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You don’t have to sacrifice flavor to make healthier versions of your favorite desserts. This Low Calorie Zucchini Bread doesn’t have any added sugar or oil, which makes it healthier and lower in fat.
Zucchini is a versatile vegetable that can be added to many baked goods and recipes when you want some extra veggies. You can use it as pasta noodles, chopped up in a salad, or add it to your favorite baked goods! This low calorie zucchini bread recipe is the perfect way to use any extra zucchini you have or to make for a sweet treat.
If you like zucchini recipes, you will love my zucchini hummus and protein-packed zucchini taco boats!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Moist and Delicious: This healthier zucchini bread is just as moist and delicious as a regular dessert bread, but it’s more nutritious!
- No Added Sugar: This low-calorie zucchini bread recipe relies on applesauce, cinnamon, almond extract, and chocolate chips to create a sweet treat without any additional sugar or sweeteners.
- Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free: If you’re gluten-free or dairy-free, this is the perfect zucchini bread recipe for you! It’s naturally free of gluten and dairy, no substitutions needed.
- Higher Protein and Lower Fat: This recipe has no oil added to it and is only 3.5 grams of total fat per slice. Each slice of this bread also has 4.7 grams of protein.
Table of Contents
Ingredients
Here’s what you need to make this healthy zucchini bread recipe! I also recommend you have an 8-inch by 4-inch loaf pan, parchment paper, and a large mixing bowl.
- Zucchini: This recipe is a great way to make something delicious using a spare zucchini. If you have leftover zucchini after making zucchini noodles for my healthy lemon picatta chicken, this is a great way to use it!
- Egg Whites: The whites of eggs are less caloric and have more protein than a whole egg.
- Unsweetened Applesauce: The natural sweetness from the apples sweetens this dessert bread without any sugar, and it provides moisture that eliminates the need for oil. Use leftover applesauce to make my apple cinnamon pancakes.
- Almond Extract: This extract adds a rich, nutty flavor to the zucchini bread. You can also use vanilla extract if you don’t have almond extract on hand.
- Oat Flour: This flour is packed with nutrients and helps the bread bake into a fluffy, appetizing texture.
- Mini Chocolate Chips: Get a mouthful of chocolate in every bite by using mini chocolate chips, but regular chocolate chips work well too. Use dairy-free chocolate chips if this needs to be a dairy-free recipe.
See the recipe card below for exact ingredient amounts, nutritional information, and detailed instructions.
Variations & Dietary Modifications
- Make It Sweeter: If your bread isn’t sweet enough for you, add a bit of honey or maple syrup as an additional natural sweetener. The nutritional information in the recipe card includes ¼ cup of honey in its calculations.
- Add More Protein: Make this bread higher in protein by substituting half of the applesauce with Greek yogurt. Keep in mind, healthy zucchini bread with Greek yogurt is less sweet, so you may want to use the extra honey in this scenario.
- Make Muffins: Turn this recipe into zucchini muffins or mini loaves by dividing the batter into a lined muffin tin. You could also just make my healthy chocolate chip zucchini muffins instead!
How to Make Low Calorie Zucchini Bread
This healthy zucchini bread is the perfect sweet treat for zucchini season, or to enjoy all year round. It’s lower in calories than your average zucchini bread, but it doesn’t sacrifice any of the flavor. Prepare your loaf pan by lining it with parchment paper. Let the ends of the paper hang over the sides of the pan for easy removal. You’ll also need to preheat your oven to 350°F.
Step 1: Combine the Wet Ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the egg whites, applesauce, salt, almond extract, and honey if you’re using it.
Step 2: Mix the Dry Ingredients. In a separate bowl, combine oat flour, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon. Then add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and stir to combine them.
Step 3: Add the Zucchini. Add the shredded zucchini and chocolate chips to the batter.
Step 4: Stir to Combine. Fold the zucchini and chocolate chips into the batter until just combined. Don’t overmix the batter!
Step 5: Transfer to Loaf Pan. Pour the batter into your prepared loaf pan and smooth it into an even layer. Bake at 350°F for 50-55 minutes, or until you can remove a toothpick clean from the center.
Step 6: Let It Cool. Allow the finished bread to cool for 1 hour in the pan before you remove it and slice it.
Expert Tips
- Shred Zucchini in the Food Processor: Make shredding the zucchini a breeze by using your food processor to pulse the zucchini until it reaches your desired consistency. Chop the zucchini into chunks before adding it to the food processor. A box grater for cheese works well too.
- Don’t Peel the Zucchini: There’s no need to peel the zucchini for this recipe! Just be sure to thoroughly wash it before shredding it.
- Don’t Overmix: Be sure to stop mixing the batter once everything is fully incorporated. An overworked batter will result in a dense zucchini bread.
- Remove Promptly from the Oven: Be sure to remove the zucchini bread from the oven when you can cleanly extract a toothpick. The bread will continue to cook in the hot loaf pan as it cools on the counter.
- Storing: Keep zucchini bread in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 7 days or freeze up to 60 days.
Serving Suggestions
This is an excellent low-sugar zucchini bread that still tastes as amazing as any other recipe. Zucchini is a great way to add more vegetables to your diet, without even realizing you’re eating them! For more healthy zucchini recipes for weight loss, check out my guide of 25 ways to cook with zucchini.
