How to Make Zucchini Bread Healthier

One of the ways that I’m using up my garden zucchini this year is by baking with it. Zucchini provides moisture along with fiber and added nutrition, all good reasons for incorporating zucchini into our meals instead of throwing them on the compost heap.

Most zucchini bread recipes I’ve seen aren’t particularly healthy since they are laden with sugar, oil, and white flour. Because zucchini bread is a regular lunchbox staple at my house, here’s some of the changes I’ve made to my zucchini bread recipes to make it a healthier bread.

Use darker flours. I substitute wheat flour for white flour in all my quick bread recipes, even using a mix of wheat and rye on occasion. If your family isn’t used to the slight bitterness of quick breads made with wheat flours, try substituting half the white flour for wheat.

Use applesauce instead of oil. Oil is what gives quick breads its light, fluffy appearance. It can also add 400 calories (or more) to a single batch of zucchini bread. I substitute applesauce for the oil in all my quick bread recipes. Substituting applesauce for oil it doesn’t make any difference in the taste or the texture. The big difference with this substitution is that the loaf will stay moist longer (requiring refrigeration) plus the loaves won’t rise as high.

Use unprocessed sugar. All quick breads need some sweetener to make them a little more palatable. While it’s tempting to use natural sweeteners such as honey, this does affect the liquid to flour ratio of the bread. A better solution is to use organic raw sugar.

Skip the salt. Unlike yeast breads that need salt to keep bread from over rising, quick breads don’t need salt at all. Since most of us use too much salt anyway, it’s totally OK to eliminate this ingredient from the list.

Add dried fruits. Dried raisins, cran cherries, currants, and even dehydrated fruit such as apple rings or peaches can be added to all zucchini recipes. I generally add about 1/2 cup to each loaf. Any more than that and the bread starts to resemble a Christmas fruit cake.

Add nuts and seeds. One-half cup of chopped nuts such as almonds, pecans, or walnuts will boost the protein content of your zucchini along with giving it a nice flavor. I will also stir in about a teaspoon of flax seeds or raw sunflower seeds.

Since zucchini is a seasonal vegetable that’s really only available from July to September, I’ll make several batches of zucchini bread at a time and freeze them. When tightly sealed in a freezer storage bag, these delicious breads will keep for up to 6 months. No time to bake? Shred the zucchini, measure the amount needed for your recipe into individual freezer bags, date, and toss in the freezer. The frozen pouches can be thawed out later when you do have time.

More by this contributor:
10 strange baking tips your mother never taught you.
How to make Boston Brown Bread in the Crock Pot
Home made cookies that sell well at bake sales.