I have a confession to make….I practically lived off of zucchini bread in college (don’t tell my mom). My best friend and I would make a batch the night before every swim meet, so practically on a weekly basis, and we always seemed to perform well on it – but probably just from the extra calories! It got to the point when we called it our “magic zucchini bread,” because of how fast we would swim. Truth is, this magic bread disappeared before it could even make it to the meet…. as in we would each eat our full loaf over the course of one day. I didn’t say it was healthy to eat the whole thing, but don’t ever question a pair of hungry college swimmers.
Over the course of the next few years, we started thinking about how we could re-vamp our recipe to make it just a little bit healthier. Sure, as hungry swimmers we weren’t that health-conscious. But we were well aware of our fate: Although our swimming careers would soon come to an end, our eating habits wouldn’t die that easily. So we started looking for ways to substitute oil out of the equation. With a little trial and error, we found our solutions.
My original recipe was definitely healthier, with a significant less amount of fat and sugar. It was one of my favorite things to bake, and I didn’t bake very much. So when I went gluten free, I knew I had to re-vamp my recipe again. I ended up with this moist and delicious lemon zucchini bread. The lemon adds such a wonderful fresh flavor instead of using cinnamon as in traditional zucchini bread recipes, and yogurt makes for a super moist consistency. Plus… this bread totally has fruits AND vegetables in it – I’d say that’s an excuse to eat more! This recipe good on its own, but the glaze really brings it all together.
A quick tip: The sugar content for this recipe can absolutely be cut down if you wish! My flour mixture contains a lot of sweet rice flour, and I tend to like things on the sweeter side so I still use a total of 2 cups of sugar (remember this makes 2 loaves). I also get some extra sweetness from the yogurt (this recipe does not use greek yogurt as I find it changes the texture a little bit, but you can absolutely try it!). If you are using a sweet rice flour blend and aren’t a fan of sweeter quick bread, you can start by cutting down the granulated sugar by 1/4 cup.
This recipe make two loaves, so I usually keep one out to eat and freeze the other. Seriously though, It’s so addicting I could eat this whole loaf in one day!
Lemon Zucchini Bread
Ingredients
Bread
- 3 cups gluten free all-purpose flour (I used King Arthur)
- 3/4 tsp xanthan gum (omit if your flour already contains it)
- 1/4 cup oil
- 3/4 cup plain or vanilla low-fat yogurt (I use Stonyfield's french vanilla)
- 1 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 3 eggs
- 2 cups grated zucchini
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp gluten free vanilla extract
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp lemon juice, fresh squeezed
- Zest of two lemons
Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- Juice of one lemon
- 1-2 tablespoons milk, as needed to thin out
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325℉. Grease and flour two 8x4 inch loaf pans.
- In a medium bowl, mix together flour, xanthan gum, baking soda, baking powder, salt
- In a large bowl, whisk eggs, oil, yogurt, and sugars. Stir in lemon juice. Add dry ingredients to the wet mixture and stir well. Then stir in zucchini and lemon zest.
- Divide the batter between two 8x4 loaf pans. Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes, then remove bread from pan and place on a rack to cool completely.
- While the bread is cooling, whisk together powdered sugar and lemon juice. Add the milk, a little at a time until the consistency is smooth but not too runny. Drizzle or pour over the top of the cooled bread.
Notes
This recipe makes two loaves. You can pour the batter into one loaf pan for a larger loaf, just increase the baking time by about 10 minutes before checking with a toothpick.
– Adapted from AllRecipes
Leave a Reply