This super simple recipe for coconut flour low-carb zucchini bread is naturally grain-free and gluten-free. It’s also dairy-free – so it’s Paleo too!
Who knew zucchini bread was a sweet recipe? Not me until a reader sent me a request to develop a low-carb version of their favourite zucchini bread recipe.
While your garden is bountiful with zucchini/courgettes, fill up the freezer with coconut flour low-carb zucchini bread. It is perfect for low-carb lunches and portion-controlled sweet treats.
Is zucchini keto?
Yes, zucchini is keto as long as you don’t eat too much, too often. There is actually no such food that “is keto” or “isn’t keto”. whether you choose to add a certain food into your weekly meal plan, will be determined by how much and how often you eat that food.
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Zucchini nutritional value per 100g/3.5oz is 3.1 g total carbs – 1 g fiber = 2.1 g net carbohydrates. You use a mere 17 calories, 1.2 g of protein, and a whopping 29% of your daily vitamin C needs. Not bad for a medium zucchini!
Nutritional values from cronometer.com
There are so many delicious keto recipes to use zucchini (that kids will actually eat). Fresh zucchini is a versatile vegetable that can be used in sweet recipes or savory recipes.
Zucchini bread, chocolate cake, baked bacon egg zucchini casserole (keto egg casserole), baked zucchini chips (4 ways), zucchini baked taco boats (with ground beef), and of course, low-carb spaghetti bolognese with zoodles.
All are delicious ways to use up excess zucchini when it is in season.
What Is Zucchini Bread?
I was asked to develop a low-carb zucchini bread recipe, but using coconut flour because their child has an almond flour allergy – game on! I love a challenge.
Zucchini bread is a sweet bread recipe, similar to banana bread. Best served warm or toasted, with butter and I personally like to sprinkle cinnamon and little sweetener on top for a real treat when I have a sweet craving.
Luckily at only 1.3g net carbs per slice, we can happily call this a keto zucchini bread too.
Coconut Flour Bread
If you have been here for a while you will know I am developing more recipes using coconut flour rather than almond flour.
Why? There are various reasons, but primarily because almond flour has a high ratio of inflammatory omega 6, almond flour is expensive, and many children are either allergic to almonds or they attend a school with a nut-free policy.
Take a look at my recipe finder for coconut flour recipes.
How to make muffins
Now if you are needing a faster recipe that is also portion controlled, why not bake the mixture into low-carb zucchini muffins? The recipe will easily make 8 large zucchini bread muffins, or 15 mini zucchini cupcakes.
The coconut flour low-carb zucchini bread muffins/cupcakes will bake so much faster. Each oven will vary and so will the size of the muffin/cupcake tins you chose to use – but they generally take 10 – 15 minutes to bake.
Always test the centre to ensure a fork pressed inside, comes out clean.
How to make chocolate bread
Now if you are loving zucchini bread, or if your garden is growing with zucchini/courgettes, why not make a low-carb zucchini chocolate bread too?
Simply add 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, an extra egg and extra sweetener (to your taste), and mix through.
I also have a chocolate zucchini cake you might like (your children will never know there are hidden vegetables inside).
Coconut Flour Low-Carb Zucchini Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 50 g coconut flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 4 tbsp granulated sweetener, of choice or more to your taste
- 1/2 tsp salt or to taste
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 5 eggs – medium
- 130 g grated/shredded zucchini (measure after squeezing out the water)
- 30 g walnut halves/pieces (optional)
Instructions
- Place all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Stir gently.
- Add the vanilla, eggs, grated/shredded zucchini and walnuts (optional). Stir gently.
- Place into a lined loaf tin or silicon loaf tin, and bake at 180C/350F. Cooking times seems to vary considerably with this recipe. Depending on your oven, the feedback I am getting from reader’s is that it may take anywhere between for 20-40 minutes. Always test the bread. You will know when it is cooked when a knife comes out clean when pushed into the centre.
