This keto zucchini bread is soft, fluffy, gently sweet and deliciously spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg. A gluten and grain free bread, it’s perfect for a sugar free breakfast or as an afternoon snack.
Have you tried baking with zucchini yet? It’s sooo good!
Quick explanation here – having lived in London for more than half my life now, I should really say “courgette”, but some of you may know I’m German. And in Germany a zucchini is called a zucchini, so I’m just gonna stick with it 😉
What does zucchini bread taste like?
Zucchini bread tends to be slightly sweet and moist. It has the texture of a muffin rather than of bread – soft and fluffy. Popular spice choices are cinnamon and nutmeg – you could add other spices commonly used in pumpkin spice mixes such as ginger, cloves, allspice or even cardamom. To make a Keto zucchini bread like this one, you simply use a low carb flour (or two – I chose almond flour and coconut flour) and replace the sugar with a low carb sweetener such as erythritol or xylitol.
Actually, the only effort involved is squeezing ALL liquid out of your zucchini, so your bread does not go soggy. I used a cheesecloth for this, but you can use a regular dishcloth. Once this slightly messy bit is done, the rest of the cake basically makes itself.
We like to eat it all on its own, but if you want, you could spread some butter on it, too. It would be lovely toasted as well!
How to make a moist and fluffy keto zucchini bread – step by step:
1.) Peel and then grate 3-4 small zucchini.
Peeling the zucchini is purely for your visual benefit. If you don’t mind green specks in your bread, by all means, don’t waste the peel and add some lovely additional fibre to your bread.
2.) Using a kitchen towel or a cheese cloth, squeeze as much liquid out as possible. You should end up with 1 ½ cup or 230g shredded zucchini. I squeezed out 160 ml of liquid in total, that’s an entire small glass.
Tip: Take your time with this step. Squeeze, squeeze and when you think you’re finished, squeeze some more. Remember: You don’t want soggy bread!!
This is how it should look after you’ve given it some elbow grease!
3.) Whisk the eggs with an electric mixer or in a food processor until pale, frothy and doubled in size. Add the butter and vanilla and blend.
4.) Add the zucchini and blend until combined.
5.) Mix all dry ingredients in a separate bowl – almond flour, coconut flour, baking powder, granulated erythritol, cinnamon and nutmeg – making sure there are no lumps. Then add to the batter and blend until combined. Stir in half the nuts (optional, but I like a bit of crunch in this bread).
6.) Line a regular size loaf tin with parchment paper and fill in the batter. Top with the remaining nuts and bake for about 50 minutes or until a toothpick/knife inserted comes out clean.
Tip: If the top of the bread gets too brown too early, cover the top loosely with aluminium paper. The bread you see in the images is my first try, which was on the dark side. The second time around, I covered it at minute 40 and achieved a much gentler brown.
Low carb zucchini bread – Recipe Variations
I think this recipe would work equally well with grated carrots. In this case, there’s no need for squeezing out any liquid – simply grate and go!
If you don’t have a cinnamon and nutmeg separately, you could sub with 2 tsp of pumpkin spice or mixed spice.
The hazelnuts taste and look great on top of the bread. Walnuts or pecans would also be good options. Alternatively, I’d go for slivered almonds.
I used ground almonds in this recipe – that’s what we call “regular” almond flour here in the UK. If you want to use extra-fine (fat-reduced) almond flour, I recommend you use 1 cup / 100g instead of the 125 g / 1 1/4 cup (and, if the dough seems too soft, add another 1-2 tbsp of almond flour if necessary). The super-fine almond flour absorbs more liquid than the coarser almond flour/ground almonds.
This heathy zucchini bread is only gently sweet, that’s how I like it best. If you want more of a cake experience, you could add another 2 tbsp of sweetener. I used a brown erythritol for this recipe (Lakanto Golden or Sukrin Gold are both good options), but a regular erythritol would work well, too.
This recipe would also work for zucchini muffins. If you use a muffin pan, reduce the oven time to around 25-30 minutes. (This is an estimate based on other muffin recipes I’ve made, so be sure to check with a toothpick if they’re ready.) I have a coconut flour zucchini muffin recipe if you’re not a fan of almond flour!
Other sweet recipes using veggies:
- Fudgy Chocolate Avocado Cake (Sugar Free)
- Keto Carrot Cake For Two
- Healthy Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting
Tried this Keto zucchini bread? Give it a star rating below!
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Keto Zucchini Bread
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup/ 230g shredded zucchini /courgette all liquid squeezed out
- 4 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup/ 100g butter softened
- 1 ¼ cup/ 125g almond flour or ground almonds
- ½ cup/ 50g coconut flour
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- 3 tbsp granulated erythritol
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- ¼ cup/ 30g chopped hazelnuts or pecans
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 180 Celsius / 356 Fahrenheit.
- Peel and then grate 3-4 small zucchini. Using a kitchen cloth, squeeze as much liquid out as possible. You should end up with 1 ½ cup or 230g shredded zucchini.
- Whisk the eggs with an electric mixer or in a food processor until pale, frothy and doubled in size. Add the butter and vanilla and blend.
- Add the zucchini and blend until combined.
- Mix all dry ingredients in a separate bowl – almond flour, coconut flour, baking powder, erythritol, cinnamon and nutmeg – making sure there are no lumps. Then add to the batter and blend until combined.
- Stir in half the nuts.
- Line a loaf tin with parchment paper and fill in the batter. Top with the remaining nuts.
- Bake for about 50 minutes or until a toothpick/knife inserted comes out clean. If the cake gets too brown, cover the top loosely with aluminium paper.
- Let cool completely before slicing.
