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Moist Vegan Zucchini Bread with Chocolate & Walnuts

5 from 28 votes
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 5 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 25 minutes
Servings 1 loaf
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Ingredients

  • 1 ¼ cups shredded zucchini (from roughly 1 medium zucchini)
  • 1 ½ cups light spelt flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
  • ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • ¾ cup coconut palm sugar
  • ¾ cup unsweetened apple sauce
  • ⅓ cup neutral-tasting oil of choice (avocado, sunflower, refined coconut etc)
  • 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
  • ½ cup walnut halves, chopped
  • ½ cup dairy-free chocolate chunks or chips

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 8x4 loaf pan and then line it with parchment paper. Lightly grease the parchment as well and set aside.
  • Place the shredded zucchini in the center of a clean kitchen towel. Over the sink, gather up the edges of the towel and squeeze out as much moisture/water from the zucchini as you can. Set aside.
  • In a large bowl, whisk together the light spelt flour, baking powder, baking soda, sea salt, cinnamon, cardamom, and nutmeg.
  • In a medium bowl, whisk together the coconut palm sugar, apple sauce, oil, and vanilla extract. Add this wet mixture to the larger bowl with the flour mixture. Using a rubber spatula, mix until just combined with a few little streaks of flour.
  • Add the shredded and wrung out zucchini to the batter along with the walnuts and chocolate chunks. Fold these items in until they are evenly distributed.
  • Transfer the batter to the prepared loaf pan and flatten the top of the loaf. Bang the filled loaf tin on the counter a few times to fully settle the batter.
  • Bake the vegan zucchini bread for 60-70 minutes, or until a toothpick/paring knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove the zucchini bread from the oven and let it cool in the loaf pan on a wire rack.
  • Let the zucchini bread cool completely before removing from the pan and slicing.

Equipment

  • 8x4 loaf pan

Recipe Notes

  • You could easily substitute the following flours 1-to-1 for the light spelt: whole wheat pastry flour, white whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, and gluten-free all purpose flour (King Arthur makes a great one).
  • Can you make this recipe into muffins? Yep! The recipe makes 9 standard sized muffins and you'll bake them for 25-30 minutes.
  • My favourite light spelt flour is this one from Flourist.
  • You can substitute the coconut palm sugar with regular cane sugar or light brown sugar here. I don’t think maple syrup or agave nectar is a great idea as we really need the structure from a granulated sweetener. Since we have a lot of wet components in this loaf (apple sauce and the zucchini), the granulated sweetener helps us avoid a gummy texture.
Vegan zucchini bread with warm spices, walnuts, and chocolate is the most delicious way to eat your vegetables. Naturally sweetened and can easily be made into muffins.