Nutrition
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I have just made this using a 2 serve pack of broccoli/cauliflower/ sweet potato rice, (cos I didn’t have enough zucchini) which I buy at Woolworths in Australia. It’s approx 4g per serve in the pack but with atleast 12 slices of this per 2 serves, this cuts the carbs further. Let me just say… it’s amazing. I couldn’t stop at one piece… with butter ofcourse! I only used half the sweetener, and I used pecans instead of walnuts cos that’s all I had.
Brilliant!!! I love it when people adapt my recipes – and I love the idea of using other vegetables and pecans – yummm.
I made this yesterday in a silicon loaf tin but it took 40 mins at 350F to cook, Has a wonderful taste and very moist.
What is Keto???
Keto is short for ketosis. It is generally eating less than 20g carbs per day to put you I a fat burning state. This is a good article to read.
Just made this – delicious! I used to make zucchini (courgette to us in the UK) cake before I went low carb, now I’ve got a perfect replacement. Mine needed a little longer in the oven. Lovely with thick butter.
Brilliant! So glad to hear it was a hit.
Hi there.
Please will you give examples of sweeteners. Would honey be okay, if not, which examples are out there? I live in South Africa.
Thanks
Bongi
Sorry, honey is avoided because it is still sugar. This is my Ultimate Guide To Low-Carb Sweeteners. I show you what I use and what I avoid.
Can I use almond flour instead of coconut? I have a lot of almond flour!
Thanks!
Pam
I’m afraid they work in completely different ways and require totally different ratios of eggs and butter etc. You may wish to read this guide on Almond flour vs Coconut flour. Why not make my low-carb almond flour bread? it’s beautiful and tasty.
I just made this today and it’s awesome! Comes together so easily with ingredients I always have on hand. My loaf pan was a larger one so my loaf is thinner, but still delicious. This will definitely be a keeper recipe. Excellent flavor and texture. Thank you!
Thank you Sara, I’m chuffed you loved it 🙂
Why didn’t this rise for me?
Hi, that looks like a great recipe. Often at times I have always hated low carb bread/baked goods due to the high number of eggs. Is it possible to replace the eggs in your recipe with maybe flaxseed or chia or even an egg replacer?
Morning! If I used silicone muffin cups ( the same ones that you use and recommend for the green Chile cheese muffins) how long should I bake them? Also, should I use Pam spray on them?
Thank you!
Pam
Yes you can easily make these into cupcakes. Each silicon muffin tray brand is different, I don’t generally spray mine with oil, it is unnecessary. But be guided with your past experience using your one. (P.S. green chilli cheese muffins are on another website, not here 🙂 )
What does the 130g of zucchini work out to in cups? I don’t have scales and would love to make this.
It is roughly 1 cup. With all my recipes, there are two large red buttons below the ingredients, you can easily swap between metric and US measurements to make low-carb cooking even easier.
I just made this and I think I did something wrong. I used muffin tins and it pretty much turned into a flat lump. I used a zucchini spiral maker and then chopped up the spirals, but the dough seemed very dry. Even with a large butter pat on top of the finished product it wasn’t very good. The bottom seemed to overcook while the top was mushy. I cooked for 17 minutes. I think the coconut flour absorbed all the moisture from the eggs before I could get the zucchini in. What did I do?
This shouldn’t be dry at all. I wonder if you accidentally added too much coconut flour perhaps?
Mine came out the same way… Dry and crumbly ?
Can I use bananas in place of Zucchini? I love banana bread and wanted a moist and tasty Keto version
I’m afraid bananas will never be keto at 21g per average medium banana. Take a look at this post, super helpful to visualise all the carbs in fruit.
Hi Libby,
I’m gonna give this a go at the weekend and wondered if I could half the ingredients to make a smaller loaf? It’ll only be me eating it so I don’t want it to go to waste, does it keep well? Or, could it be frozen?!
Thanks
Kit
Yes you can halve the quantities. There is a serving calculator in each recipe. Simply dial up how many servings you want to make, and it will calculate the ingredients for you – yay.
Just gorgeous – lovely treat! I also only used half the sweetener and it was lovely!
