With the weather showing signs of cooling down, I think it’s time to turn the oven back on and do some baking, don’t you? If you agree, I’d suggest you put this Gluten Free Zucchini Bread on the top of your list of recipes to make!
Zucchini bread bridges the gap between summer and fall so perfectly. Zucchini is ripe and ready in gardens right now, which means there’s plenty of it to go around, and, I don’t know about you, but I’m not quite ready to go all in on pumpkin season yet!
Do I Need to Squeeze the Liquid Out of the Zucchini?
When I first made this recipe, I decided to squeeze the liquid out of the zucchini so that it didn’t add quite as much moisture to the bread. The bread worked fine, but there were a few tweaks I wanted to make to the recipe before calling it final.
One thing I wanted to try was to decrease the oil. The amount I was originally using wasn’t exactly high compared to other zucchini bread recipes, but I wanted to see if the texture would improve a bit if I lowered the oil. When I did that, I felt it would be best to not squeeze the zucchini so that there would be a smidge more liquid in the batter.
I loved the result with these two changes! I lowered the oil a bit AND I took out the extra step of squeezing the zucchini. That’s a win-win for sure!
While there are definitely recipes where it makes sense to squeeze the liquid out of zucchini for good results, I’m happy that it isn’t needed here! You’re welcome!
Do I Need to Peel Zucchini when Making Zucchini Bread?
It is not necessary to peel a zucchini before shredding it to make zucchini bread! Yay…another step that isn’t needed!
Having said that, NOT peeling the zucchini will mean there will be flecks of green throughout the bread. That’s classic and typical in zucchini bread, and most people are just fine with that.
However, if you will be serving your zucchini bread to people (okay, I’m mostly talking about KIDS here!) who may not eat the bread if they see those green flecks throughout the bread, then, by all means, peel that zucchini before shredding it for the bread. It’s entirely up to you!
When I told my daughter (age 7) what kind of bread I was making, she thought it sounded totally gross. But, when I served it to her later, she must not have remembered what kind of bread I’d made because she didn’t think it was gross then! She gobbled it up, green flecks and all, and then asked for a second piece!
What Gluten Free Flours Do I Need to Make this Zucchini Bread?
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In the world of gluten free baking, every baker has their favorite flours to work with, and I’m no different! I tend to switch which flours I’m using based on what recipe I’m making. I don’t always use the exact same flours or grains for every gluten free recipe I make.
All gluten free flours work a little differently, so it makes sense to me to keep a variety of them in my kitchen and use the ones that work best for whatever I’m making.
Here are the flours or grains you will need to make this Gluten Free Zucchini Bread:
Why is Collagen an Ingredient in this Zucchini Bread?
Collagen is a protein and, while you may be accustomed to putting a scoop of it into your daily smoothie or coffee to help promote healthy skin, nails, hair, and improve the lining of your digestive system, I think collagen works wonders in gluten free baked goods!
And, by the way, research is inconclusive as to whether consuming collagen can actually help your skin, hair, nails, and digestive lining. There are SO MANY factors involved in maintaining a healthy body so just keep that in mind. Collagen is not a miracle supplement that will allow you to throw all other healthy habits out the window. Okay?
Not that that’s cleared up, let me tell you why I love adding collagen to certain gluten free recipes. Since collagen is a protein, it has some of the same characteristics of gluten, which is also a protein.
Gluten adds structure to baked goods and helps hold the final product together. Collagen absorbs water like gluten does and helps provide structure to baked goods.
Gluten free baked goods tend to be more crumbly and fall apart more easily than baked goods with gluten. Adding collagen helps prevent this so the final gluten free product holds together better.
One study, reported in the Journal of Food Science Technology, found that collagen also helps add height and volume to gluten free baked goods, especially breads.
So, whether collagen will help my skin and hair or not, I will definitely keep it around for all of my gluten free baking needs (and wants!).
As I was testing this Gluten Free Zucchini Bread, I did a side by side test where I used the collagen in one of the recipes and where I left it out in the other recipe. Sure enough, the one that had the collagen added held together and didn’t fall apart as easily as the bread where I left out the collagen.
Having said all that, I strongly suggest you add the collagen to this recipe, and if you need to buy some this is my favorite collagen brand
. The most important thing is to make sure it is labeled as “unflavored” so that it doesn’t add any flavor to your recipes.
If you prefer to leave out the collagen, the zucchini bread will still work fine! Just know that it will break apart more easily.
Now that you know this Gluten Free Zucchini Bread was put through the recipe testing ringer to make sure it would work perfectly for you at home, give it a try and let me know how you like it by leaving a comment below!
Gluten Free Zucchini Bread (Dairy Free)
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups cassava flour
- 1 cup gluten free quick cooking rolled oats
- ½ cup tapioca flour/starch
- 1 tablespoon unflavored collagen powder*
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 4 eggs
- ¾ cup olive oil**
- ¾ cup pure maple syrup
- 2 cups finely shredded zucchini (about 1, 10-oz zucchini)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°Lightly grease bottom and sides of two 7 ½ x 4-inch loaf pans (measured at the top opening of the panwith a little olive oil. Set pans aside.
- In a large bowl whisk together cassava flour, oats, tapioca flour, collagen, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and soda. In a medium bowl, whisk eggs until lightly beaten. Whisk in oil and syrup. Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture. Whisk until batter is well combined. Stir in shredded zucchini. Divide batter evenly between the two prepared loaf pans, spread tops to an even layer.
- Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until a long wooden toothpick (a wooden skewer works well!) inserted near the center comes out mostly clean (there can be some slightly wet crumbs clinging to the toothpick but it should not look like unbaked batter).
- Cool bread in pans on a wire rack for 5 to 10 minutes. Loosen bread from sides of the pans by running a thin metal spreader or butter knife around the edges of the bread. Remove bread from the pans. Cool completely on the wire rack. Wrap bread in waxed paper and store in an airtight container in a cool dry place up to 3 days. Or, freeze up to 3 months.
Notes
