Healthy Whole Wheat Zucchini Bread

Make this Healthy Whole Wheat Zucchini Bread for quick snack or breakfast on the go. Kids will love it too, and it’s a great way to sneak in whole grains and extra veggies!

There is something about the beginning of fall that makes me dream about warm freshly baked breads. Well, to be honest, I’ve been fantasizing about zucchini bread for a few weeks now, but it has been too hot to even think about turning on my oven.

On Monday morning I saw I had three lonely zucchinis in the fridge just begging me to use them, so I finally sucked it up, turned on my oven, and whipped up a loaf of this delicious Whole Wheat Zucchini Bread.

I won’t lie. This zucchini bread had me workin’ up a sweat! After hand-grating the zucchini (which you do not have to do – I was just too lazy to take out clean the food processor) and stirring all of the ingredients,  my arm was so tired! It didn’t help that the thermometer in my kitchen registered 93 degrees. Ugh!

But was it worth it? HECK YES.

My goal was to make a healthier zucchini bread that wasn’t loaded with sugar and oil, but still tasted delicious. None of the recipes I found online fit the bill, so this Whole Wheat Zucchini Bread recipe is completely my own. I use a bit of applesauce as a substitute for oil, which is a great way to lower the overall fat content (and calories, if that’s your thing) in the bread. I also used greek yogurt to help the bread stay moist (many whole wheat bread recipes turn out too dry if you don’t add enough wet ingredients).

I am always tempted to dig right into freshly baked breads the moment they come out of the oven, but you are supposed to let them cool for awhile. This bread smelled soooooo good and since I have about zero self-control, I had to force myself to leave the house while this was cooling for about an hour. Kinda pathetic, huh?

Well friends, it was worth the wait. In my incredibly biased opinion, this Whole Wheat Zucchini Bread is A++. Next time I think I am going to make this recipe into muffins as a quick grab-and-go snack! They would also make a great fall breakfast or lunchbox snack for your kids 🙂

Print

Whole Wheat Zucchini Bread

Prep Time

20 mins

Cook Time

1 hr

Total Time

1 hr 20 mins

 

Make this Healthy Whole Wheat Zucchini Bread for quick snack or breakfast on the go. Kids will love it too, and it's a great way to sneak in whole grains and extra veggies!

Course: Bread

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Bread, whole wheat, zucchini

Servings: 1 loaf

Author: Rachel (littlechefbigappetite)

Ingredients

• 2 medium zucchini, ends trimmed
• 1.5 cups white whole wheat flour (or whole wheat pastry flour)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup brown sugar, unpacked
• 1/3 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 1/4 cup avocado oil (can substitute canola)
• 1/4 cup plain yogurt (I used non-fat Greek)
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup golden raisins (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8x5 bread pan with cooking spray.

2. Shred the zucchini on a large box grater. Place the shredded zucchini in a kitchen towel or a few layers of paper towels. Squeeze all of the excess water out of the zucchini. This step is essential or else the bread will be too moist to cook. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Set aside. In a medium bowl combine the eggs, brown sugar, apple sauce, oil, yogurt, lemon juice and vanilla. Stir well. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry along with the shredded zucchini and raisins. Be careful not to over-mix.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared bread pan. Bake for 55-65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove pan from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Then use a butter knife to remove the bread from the pan and allow it to continue cooling on the wire rack.

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