When you say “vanilla” do you mean vanilla pods or extract please?
I love vanilla pods but they are too expensive. I generally use the best vanilla extract I can afford.
Please add cup measurements for US. I’m waiting for answer to make it. It sounds really good.
All my recipes have metric grams, and for my US readers, I also add a conversion to cups and ounces. Just click on the buttons in the recipe to swap between them 🙂
I followed the recipe to a T but it came out of the pan crumbly .. did not hold together .. taste was great… any ideas on how to modify it so it will hold together?
It sounds like it possibly needed another egg to hold it together.
Looks delicious, would it be ok to drop the sweetener altogether for a diabetic?
Yes you may always drop the sweetener. I always say the amount of sweetener I use in my recipes is a guide only. Everyone is different and has a different sweet tooth depending on how long they have been sugar free. For some, they may require a lot more sweetener at the beginning, but as time goes on, your sweet tooth will diminish and so less will be required. All the sweeteners I use don’t raise blood sugars. You can read here my Ultimate Guide To Low-Carb Sweeteners.
This is a great quick bread – thank you. I baked it yesterday. After eating a few pieces I wrapped it and put it in the fridge. This morning I toasted a few pieces. The aroma of the cinnamon really sparked my appetite. I also love the addition of the walnuts, it makes for a very hearty breakfast bread.
I’ve been trying to balance what I’m using for my keto baked goods between almond and coconut flour and ground flax seed. For a while I was getting sick of the coconut flour (some baked goods seem too spongy), but this bread changes the game.
Libby – keep up the great work. You’re one of my favorite keto recipe writers!
Could you use egg replacer?
If I have large eggs instead of medium st home, how many should I use?
Hi! Just made this in muffin form and it’s delicious!! Took a little longer in the oven, but taste so yummy. However, I’m just wondering how many servings did the loaf give you? So I can work out the nutritional information for each muffin.
If you were to use the monk fruit sweetener that you recommend for the “granulated sweetener” would you cut the amount by half since it’s much sweeter than stevia and others?
You have to be guided by your brand, they all differ widely. This is why I also add “or to taste” as our taste buds are on different parts of the sugar-free journey so may require more or less than the recipe. All my sweeteners I use measure spoon for spoon in place of sugar.
I followed the recipe exactly with no substitutes except I only had large eggs so I used 4 instead of 5 medium. It did not rise at all. My loaf pans are 9×5 inches. The bread is about 1 inch tall. You did not specify the size of your loaf pan. Should it have been in a many loaf pan? What are other reasons it would not rise. It is still delicious by the way!
I’m glad it was delicious – yay. I just baked mine in a regular loaf tin. I wonder if your tin/pan was to big? I’ve gone into the kitchen and measured mine for you. It’s 9×4 inch (22x10cm).
I have questions… Does the nutrition info include the nuts? And how many “regular” sized muffins would this make? You mentioned 8 jumbo or 15 mini, but I didn’t info on regular sized muffins (like cupcakes.) Would I fill the whole tin (12?) I’m very excited to try this recipe!!
Hi Libby, would this work as a savory bread if i left out all sweetners? Tia
That would be amazing. You could even sprinkle some cheese on top to give it a nice crust. How about a pinch of chilli too? Yum.
Debbie
It tastes grat with vegemite……which is why I made this initially/
Is it possible to have text size increased and/or colour of text darkened…very difficult to
,,,unable to read properly
Made in muffin tin. Bread always is a little dry. What can I do?
In the USA, 20 minutes isn’t any where near close to being done. I had to cook it for close to an hour. But smells heavenly!!
Glad to read this, thought I was crazy. Been in for 30 min and still not done
Thanks!! I was just wondering the same thing!
It took almost 45 moinutes to bake. I didn’t think 20 minutes was going to be right.
I just made this and it’s really tasty. It didn’t rise much, and as I used large eggs I should of used one less. I made this as a savoury loaf, removed all the sweet ingredients and put chilli flakes and paprika instead. I’m going to try toasting it tomorrow with vegemite and avocado, yum.