Notes
Nutrition
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Pat says
Sorry Katrin. I love most of your recipes but this was dry. I think if I made again I wouldn’t squeeze out the moisture in the zucchini and substitute oil for the butter.
Katrin Nürnberger says
Hi Pat, what a shame it did not turn out! I don’t remember this bread being dry. I wonder if you used extra fine almond flour and didn’t reduce the amount?
L says
Have made this 3 times now – uses lots of bowls. What with the squeezing, the whisking and the food processor etc., but I wouldn’t mind so much if it tasted phenomenal……. unfortunately it always comes out dry……. I used half the sweetener the first time (I even find berries too sweet, and chocolate I can only do 100% or occasionally will do 99%) but found the sweetness didn’t sit right with the zucchini but that was JUsT ME and so I decided to omit the sweetener and go with savory the second time. I also forgot to add the chopped hazelnuts at the end and instead processed them them right into the mixture – Taste was better but still dry. This 3rd time it is in the oven right now. I have tried only squeezing out 1/3 the liquid from the zucchini to see if that helps – thoifh on licking the bowl it tastes very coconut flour-y to me. and dry, so I think the end result shall be the same 🙁 maybe I should try one last time with just almond flour no coconut, and do as someone and add turmeric (am a big fan!). I cut it into 24 square pieces rather than 12 slices as it’s very filling. Half goes in the fridge and the other half gets wrapped in the freezer for next week and warmed up (it definitely tastes better and slightly more moist when frozen then warmed! I keep meaning to spread the warmed bread with butter – I think that would make it moist and tasty….
Katrin Nürnberger says
How did your third try come out? I’m wondering if your almond flour was super-fine – much finer than mine – and therefore your dough ended up drier than mine.
L says
So I e now got it down! Instead of ground almonds I switched to almond flour which is drier – didn’t decrease from 125g to 100g as suggest but instead just didn’t bother squeezing out the liquid from the zucchini (yay – reduces so much prep time!). Now I’ve made it twice that way and both times it was perfect . So easy to make now. I don’t peel the zucchini either. Can’t taste it in the recipe though. And I still knit the sugar and add some salt instead so it’s a savory loaf – can spread with a topping of butter. Kinda addictive I have to watch myself now! so thanks for the recipe! Trying to stay away from artificial sweeteners even Erythritol or stevia affect me so I really need a brownie recipe that doesn’t contain either sugar or sweetner – that would be a dream come true!
Katrin Nürnberger says
Love it! Which almond flour brand did you use? Was it a fat reduced flour?
Dalia says
Hi, where I come from, there is no combination of “sugar/sweet and zucchini” out of the question. Therefore, I used one spoon: turmeric, one spoon: ginger powder and two spoons: flaxseed meal!! I know I am over-innovative (for one who is not good in the kitchen) it was dry, so I added some almond milk (too much freedom, right?). The taste was fine, very pleasing. Thank you for your hard work.
Katrin Nürnberger says
How interesting! I love turmeric. Your bread must have had a gorgeous colour.
Jeanette says
Thank you for this recipe, I have a son whom has texture issues, he loves the chocolate zucchini muffins ( won’t eat the zucchini on its own) lol Now with this recipe I can turn it into chocolate with a little unsweetened cocoa powder and some sugar free chips.
*fingers crossed*(
Katrin Nürnberger says
That sounds like a great idea. Keep me posted, I’d love to hear how it turns out!
RachelH says
Thank you, Jeanette! I had forgotten those . . .
Antonella Stalker says
Another lovely recipe! Baked this today and the kitchen smelled amazing. Had a slice with a cup of espresso and it made my afternoon. Thanks again for all your great recipes. Cannot wait to try some more x
Katrin Nürnberger says
That’s great! Can’t wait to hear what you’ll try next.
Jade says
Hi Katrin! I can’t find erythritol anywhere in Ireland and just wondering can I substitute xylitol for it?
Sorry I think I asked you think on another recipe but I couldn’t find it after I posted!!
Thanks a million:)
Katrin says
Yes, you can definitely use xylitol instead. It’s great for anything cakey. The only thing is that I find it does not make cookies as crispy.
Кирвас Ирина says
Hi, I replaced butter with olive oil 1:1, it worked well. thank you for recipe.
Katrin says
That’s so interesting! Thank you for letting us all know.
Natalie M says
This bread is phenomenally moist and moreish! I omitted the erythritol as I wanted a savoury bread, but added a little ginger powder and used pecans. With a dollop of peanut butter on top, this is absolute heaven! Thank you for the recipe.
Katrin says
How good to hear that the bread works as a savoury version. I like the addition of ginger powder. Thanks for your comment!
Sue Clayton says
Hi Katrin. Can I leave out the sweetener entirely, or maybe use 1 Tbsp honey or maple syrup instead?
Katrin says
You can do either, absolutely. If you left out the sweetener and also the spices and added some salt, you’d end up with a savoury loaf, which I imagine would be yum with cheeses.
Kathleen Ives says
Hi Katrin,I do not like coconut flour.Can I leave it out or add more almond flour
Katrin says
Yes, I’d try with an additional 1 cup / 100g of almond flour to replace the coconut flour. you need more almond flour than coconut flour because it it more absorbent. If your almonds are very coarse, you may even have to up it to 1 1/4 cup / 125g. Let me know how you get on!
Rachel Castran says
Hi, What can I use instead of butter to get a similar effect? Would coconut oil work and if so, how much?
Katrin says
You can replace butter with coconut oil 1:1 as they have the same consistency.
allie says
Ah, so 100g coconut oil before melted? Thanks
Katrin says
I tend to melt my coconut oil before I measure it because that’s the easiest way to get it out of the pot 🙂