Gluten-Free Zucchini Bread

Zucchini bread is the reason August gardens are survivable. It turns the third enormous squash of the week into something warm and cinnamon-scented that disappears by the next morning, and it does not taste remotely of vegetables. This version starts with Pamela's Pancake & Baking Mix, which means no measuring out baking powder, soda, or salt, and no stand mixer either. A whisk, a bowl, and a box grater. The mix already contains almond meal and cultured buttermilk, which is quietly why the crumb stays tender for days rather than drying out by Tuesday. Warm cinnamon, a whisper of nutmeg, and a loaf that slices clean. So good, no one will guess it is gluten-free, the way Pamela's has done it since 1988.

Why You'll Love This Zucchini Bread

• One bowl, no mixer. A whisk does the whole job.
• Nothing to measure but the basics. The mix brings its own leavening and salt.
• It stays moist for days. The almond meal in the mix is doing that.
• Makes muffins too, with no changes to the batter.
• Uses up two cups of zucchini, which is roughly one very ambitious garden squash.

Should You Squeeze the Zucchini?

For this recipe, no. Grate the zucchini and add it as is, liquid and all.

This is the most common question about zucchini bread and the answer genuinely depends on the recipe, which is why the internet disagrees with itself about it. Here is the actual rule.

Squeeze when the recipe is already wet. Recipes with a lot of oil, buttermilk, sour cream, or applesauce cannot absorb much more liquid, and unsqueezed zucchini pushes them into gummy territory.

Do not squeeze when the recipe counts on the zucchini for moisture. This one uses only a quarter cup of oil and no dairy liquid at all. The water in the zucchini is the moisture in the bread. Wring it out and you get a dry loaf.

A useful middle ground if the zucchini is enormous. Very large, late-season squash holds noticeably more water than a small one. If yours is over about eight inches, grate it, spread it on a clean towel, and blot the top. Blot, do not wring. You are removing surface water, not the moisture inside the shreds.

Do not salt the zucchini and let it drain, which is a technique from fritters and gratins. It pulls out far too much and seasons the bread unpredictably on top of the salt already in the mix.

If your zucchini bread has come out gummy in the middle before, the more likely culprit is underbaking rather than the squash. Gluten-free quick breads need to go further than wheat ones, and the toothpick needs to come out genuinely clean, not just mostly clean.

The Best Gluten-Free Mix for Zucchini Bread

The best gluten-free base for zucchini bread is a self-rising mix with some fat and protein in it, because a plain rice starch blend has nothing to hold a heavily hydrated batter together.

That is the specific problem zucchini creates. Two cups of grated squash is a lot of water going into a batter, and gluten-free flours absorb water differently than wheat does. A lean, starch-heavy blend turns dense and slightly gluey around the middle. Pamela's Pancake & Baking Mix has almond meal and cultured buttermilk in it, which give the batter enough body to carry the moisture, plus a faint tang that works well against the cinnamon.

It is also already leavened and salted, which is why this recipe has no baking powder, no baking soda, and only a small amount of added salt. Fewer things to measure and fewer things to get wrong.

The mix this is built on Pamela's Gluten-Free Pancake & Baking Mix Self-rising, with almond meal and cultured buttermilk for a tender crumb. Pancakes, waffles, quick breads, biscuits, and more from one bag. GFCO-certified.

If you are adapting a wheat zucchini bread recipe, swap the flour for an equal amount of the mix and then remove the baking powder, baking soda, and most of the salt the original called for, since all three are already in there.

How to Grate Zucchini for Quick Bread

Use the large holes on a box grater. Fine shreds disappear into the batter and turn to mush. Large shreds keep a little texture and hold their shape through the bake.

Do not peel it. The skin is thin, it softens completely, and it is where the flecks of green in a good zucchini bread come from.

Two cups is roughly one medium zucchini, around eight inches, or two small ones. Grate into a measuring cup and pack it lightly rather than pressing it down.

Skip the seeds on a very large squash. Late-season zucchini can have a spongy seedy core. Halve it lengthwise, scrape the seeds out with a spoon, then grate the rest.

A food processor works and is much faster for a big batch, but use the shredding disc rather than the blade. The blade turns zucchini into liquid.

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

Chocolate is the most requested variation on zucchini bread and it works beautifully here, because the batter is barely sweet on its own.

For chocolate chip zucchini bread, fold 1 cup of chocolate chips into the finished batter. Toss them with a tablespoon of the dry mix first so they suspend rather than sinking to the bottom of the loaf.

For double chocolate zucchini bread, replace 1/4 cup of the mix with 1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder, add 2 extra tablespoons of sugar to balance the bitterness, and fold in 1 cup of chocolate chips. The loaf bakes a few minutes faster because the cocoa is drier than the mix it replaced, so start checking at 50 minutes.

Both versions keep the cinnamon. Chocolate and cinnamon are better together than either is alone here.

What This Zucchini Bread Contains

This bread contains egg, dairy, and tree nuts.

The dairy and tree nuts come from the Pancake & Baking Mix itself, which contains almond meal and cultured buttermilk. That does not change with substitutions, so this recipe cannot be made nut-free, dairy-free, or vegan. Two eggs go in on top of that, and the optional walnuts or pecans add more tree nut.

The mix is produced on equipment that also processes soy.

If you need dairy-free or nut-free zucchini bread, use our zucchini quick bread made with 1:1 All-Purpose Flour instead. That flour is rice-based with no dairy and no nuts.

Everything from Pamela's is certified by the Gluten-Free Certification Organization, and made in a certified gluten-free, peanut-free facility.