I just found this re: weight of medium eggs
Medium egg (44 grams): 5.7 grams of protein. Large egg (50 grams): 6.5 grams of protein. Extra-large egg (56 grams): 7.3 grams of protein. Jumbo egg (63 grams): 8.2 grams of protein
Just found your site and loving it – great to get all the facts in one place!
I have been experimenting with baking with coconut flour and find that there is a kind of mushiness to the finished cakes. Adding less liquid just makes them dry but doesn’t improve the texture, mouth-feel thing compared with using regular flour. Do you have any workarounds for this? How about adding oatmeal for 30% of the starch?
Thanks!
There won’t be the starchy feel or the gluten-like stretch that you would find in regular wheat flour cake, and each batch of coconut flour I am sure differs from the next. I don’t use oatmeal so I’m afraid I can’t comment on how this addition would work. These new low-carb flours do take some getting used to, but I actually like them more enow. Maybe you would prefer my almond flour bread? This is one of the most popular bread recipes here.
Hi! First I have to say how much I like and appreciate your site. I love all the tips, charts and visual aids. I made this zucchini bread last night and, while it is really tasty, it did not raise at all. I followed the directions exactly wrt amounts, weights and what all. Any hint as to what I could do differently. Thanks again for all you do to make low carb living easier!
make sure your baking powder is fresh. I date mine when I open it, and discard after 6 months. Good Luck!
What is acceptable sweetener?
You can look at my Ultimate Guide To Low-Carb Sweeteners to see what I like to use (and what I avoid).
Made this today and OMG!!!!! I added 1 scoop of All Purpose Quest Protein Powder, later glazed it with Walden Farms Pancake Syrup and it was AMAAAAZING!!! I was wondering if I could sub the zucchini for carrot? Have you tried?
Didn’t rise very high and a little eggy, but after reading through comments, shoulda adjusted by 1 / weight. Flavor is fabulous and will defiantly make again and probably use muffin cups :). Thank you for sharing! 🙂
I am looking forward to making this bread, but is the nutrition information posted right?? Could it be so low-calorie??
The bread cuts 15 slices, so they aren’t thick.
I don’t have a sweet tooth, have you tried this recipe without the sweetener?
The use of sweeteners is always optional. Please let me know how your low-carb zucchini bread tastes without it. I’d love to know.
How could I sub liquid stevia?
You would have to look at the brand of stevia you are going to use, they all vary in their concentrations. So one brand will require a totally different volume than another to replicate each teaspoon of suagr. You may wish to read this article on sweeteners.
I absolutely LOVE THIS!! I have been keto for a little over two years now and what a difference it has made in my life! This is a wonderful recipe that has a lot of flavor, even without the walnuts (as I didn’t have any on hand). I haven’t baked much the last two years and this was really a first effort at finding a zucchini bread suitable for me. My baking powder was old so the bread really didn’t rise much and it did take an hour to cook, but right out of the oven with butter on a slice and it was great! Even my other half said it wasn’t bad! (he def is not a fan of keto) Will be making and freezing this as our zucchini was extra prolific this year. Will make a great “take a long” breakfast or snack for sure!
I just made these and they are incredibly good!!! I made them into muffins using silicone muffin cups I got on Amazon. It took about 25 minutes to bake. The knife did not come out completely clean when I tested them (I think because of the zucchini), but they were perfectly done. Next time I will make a double batch! These will not last long around here! LOL!
I made the zucchini in silicone muffin cups. 40 minutes at 350. Turned out awesome
I looked at the recipie thrice to make sure I was not missing oil or butter ,but it came out really good. I doubled the recipie added 1/4 cup raw cacao powder, used only 6 eggs and didnt have vanilla so added extra nutmeg. Also had 1/2 cup extra zucchini so chucked that in as well, But its come out very good.
Glad you enjoyed it! No butter or oil is needed for this recipe, what a wonderful idea to add cocoa powder to make it chocolate.
Is it ok to substitute zucchini in this for Kabocha squash instead?