This easy, quick bread is favorite family recipe made gluten-free and no one knows the difference! It's soft, moist, not too sweet and has the best flavor! And it is loved by everyone, even those who say they don't like zucchini!
Best Gluten-Free Zucchini Bread
An easy family recipe for the best gluten-free zucchini bread!
New! I added a cooking video to this page so you can see how easy it is to make the Best Gluten-Free Zucchini Bread!
If you’re new to this website, at the bottom of every recipe page is a printable recipe with exact measurements and directions.
Hope you love it too!
Original post…
If you’re looking for a good ol’ tried & tested, classic Zucchini Bread, look no further!
A longtime family recipe, made gluten-free of course, this bread is moist, soft & fluffy, not too sweet and DELISH!
Even people who say they don’t like zucchini, LOVE this bread!
This family recipe is a longtime fan favorite. They only thing we changed is we substitute GF Jules All Purpose Gluten-free flour (affiliate link) for regular flour — and no one knows the difference!
It’s made with real, whole food ingredients:
eggs
vegetable oil
zucchini
sugar
vanilla
gluten-free all purpose flour
cinnamon
baking powder
salt
baking soda
and chopped walnuts (optional).
As an aside, you may have noticed that we are affiliate for GFJules. To learn more about why we love GFJules flour and why we have used it for 10 years, click here.
Bonus: at the bottom of that post is a one-time use affiliate Discount Code.
And importantly, purchasing through an affiliate link does not change your cost at all. It generates a small percentage of the sale for me, and purchasing through an affiliate link helps me fund this website and all the recipes I share, so thank you!
Back to the Best Gluten-Free Zucchini Bread…
The recipe is super easy.
First, grate the zucchini first using a box grater or food processor and then let the zucchini sit in a strainer and release water while you prep the remaining ingredients.
You may have noticed, I always leave the skin on but if you want more “hidden veggies”, you can peel the zucchini.
And the batter comes together quickly!
And no need to let rest or refrigerate! Just mix together and straight to the oven!
First we mix the eggs until light and frothy.
Then add in oil, sugar and vanilla.
A note about oil: the original recipe called for vegetable oil which is not a popular oil these days. We have made it with both canola oil (which some people prefer to avoid) and grapeseed oil if you are looking for another option.
A note about sugar: I get lots of comments about sugar. 3 things to keep in mind before you cut back the sugar too much…
first, the recipe is yielding 2 loaves
second, the sugar has been cut back from the original recipe and zucchini does not bring a lot of sweetness to the bread. It’s not like baking a banana bread where the bananas are naturally sweet, so you need some sugar for sweetness (not to be confused with it being an overly sweet bread!)
three, sugar helps with texture, not just taste, so if you opt to cut back even more, just keep that in mind.
Then stir in the drained zucchini.
Meanwhile, mix the dry ingredients with a pastry cutter, whisk or fork so that they are well combined. And then add to the wet ingredients.
Add in walnuts if using and you’re ready for the oven!
Recipe Bonus: This super easy recipe 2 8 inch loaves of zucchini bread OR a combination 1 loaf and 12 muffins. And we’ve the recipe in all different size loaf pans.
Here I used a 10 inch pan and a mini pan. It always turns out perfectly! Your choice.
Here I used an 8 inch pan + muffins.
Either way, it makes a large quantity which is perfect for feeding a crowd or for meal prep as easy grab and go breakfast or snacks.
And the texture is amazing!
It’s moist, soft and fluffy and it never gets dry.
And the flavor is unreal!
Want a slice?
As for muffins versus bread, apparently people have preferences, or at least my family does. My son prefers a slice of zucchini bread, my husband prefers muffins any day, and I like them both!
An easy family recipe for the best gluten-free zucchini bread! It's moist, soft and fluffy, not too sweet and has the best flavor. Recipe makes two loaves (8x4 pan), OR 1 loaf and 12 muffins, OR 18-24 muffins, depending on how big you make them. See what you like best!
Prep Time30mins
Cook Time1hr
Total Time1hr30mins
Course: Breakfast, Dessert, Snacks, Breads and Muffins
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and depending on whether you're making muffins, loaf bread or both, grease and flour the loaf pan(s) and/ or line the muffin pan with muffin liners. Makes 2 8x4 loaves, or 1 10 inch loaf pan + 1 mini loaf pan, or 18-24 muffins.
In a bowl, beat the eggs until frothy
Add and beat in sugar, oil and vanilla until the mixture is thick and lemon-colored
Stir in the zucchini
In a small bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and baking powder using a pastry cutter, whisk or fork.
Add flour mix to the wet mix and mix to combine.
Fold in the chopped nuts if using
Pour into 2 greased and floured loaf pans.
