It’s that zucchini time of year — aka summer — when we all seem to have a few too many zucchini squash on our hands. So why not bake gluten free zucchini muffins?
These gluten free zucchini muffins are the portable equivalent of everyone’s favorite zucchini bread, but lower in oil and sugar.
So what’s not to love?
Share a basket of these loves and your neighbors will definitely share their extra zucchini with you in exchange!
Since I’ve had lots of reader requests lately for zucchini bread, this seems as good a time as any to share this terrific recipe. But I actually have several great recipes for gluten free zucchini breads on my site.
Just use the search bar at the top of every page and type in “zucchini” and you’ll find loads of fun recipes for quick breads and more!
Traditional zucchini bread has always seemed unnaturally high in oil to me, so this recipe is makes a light, airy and not oily zucchini bread made with some alternative ingredients.
I use fruit and sour cream (I use non-dairy) to compensate for the reduced fat and sugar, and the results are a moist and flavorful muffin with a slightly crisp top (my son’s favorite part!).
I’ve made this recipe so many times now that I’ve even made mistakes when making it and it still turned out well!
This time I put the wrong disc in my food processor and instead of shredding the zucchini, I made zucchini slices! Oops!
Gluten Free Zucchini Muffins
Lower in sugar and oil than traditional zucchini bread, these gluten free zucchini muffins are the portable equivalent of everyone's favorite summer quick bread!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup granulated cane sugar
- 1/2 cup coconut oil OR butter OR non-dairy alternative (like Earth Balance® Buttery Sticks)
- 2 large eggs (or favorite egg sub like 2 Tbs. flaxseed steeped in 6 Tbs. warm water)
- 1/2 cup sour cream, dairy or non-dairy (soy sour cream or plain coconut yogurt)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup mashed, ripe banana (approximately 1/2 banana) OR 1/4 cup natural applesauce or apple butter
- 2 cups gfJules® All Purpose Gluten-Free Flour
- 2 Tablespoons flax seed meal (or 2 Tbs. additional gfJules® Flour)
- 1 Tablespoon cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 cup packed, fresh zucchini, grated (approximately 1 zucchini squash), pressed
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)
- cinnamon-sugar mixture to sprinkle on top (optional)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350° F (static) or 325° F (convection).
Beat sugar and butter until fluffy, then add the eggs, sour cream, vanilla and mashed banana and mix well.
Sift all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Pour slowly into the wet ingredient bowl and beat together until integrated. Fold in the pressed zucchini and nuts. The batter will be somewhat stiff. Sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar mixture, if desired.
If baking as mini loaves, oil two 5-6 small loaf pans, filling each no more than 1/2 full. Bake for approximately 30-35 minutes, testing with a cake tester or toothpick to be sure the middle is cooked through. There should be few, if any, wet crumbs sticking to the tester when done.
If baking as muffins, oil and fill 24 muffin tins halfway full. Bake for approximately 30 minutes, testing to be sure the middle is cooked through. If you are using mini-muffin tins, cook for only 15 minutes.
I hope you love this muffin recipe as much as we do!
Pin this recipe to save it for later!
Help! Our gf zucchini muffins (the above recipe) were dense and did not rise, altho they are supposed to be moist and fluffy. A real disaster. Followed recipe using these options–Earth Balance buttery sticks, the flaxseed egg sub, sour cream, applesauce and the additional 2 Tbsp gfJules Flour. No nuts or sprinkle topping. Checked that baking powder & baking soda were fresh. What could be the problem?
Hi Priscilla, I’d guess that the zucchini was perhaps too wet or was packed so there was too much in the recipe. Next time you bake with zucchini, put it in a colander and press to get as much liquid out as possible. You can also try this with paper towels — you won’t believe how much liquid you can get out of shredded zucchini, and can definitely make the batter too wet to rise and will cause the end result to be dense. Let me know if that makes a difference for you!
~jules
These are very nice: not oily, not excessively sweet, satisfying texture. The only think I will change next time is, I will toast the walnuts before adding them, to get a little more flavor.
MMMMMMMmmmmm nice idea, Nancy! If I have time, I love toasting walnuts for recipes, but usually I’m so last minute that I just throw them in! LOL!
~jules
These are very nice: not oily, not excessively sweet, satisfying texture. The only think I will change next time is, I will toast the walnuts before adding them, to get a little more flavor.
When the bread is done do I take it out of the pan? This is my first ever bread. Thank you.
Hi Teri, I like to allow quick breads to cool in the pan for a few minutes before gently removing them to finish cooling on a rack. If the pan isn’t well-oiled, it may stick a bit to the sides, so go around the inside with a knife if you find it doesn’t want to come right out of the pan. Enjoy!!!
Thank you! It came out really nice and very tasty! I didn’t have a ripe banana but I did have a couple of apples. So I put them in my food processor and made applesauce!
I did notice that the bread was a bit crumbly but delicious.
