vegan oil-free zucchini bread

dense, hearty, veggie-studded, and lightly sweet, this zucchini bread is breakfast heaven.

my mother is from italy. when she bakes treats, she bakes things like zeppole, profiteroles, and struffoli. growing up, i never had banana bread, zucchini bread, or crumb cake. of course, everything my mother made was delicious, but i sometimes feel like i missed out on the classic treats that everyone else enjoyed.

today, a zucchini bread was what i decided to create. i originally planned on making a gluten-free zucchini bread. i mixed up the batter and cooked it, incredibly excited. when i checked if it was done, the top looked really light. i put the bread back in the oven on broil, hoping it would crisp it up a little.

it crisped, all right. crisped it til it burned black.

when i checked the inside of the bread for doneness, i found that it was COMPLETELY liquid. the outside was strangely chewy and the inside was custard-like. i was devastated! maybe i was being dramatic, but i cried a little bit. this was my first real recipe fail. :-(

i could not figure out what went wrong. i squeezed the water out of my zucchini, i measured everything correctly, and i baked at the right temperature. disheartened and tired, i felt like i lost.

i, however, am nothing if i am not stubborn.

i was going to have zucchini bread today if it killed me.

i decided to go back to what i know. i used white whole wheat flour and used some flax and applesauce for binding. i used extra flour to combat the moisture of the applesauce and zucchini.

the result? a dense but moist bread with a gentle flavor and the slightest touch of cinnamon. i am very happy with this zucchini bread!

INGREDIENTS-

• 1/2 cup almond milk

• 1/4 cup water

• 2 Tbsp flax seeds

• 3 Tbsp maple syrup (use more if you want this bread to be more sweet-- 6 Tbsp for lightly sweet, 1/2 cup for sweeter)

• 2 Tbsp unsweetened applesauce

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 1 3/4 cups white whole wheat flour

• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder

• 1/2 tsp baking soda

• 3/4 tsp salt

• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

• 1 large zucchini, grated and squeezed to remove water

instructions-

1. preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

2. set out a cutting board. line it with paper towel. grate your zucchini with a box grater over the center of the cutting board, then wrap the zucchini in the towel and squeeze as much excess water from it as you can. alternatively, you could spiralize it (but that would be more work for me and my hand-held spiralizer than grating was).

3. in a large bowl combine all wet ingredients (not including zucchini) and whisk until homogeneous. add flour, leaveners, salt, cinnamon. combine, then stir in zucchini.

4. pour into a 9x5 loaf pan that has been sprayed with non-stick spray or lined with parchment.

5. bake, starting to check for doneness at around 40 minutes. allow to cool completely (about an hour) before slicing.