Gluten Free Zucchini Bread | Moist, Tender, Naturally Dairy-Free!

Incredibly moist and tender gluten free zucchini bread, made with tons of summer's pushiest vegetable. This is your new favorite zucchini recipe!

What makes this the best gluten free zucchini bread

Zucchini and squash are difficult vegetables for baking because they hold so much moisture. In baking, excess moisture tends to make baked goods mushy and flavorless, and prevent some of the browning that creates flavor and adds different textures like a crisp crust.

In this gluten free zucchini bread recipe, we remove much of the moisture from the zucchini by shredding it, placing it in a tea towel or a fine mesh bag, and wringing out as much of the excess water as possible. We then puree some of the zucchini with oil and some of the other wet ingredients in the recipe to create an emulsion that traps enough moisture during baking to create a tender crumb that still has tons of flavor.

Plus, if you have someone in your family that hates vegetables, you can sneak some of them in by serving this lightly sweet, moist and tender zucchini bread. You can't taste the actual zucchini at all, but it's still in there! And since it's made with oil, not butter, it's also naturally dairy free.

Gluten free zucchini bread recipe ingredient notes

• All purpose gluten free flour blend – I love the results that Better Batter gives me, and you can always make my “mock” Better Batter blend yourself. Be sure to use one of my recommended flour blends, including xanthan gum so your bread holds together and stays fresh.
• Salt – balances out and complements all the other ingredients
• Baking powder – adds rise in the oven. Make sure your baking powder is fresh, and measure it carefully
• Baking soda – helps the bread brown in the oven
• Cinnamon – adds a lovely, warm spicy but subtle taste to your bread; you can leave it out, though, if prefer a more plain, straightforward flavor
• Chocolate chips – optional, but I do love the richness that they add to this delicious bread
• Sugar – I use both granulated and light brown sugar to give this gf zucchini bread its sweetness, tenderness, and depth of flavor
• Oil – We use a neutral oil (options include canola, vegetable, grapeseed, peanut, safflower, peanut, or avocado oil) to blend with some of the grated, drained zucchini to create an emulsion that adds tons of moisture and tenderizes the bread
• Zucchini – be sure to remove as much moisture as possible or your zucchini bread will have an intended bouncy texture and may not bake all the way through
• Eggs – these help provide lift and help bind it together so it slices cleanly

How to prepare zucchini for gluten free baking

Zucchini and other summer squash naturally have a ton of moisture, and they grow so quickly (and harvesting the vegetables makes the plant produce even more!). The moisture isn't a problem for a recipe like this one, which could easily be designed to account for the moisture since it's not being baked until crisp, like our gluten free zucchini tots.

But baking requires consistency, and the moisture in zucchini varies tremendously from one vegetable to the next. Draining the zucchini of as much moisture as possible before measuring it by weight is the way we standardize our ingredients.

You can drain the grated zucchini by placing it in in the center of a tea towel (just a kitchen towel with a flat weave that doesn't shed) or even an old t shirt. Just wrap the cloth around the grated vegetable, and squeeze until the liquid is all gone.

Using Nut Milk Bags for Draining Moisture

You can also use cheese cloth to do the same, but it tends to be too fragile and tears easily under pressure. My favorite way to drain the moisture from zucchini and cauliflower is with a nut milk bag, which is just a strong mesh bag designed for filtering out the nut pulp left behind from making a nut milk.

When you use a nut milk bag to drain zucchini or cauliflower, you're preserving the solid and discarding the liquid. Drain it over the sink and flush the liquid away.

Here's my favorite nut milk bag (affiliate link; feel free to shop around), if you're interested. I like that it's larger than many, and strong enough for repeated use. In fact, mine has lasted through many years of regular.

How to make gluten free zucchini bread

This is a simple recipe that is mixed together beginning with dry ingredients, then adding wet ingredients. But the wet ingredients are prepared a bit differently. Let's walk through the recipe:

First prepare the zucchini

We begin before we even place any of the ingredients into the wet ingredients by shredding the zucchini, skins and all, on a standard size grater. Then, to make sure your zucchini has the same amount of moisture as expected, you will wring out as much moisture as possible. There are some success tips on how to remove moisture from zucchini above and in the recipe below.

