On our way home from a wedding over this past weekend, we stopped at a roadside farm stand and picked up a HUGE zucchini (for only $2!!!), and as it’s gotten a little chilly over the past few days, I figured that baking zucchini bread was the natural thing to do with it. As I browsed the ingredients that I needed to buy in the baking aisle, I thought, “Why not try whole wheat?” So I looked up a recipe that sounded good, and modified it to how it suited my taste…and it turned out even better than I thought it would! I had actually never baked with whole wheat flour before, but after this success, I’ll definitely try making other things with it (and other alternate flours) in the future, and even tweaking this recipe! (Note: I preferred the bread in the muffin format over the loaf!)
You can make adjustments where you see fit, as well, which I have mad suggestions for below! (Substitute whole wheat flour for white, or some wheat flour for white, chocolate chips for cacao nibs, white sugar for raw cane sugar, etc.)
Ingredients:
3 C whole wheat flour
1 ½ Tbsp. cinnamon
1 ½ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
3 eggs
¾ C coconut oil (vegetable or canola oil will do as well), slightly melted for easy stirring
¼ C raw acacia honey (but any variety of honey will do!), slightly melted (make a simple syrup and add about 1 Tbsp. or less very hot water and stir, which will break down the sugar and turn the honey into a liquid)
¼ C raw cane sugar (in place of white sugar, which you could use instead if preferred or if that’s what you have available to you) **
1 ¼ tsp. vanilla
3 C grated zucchini (try to remove any large seeds)
¼ C cacao nibs (or about ½ – ¾ C dark or semisweetened chocolate if you don’t have any cacao nibs or want something a little bit sweeter), optional (I tried all three ways, and the semisweet is definitely the sweetest, but the other two are delicious as well!)
**You can also add more sugar if you would like, as I have kept the sugar content pretty low in this recipe, which is surely not suited for all palates.
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. In the meanwhile, grease your loaf and/or muffin pans. (When I made this particular batch, I made 1 loaf and 10 muffins). Next, add all of the dry ingredients except the chocolate together and stir. In the center of the bowl with the dry ingredients, make a well and pour in all of the wet ingredients except for the zucchini. Stir just until mixed, making sure not to overmix. Fold in the grated zucchini and chocolate chips or cacao nibs (reserving half of the chocolate for topping). Pour batter into greased loaf pan(s) or muffin holders and top with remaining chocolate pieces. Bake about 15-20 minutes for muffins and 30-60 minutes for loaf pans, or until a tooth pick or fork come out clean.
Enjoy!
Top with butter or coconut oil for an extra tasty treat!!!
Recipe adapted from Lisa Leake of the 100 Days of Real Food blog’s Whole Wheat Zucchini Bread: http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2010/06/25/recipe-zucchini-bread/
Radiantly Living 