FOR BREAD: Bake for one hour, checking at about 45 minutes and covering loosely with foil if the top is golden enough (Insert tooth pick and it should come out clean). For mini loaf, baking 40-45 mins, or until a tooth pick comes out of the center clean.
FOR MUFFINS: Bake for 30 mins (insert tooth pick and it should come out clean)
Are you sure the ammount of sugar is right? My loafes turned out sweeter than any cake-spunge I’ve ever made. It translated to about 4 dl if I’m correct(?).
Could I just cut the sugar out and replace it with flour? Or would that impact its rising? I was really hoping for savoury bread to use for foodier toasts roasted in the oven etc. Do you have a better idea to make it savoury? I was thinking about adding herbes instead. Maybe rosemary or basil… It felt like that might complement the zucchini nicely aswell.
What do you think?
Sorry you found it too sweet. The original recipe called for 2 cups, I cut it back to 1 3/4 cups. You could cut back to 1 1/2 cups and see if that is better for you. You should not however change any of the other ingredients. That said, it is not a savory bread. You are welcome to try adding an herb but I’ve never done that with this bread. Let me know if you try 🙂
Thank you! Haha! I went rougue last night. I just had to try. Made two loafes based off of this recipe, ditched the sugar alltogether and substituted it for flour. Had to add some milk to get the moisture right. Added a bit more salt and about 1,5 tbsp of rosemary. Actually turned out really nice. Needs some tweeking to get the right ammount of moisture in there but I think that was mainy due to me running out of oil half way through. 😛 Could turn out to be a nice savory bread along the line. 🙂
This bread is AMAZING! Seriously. Five stars. I used a 1:1 GF flour blend that I had sitting in my cupboard, and only 1 cup of sugar (because I failed to realize that’s all I had in my pantry…..oops!) and it STILL turned out amazing. A couple days later and it’s still moist + delicious. I’ll be making another batch this afternoon to freeze 🙂
Amazing as usual! I literally wanted to eat this all day and the house smelled so yummy! We baked in a larger loaf pan (topped with a sprinkle of chocolate chips), versus the two smaller loaf pans. If you do this, you will need to bake longer longer.
Made it with my littles today and we LOVED it! I did cut the sugar back to 1.5 cups as I don’t like the kids to have too much and it tasted great. Thanks for another great recipe that our whole family can enjoy together.
Yay! Happy you all made it together and loved it! And happy you thought it was fine with the 1.5 cups sugar too! I feel like it’s divided among the 2 loaves and still so much less than anything store bought… Thank you!
Sorry you found it too sweet! I already cut back the sugar from the original recipe and recently I’ve been making it with 1 1/2 cups sugar. You could cut back to 1 1/4 cups but I wouldn’t do more than that because it might start impacting the textures.
This bread is fantastic! I used 1.5 cups sugar and it was on the sweet side, still delicious. Trying it with 1.25 cups today. The consistency is out of this world. Love your recipes, thank you!
I used 1 cup of sugar, mix of coconut and rapadura, as that is all I had. It turned out great! I made mini muffins with half the batter for snack size bites when I need a sweet fix.
The oils you recommend in this recipe are really bad for your health. They are highly processed and cause inflammation in the body. Canola oil is the worst oil and as nutritionist that is the first thing I make sure people get out of their diets. Olive oil is much safer and way healthier. Vegetable oil and Grapeseed are also rancid oils that cause inflammation. Please suggest healthier versions to people. Besides that the only other thing I would change is the sugar to a monkfruit sugar and you have a healthy yummy loaf of bread.
That’s a great question! I don’t think it will work as a direct substitution… I have had a lot of requests to make this without oil so I am working on an alternate zucchini bread recipe!
Delicious! Your site is my go to for recipes.. This was so good, I did not have vegetable oil so used Coconut and did not have refined sugar only Coconut sugar, used 1 cup.. Its light not too sweet and perfect Thank you for another great recipe!
So yummy and easy! I did substitute 1/2 cup of applesauce to replace some of the sugar and oil (still used 1 cup sugar and half cup oil), it came out so moist and delicious. Thank you!
This is the best gluten free zucchini bread recipe I’ve used. It came together quickly turned out light, moist and tasty. I made a loaf of bread and a dozen muffins. The only change I made was I used melted butter for half of the oil as I didn’t realize I was short on oil until I started mixing the ingredients.
Hi! My name is Karen, and I’m the mom in our Healthy Gluten-Free Family. My posts and pictures here and on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter are labors of love that allow me to share a very personal journey with you, one our family has taken together — learning, experimenting and sharing how to raise a healthy happy gluten-free family. Read more ...
Hi,
Are you sure the ammount of sugar is right? My loafes turned out sweeter than any cake-spunge I’ve ever made. It translated to about 4 dl if I’m correct(?).
