! I usually try to cut back (hello Not-So-Sweet). 😆
Love the color of your kitchen appliances!
Thanks Christine! Most of them are from the Martha Stewart collection at Macy’s. The kitchen aide was inspired by Giada’s kitchen. She had the same color in one of her episodes. Of course, I think I’ve seen her feature a dozen different colors by now. hehe.
I love how healthy these look – I bet they will make the perfect breakfast!
Thank you! 🙂 I thought they made a pretty awesome breakfast (and snack…ok, and dessert. lol)
This recipe is WONDERFUL! The oat flour adds something very unique, as does the use of all whole-wheat pastry flour. One comment – I might just have a giant loaf pan, but for me it made only one loaf. So delicious – this will be my go-to zucchini bread recipe. I just made it, and now I want to eat this for dinner and nothing else…
Thanks Rachel!! 🙂
I think my loaf pan is pretty standard. I think the recipe just makes a very short loaf. It’s definitely about half as tall as the banana bread I usually make. The muffins are also a little smaller than usual. But hey, they taste great! 🙂
Just popped them into the oven! I was planning on using my fresh garden zucchini for a porkchop meal, but your recipe made me think again! I did a dozen muffins and used my heavy pampered chef loaf pan (which has 4 mini loaves) for the rest (only using 3 of the 4 loaf compartments). Can’t wait to try!
Hey…getting ready to try your muffins. Also, I’m guessing things are “shorter” because of the oat flour.
Can I use cucumber in place of the zucchini?
Hi Zee, My initial thought was that a cucumber may not work because they’re typically not used for cooking/baking. I usually see them eaten raw. However, I did find this recipe for cucumber nut bread: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/228216/cucumber-nut-bread/ But without testing it myself, I can’t guarantee using cucumber for zucchini in my recipe would work. Because cucumbers have different textures/compositions from zucchini, it may not be a 1 for 1 replacement. But if you try it, please let me know if it works! Hope this helps!