That’s great, Teri! Congratulations on your first loaf! There are moisture differences between apples and bananas, so that could account for the fact that it was a bit crumbly, or it could have been cooked slightly too long. Sounds like it was still wonderful though, so congrats!
Thanks, Jules! I didn’t think about the moisture difference! I’ll have ripe bananas this weekend so I will try again.
Great, Teri! I can’t wait to hear how it goes!
Hi Jules.
What I can do when I can’nt use banana, apple and nuts? And I want to try these. I hate allergies! And we have them a lot in our family
Hi Minna, have you ever tried using pumpkin puree in place of banana or applesauce in recipes like this one? Hope that works for your food allergies!
Can I just use your muffin mix with this? I have a ton of them and it seems easier…?
Hi Jenelle – good thinking! If you use my muffin mix, I’d cut back on the zucchini to 3/4 cup, but otherwise the wet ingredient adds should be the same. Let me know how they turn out!
I’m happy to report that this recipe does well with yam substituted for zucchini! I wanted to make your original recipe, but someone used up the zucchini I’d reserved. (imagine that!) Also, it worked when tripled (because I accidentally added 1T vs. tsp baking soda & mixed it all up.) It even worked when, because of my mix-up, I had to stick it in the fridge to finish after our camping trip. I imagine they would have been even fluffier had they been baked right away, but even my finickiest eater declared them, ‘really good.’ I added a few chocolate chips to some of them & those, of course, got an even higher rating by my kids. Thank you, Jules, for sharing this recipe!
Wow, Amelia! With all those subs they still turned out! What a testament to the flexibility of a good recipe!
So glad you didn’t give up when you were out of ingredients and time and persevered! Now I can’t wait to try it with your substitutions! Thanks for sharing!!
Made this tonight. Oh my! They are delish!
I did add a little more zucchini (was a large one) so maybe that made them a little more moist, but dang!
That’s great to hear, Cathy! I’m headed to the Sunday farmer’s market to get more zucchini because our batch is already long gone!!
The muffins taste great. I had a zucchini in the fridge that was going bad, so I decided to whip these up. I forgot the flax meal, but they still taste great.
So glad you loved the recipe, Tammy!
Hi Jules,
My kids loved the gluten free cake I made from your cake mix the other day. Today day we are making cookies from your cookie mix. But, I have one more request from my kids… Banana bread. Can I use this recipe and just omit the zucchini? or do you have another banana bread recipe?
Thanks!
Teresa – so glad you and your kids are loving my cake mix and cookie mix! As for Banana Bread, I’d suggest this recipe instead (feel free to omit the blueberries if you like) – it’s one of my favorite recipes!! Enjoy!
https://gfjules.com/recipes/
This recipe looks amazing, but I don’t have small loaf pans. How could I bake this if I used the regular sized loaf pan? Would this be enough for one or for two loaves?
So I doubled the recipe so I could freeze some for a camping trip. After I combined the dry & wet the dough it was incredibly dry and crumbly. I re-checked to make sure I doubled everything and didn’t accidently use a tsp instead of a tbsp. I added applesauce and another small banana which helped. I baked one tin of the mini’s to try. They were bland. I did something wrong obviously because your recipes are always the best. I ended up adding some molasses, more vanilla, and brown sugar and finally had a hit. Any suggestions on what may have gone awry?
sounds good, could you please clarify the pan size? (two 5-6 small loaf pans?)
Thanks so much.
Eager to try this. I’m always looking for ways to use veggiees, low in fat and sugar. thanks so much for sharing.
Elaine
Elaine, you should also have a look at my zucchini bread recipe that used pea or lentil puree! It’s another fun way of sneaking those healthy ingredients in! Here’s the link: https://gfjules.com/recipes/
These are good, but a while back I tried
another Zucchini muffin receipe of yours
that we adored, it had no banana. I have lost the receipe! Would you happen
to know which one I mean? My daugher
and I are adoring fans, eating is so
much better. Thank you!
Glad you liked this recipe – I have a few zucchini bread recipes floating around (I love zucchini bread!!!). Was the recipe you tried my “Eat Your Veggies” Bread? It’s another zucchini bread … no banana. Have a look!
Can this recipe be done without sourcream we are soy free as well? And can olive oil sub the buttery sticks?
Mary – you can use coconut yogurt in place of sour cream or soy sour cream. I wouldn’t use olive oil as a sub for the buttery sticks, but you could use shortening or coconut oil. Whipping the buttery sticks/shortening with the sugar adds air and lightens the recipe where oil would not.
Looks delicious! I am in muffin mode right now. Made some yummy Pumpkin Pecan Spice Muffins on Sunday…Now I’m wanting these!
Yummy EA! Pumpkin Pecan Spice Muffins sound incredible too!!!
These look great! Lots of moist ingredients must be the key… because they look like they hold together really well. I too prefer to bake as healthy as possible (because I eat entire batches in no time). Muffins are best because they freeze well – which slows me down a bit! Many thanks! Claudine
Claudine, I’m the same way – it’s hard to just stop at 1 muffin, so you might as well make them healthy!