Whisk dry ingredients and blend wet

Next, we place all the dry ingredients (gluten free flour blend including xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, salt, the optional ground cinnamon, and the sugars) in a large mixing bowl, and combine them well.

Be sure to break up any clumps in the brown sugar. Toss the chocolate chips in a bit of the dry ingredients and set them aside.

Add a bit more than half of the shredded and drained zucchini to the dry ingredients and mix throughout. The rest of the prepared zucchini is then blended fully with the eggs, oil, and vanilla. That puree is then mixed into the dry ingredients until combined.

Transfer the zucchini bread batter to a prepared loaf pan and bake

The batter at this point will be relatively pourable, and smooth except for the shredded zucchini that hasn't been pureed. It will also be light green in color.

All that's left is to mix in the chocolate chips tossed in some of the dry ingredients, transfer the batter to a greased, lined standard loaf pan, and top with more chocolate chips. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean, maybe with a few moist crumbs attached.

This bread doesn't burn especially easy, so don't worry too much about overbaking it—unless you're using a dark colored loaf pan that attracts more heat than we'd like. Be sure it's baked completely or it will collapse as it cools.

Tips for making the best gluten free zucchini bread

If you follow my gluten free zucchini bread recipe to the letter, you won't go wrong. But there are still some extra tips you can use to make sure your gluten free treat is perfect.

Don't skip pureeing some of the zucchini

Back when I first made this recipe, I added in mashed banana, but after much tweaking and experimenting, I now omit the banana and add pureed zucchini instead, alongside the eggs and oil. Don't be tempted to skip this step, as it really boosts the moisture content, keeping your gluten free quick bread soft and delicious.

Toss the grated zucchini in the dry ingredients

Toss the grated zucchini with the dry ingredients so the pieces don’t clump together. They’re baked right into the loaf, and show up as tiny green flecks in the bread.

Measure the gluten free flour blend the right way

While I include a volume measurement in my gluten free zucchini bread recipe, I much prefer that you pay attention to the weight measurement instead.

My reasoning is simple: You'll more closely match my irresistible results when you measure flour by weight (easy to do with a kitchen scale), than if you pack it into a cup and hope for the best.

Really wring out that zucchini

As you're grating your zucchini, you're sure to notice that this once firm, dry vegetable quickly turns into a soggy pile. For this reason, it's extremely important that you take the time to wring the excess moisture out of your zucchini.

It's true that the point of zucchini is to add tons of moisture to bread, but if it's too moist, your bread is going to come out gooey. You may be able to save it by baking longer, but there could also be a point where there's simply too much water to bake off.

Gluten free zucchini bread ingredient and substitution suggestions

Gluten free, dairy free zucchini bread

Luckily, since this gluten free quick bread is made with oil instead of butter, it's naturally dairy free. Be careful about your chocolate chips, though. Some are dairy-free, but others are not.

Make sure yours are if you need to be dairy-free. The semi-sweet chocolate chips from Trader Joe's are dairy-free.

Gluten free, egg free zucchini bread

Since there are two eggs in this recipe, you may be able to successfully replace each of them with a “chia egg” (1 tablespoon ground white chia seeds + 1 tablespoon lukewarm water, mixed and allowed to gel). I haven't tried this substitution, though, so proceed with caution! A “flax egg” might also work, but tends to add a truly unwelcome flavor.

How to store leftover gf zucchini bread

When you keep it tightly wrapped in a zip-top bag, your leftover gluten free zucchini bread should last about 3 days on the counter. Just keep it sealed tight, and squeeze out as much air as possible from the bag.

How to freeze zucchini bread

If you've made lots of extra gf zucchini bread in an effort to use up all your zucchini (been there, done that!), you can store your extra loaves in the freezer to enjoy later.

I like to store whole loaves. First, let your zucchini bread cool completely. Next, slice it and wrap the slices in groups of 2 or 3 tightly in plastic wrap and then place the bread inside a zip-top bag. Your bread will easily last up to six month in the freezer so long as it's carefully wrapped.

When you're ready to eat some gluten free zucchini bread, just leave a group of slices on your kitchen counter or in the fridge overnight to defrost. Refresh in the microwave or, better yet, your toaster oven on low.

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