Could I just cut the sugar out and replace it with flour? Or would that impact its rising? I was really hoping for savoury bread to use for foodier toasts roasted in the oven etc. Do you have a better idea to make it savoury? I was thinking about adding herbes instead. Maybe rosemary or basil… It felt like that might complement the zucchini nicely aswell.
What do you think?
/Becca
Sorry you found it too sweet. The original recipe called for 2 cups, I cut it back to 1 3/4 cups. You could cut back to 1 1/2 cups and see if that is better for you. You should not however change any of the other ingredients. That said, it is not a savory bread. You are welcome to try adding an herb but I’ve never done that with this bread. Let me know if you try 🙂
Thank you! Haha! I went rougue last night. I just had to try. Made two loafes based off of this recipe, ditched the sugar alltogether and substituted it for flour. Had to add some milk to get the moisture right. Added a bit more salt and about 1,5 tbsp of rosemary. Actually turned out really nice. Needs some tweeking to get the right ammount of moisture in there but I think that was mainy due to me running out of oil half way through. 😛 Could turn out to be a nice savory bread along the line. 🙂
This bread is AMAZING! Seriously. Five stars. I used a 1:1 GF flour blend that I had sitting in my cupboard, and only 1 cup of sugar (because I failed to realize that’s all I had in my pantry…..oops!) and it STILL turned out amazing. A couple days later and it’s still moist + delicious. I’ll be making another batch this afternoon to freeze 🙂
Yay! So glad you love it too! And it freezes really well… thanks for sharing!
Amazing as usual! I literally wanted to eat this all day and the house smelled so yummy! We baked in a larger loaf pan (topped with a sprinkle of chocolate chips), versus the two smaller loaf pans. If you do this, you will need to bake longer longer.
Made it with my littles today and we LOVED it! I did cut the sugar back to 1.5 cups as I don’t like the kids to have too much and it tasted great. Thanks for another great recipe that our whole family can enjoy together.
Yay! Happy you all made it together and loved it! And happy you thought it was fine with the 1.5 cups sugar too! I feel like it’s divided among the 2 loaves and still so much less than anything store bought… Thank you!
Way too sweet…
Sorry you found it too sweet! I already cut back the sugar from the original recipe and recently I’ve been making it with 1 1/2 cups sugar. You could cut back to 1 1/4 cups but I wouldn’t do more than that because it might start impacting the textures.
This bread is fantastic! I used 1.5 cups sugar and it was on the sweet side, still delicious. Trying it with 1.25 cups today. The consistency is out of this world. Love your recipes, thank you!
Thank you! It is one of my favorites! I keep cutting back the sugar too — lmk how you like it with just 1.25 cups sugar.
Great recipe! I used 1 1/4 cups sugar, and it was perfect. I used Krusteez gluten free flour.
Thank you! Happy you loved it!
I used 1 cup of sugar, mix of coconut and rapadura, as that is all I had. It turned out great! I made mini muffins with half the batter for snack size bites when I need a sweet fix.
Great swaps! Happy you loved it! And mini muffins are always a great idea!
The oils you recommend in this recipe are really bad for your health. They are highly processed and cause inflammation in the body. Canola oil is the worst oil and as nutritionist that is the first thing I make sure people get out of their diets. Olive oil is much safer and way healthier. Vegetable oil and Grapeseed are also rancid oils that cause inflammation. Please suggest healthier versions to people. Besides that the only other thing I would change is the sugar to a monkfruit sugar and you have a healthy yummy loaf of bread.
Could you use Bob’s Redmill 1 to 1 Baking Flour?
I haven’t tried it but it should work fine! Hope you love it!
I used the Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 GF flour blend today and it turned out great!!
Happy you loved it! And thanks for sharing what flour you used!
Could I use applesauce instead of oil?
That’s a great question! I don’t think it will work as a direct substitution… I have had a lot of requests to make this without oil so I am working on an alternate zucchini bread recipe!
Delicious! Your site is my go to for recipes.. This was so good, I did not have vegetable oil so used Coconut and did not have refined sugar only Coconut sugar, used 1 cup.. Its light not too sweet and perfect Thank you for another great recipe!
So happy you loved it! And thanks for sharing your substitutions!
So yummy and easy! I did substitute 1/2 cup of applesauce to replace some of the sugar and oil (still used 1 cup sugar and half cup oil), it came out so moist and delicious. Thank you!
Great idea for a substitution! Happy you love it!
This is the best gluten free zucchini bread recipe I’ve used. It came together quickly turned out light, moist and tasty. I made a loaf of bread and a dozen muffins. The only change I made was I used melted butter for half of the oil as I didn’t realize I was short on oil until I started mixing the ingredients.
Great last minute substitution! Happy you loved it! Thank you!