- Enjoy a slice of zucchini bread with a cup of coffee for an afternoon pick-me-up! I recommend my low calorie pumpkin spice latte!
- If your zucchini bread is starting to go stale, use it to make a delicious zucchini bread French toast! Just dip it in a batter of eggs and cinnamon and then fry it on the stove.
- Have some zucchini bread with your breakfast! A high-protein breakfast like a berry and protein baked oatmeal or a butternut squash egg bake is the perfect option to pair with a moist zucchini bread.
Recipe FAQs
This recipe only calls for one zucchini, not a specific number of cups. It’s not necessary to be exact, but one medium zucchini typically yields about ¾ – 1 cup of shredded zucchini.
If your healthier zucchini bread turned out too wet, there may have been a lot of excess moisture in your zucchini. Try squeezing out some of the excess moisture with a cheesecloth or clean kitchen towel next time.
No, coconut flour will soak up too much of the moisture and make the bread very dry. Almond flour could work, but if you want to use it, I’d just recommend making my pumpkin almond flour muffins instead.
Wrap leftover slices of this healthy zucchini bread in plastic cling wrap and store it in the refrigerator for up to 10 days. You can also freeze the wrapped slices of bread for about 60 days. If you like warm zucchini bread, heat up your slices for about 30 seconds in the microwave before enjoying. Be sure to thaw frozen bread for at least 24 hours in the refrigerator before enjoying it!
More Delicious Healthy Zucchini Desserts
If you tried this Low Calorie Zucchini Bread recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it goes in the 📝 comments below.
Low Calorie Zucchini Bread
Ingredients
- 1 Small Zucchini, about 3/4 cup shredded
- 2 Egg Whites
- ½ cup Unsweetened Applesauce
- 1 teaspoon Almond Extract, or vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups Oat Flour, or gluten free oat flour
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
- ¼ cup Mini Chocolate Chips, or dairy free chocolate chips
- ¼ cup Honey, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Prepare a 8×4 loaf pan with parchment paper allowing the sides to hang over the edges of the pan for easy bread removal.
- Shred the zucchini by pulsing a few times in a blender or food processor. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, applesauce, salt and almond extract. If adding optional honey, you will mix that in here.
- In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon. Fold the flour mixture into the liquid mixture. Do not over mix. Next fold in the zucchini and chocolate chips into the batter. Transfer the batter to the prepared loaf pan and smooth into an even layer.
- Bake 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick removes clean from the center.
- Remove the bread from the oven and cool 1 hour in the pan before removing, slicing and enjoying!
Notes
- Use a food processor to shred the zucchini. It makes it so much easier and faster than shredding by hand! Just chop it into chunks before shredding it.
- You don’t need to peel the zucchini before shredding it because the skin is tender when cooked.
- Don’t over mix your batter, or the zucchini bread will turn out dense. Stop mixing when the ingredients are just incorporated for a fluffy bread.
- You can use rolled oats to make oat flour. I don’t recommend using quick oats.
- Store leftovers in the refrigerator up to 7 days or in the freezer up to 60 days.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hello!
Can I use regular GF baking mix instead of oat flour?
Thanks!!
I imagine you should be able to. I haven’t tried it myself though.
Can I use 2 eggs instead of just the egg whites?
You can replace egg whites with eggs, but the calories will increase, the fat will increase and the protein will decrease. Using egg whites is what keeps the nutrition balanced. It is always a 2:1 ratio egg whites to whole eggs so in this example you would replace with 1 whole egg.
can you use plain flour?
Probably. I never use regular flour because it’s highly refined so I really have no idea how it bakes compared to gluten free flours.
I made this tonight and it came out great! I didn’t have parchment paper so I greased and floured the pan and it popped right out. I also added a scant 1/4 cup of honey, but next time will try it without. Bake time was right at 35 minutes. This recipe is a keeper.
So glad you loved it and THANK YOU for letting me know! People usually only comment when something’s wrong.
How much cup wise would you say the large zucchini would be.
1 cup packed tightly.
This looks so delicious! I don’t think it would last very long in our house. Lynne and I would have it eaten on the same day! LOL
If only you lived a little closer so I could share with you. I always have food around. Thanks, Neil!
This looks awesome! Quick question – can I substitute the Oat Flour for Coconut Flour? Thank you. =)
Thanks! As for coconut flour, that’s not one you can easily substitute without significantly altering the recipe.
Oh okay! I’m glad a checked with you! Thank you!
Looks delicious! Sometimes mistakes create very happy results. I’m loving the fact that there’s no added sugar, too. My boys can eat this before school!
Right? My best recipes seem to happen that way.
I’ve been working on a zucchini bread recipe for like 2 years. No matter what I do the center is always so wet. I wish Dave could tolerate GF oats, this sounds awesome. I’ll be tinkering with my recipes a bit because now I’m craving some delsih zucchini bread!! Pinning!
Hey friend! I’m sure it would stand up nicely with almond flour. I can’t remember if he can do nuts.
Chocolate chip (favorite) + zucchini bread (favorite) = guaranteed success. I want to bathe in this! I don’t bake with much sugar, but I definitely get it in during the day. I know, I know…
Haha…it’s hard to avoid!