Friday, October 10, 2008

Gluten-free Chocolate Zucchini Quick Bread

This recipe is egg-heavy, because I find we do better with a lot of protein along with our sugars. With all the eggs, it's sort of a brownie/cake/quiche cross.

This cake is not super-sweet; I'll even serve it for breakfast. If you like your coffee cake or dessert heavily sweet you may want to add an extra 1/4 cup of honey or other sweetener, or mix in chocolate chips.

For the eggless version, try my Chocolate Zucchini Cake recipe with regular or gluten-free flour.


Preheat over to 350 degrees F. Oil or grease a 9" x 13" pan (I used a glass casserole dish; a metal pan may cook faster)

Peel zucchini and cut into chunks--about 2 small or 1 large zucchini.

Sift together in large bowl:

3/4 cup brown rice flour (or any other gluten-free flour)
3/4 cup ivory teff flour (or any other GF flour)
3/4 cup tapioca flour
1/2 Tablespoon (1 and 1/2 teaspoons) baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

In pitcher of large blender, combine:

1/2 cup plain yogurt or applesauce (you can substitute safe chocolate or vanilla yogurt, pureed pears or a dairy substitute)
Enough zucchini chunks to make 2 cups of puree

Blend up the yogurt and zucchini, adding more zucchini until it makes a total of 2 and 1/2 cups combined puree.

Add to blender:

1/4 to 1/3 cup oil (I used grapeseed oil, but any mildly flavored oil or melted butter will work)
1 cup honey
6 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla (optional--omit if you are avoiding corn, gluten, alcohol or fermented foods and are not sure if your vanilla is free of these items)


Process zucchini mixture in blender until smooth.

Pour zucchini mixture into dry ingredients and mix just until blended. Fold in 1/2 to 1 cup nuts or chocolate chips if desired. Pour batter into greased pan and bake for 45 to 55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out almost clean.

Let it cool for a few minutes before trying to cut it, but you can serve it a bit warm if desired. Your family won't even know they're eating their vegetables for dessert!

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