Zucchini bread

(Note: added ingredients for 2.5:1 ratio on 7/15/2019)

After those blueberry muffins I'm feeling invincible about experimenting with baking, so I decided to give another favorite of mine a try - zucchini bread. When baking for myself I use Mark Bittman's recipe; this time, I used this low-carb coconut flour-based recipe for inspiration, but obviously omitted the walnuts, and then tweaked some ingredients to get it up to a 2:1 ratio. I made both mini-loaves and mini-muffins so we have some snack vs meal size options. I wasn't sure how M would take to these since he can be a little hit-or-miss on baked goods, but he downed three mini-muffins right off the cooling rack so I'll consider that positive feedback.

(Do you like the little bread "tins"? They're from this set of reusable silicon muffin and bread molds I just got. In addition to being useful for baking, handing a 1 year old a stack of them to play with guarantees you at least 4 minutes of peace and quiet)

Ingredients for a 2:1 dough:

70g coconut flour

40g Ketocuisine

20g psyllium husk powder

10g guar gum

4g baking powder

4g baking soda

24g granulated Truvia sweetener

1/4 tsp salt

Healthy pinch of ground cinnamon

Pinches of ground nutmeg and ground ginger to taste

300g egg, mixed well (this is basically 6 large eggs. My chickens laid six eggs that came out to 293g but the ratio I calculated was still basically identical to using 300g so you should be fine just calling this 6 large eggs)

42g ghee, melted

80g unsalted butter, melted

145g grated zucchini, skin on

Ingredients for a 2.5:1 dough:

70g coconut flour

40g Ketocuisine

20g psyllium husk powder

7g xanthan gum

4g baking powder

4g baking soda

24g granulated Truvia sweetener

1/4 tsp salt

Healthy pinch of ground cinnamon

Pinches of ground nutmeg and ground ginger to taste

150g egg, mixed well

3 flax eggs (total 21g flaxseed meal in 7T water, allow to sit for 5 minutes, then mix in as eggs)

92g ghee, melted

27g European butter

145g grated zucchini, skin on

Directions, both versions:

Heat oven to 350 deg F. If you want to make one large loaf that you can slice for servings, either use a silicon pan or use a metal or glass pan that you line with parchment paper. I used mini silicon loaf molds and mini parchment muffin liners which I placed on a baking tray.

Grate the zucchini into a colander. Toss well with a bit of salt and allow it to drain while you do everything else.

Measure and stir all dry ingredients together until evenly mixed. Add eggs (including flax eggs for 2.5:1 recipe) and melted butter and ghee. Press the zucchini in the colander to squeeze out as much excess water as you can (doing this with a paper towel over you hand can help), then add the zucchini as well. Mix the wet ingredients in well with a spoon or hand mixer until you have a thick dough.

Since M's calorie requirements aren't super strict, at this point I just spooned bits out into the muffin liners and loaf molds until I thought it looked right. This dough does rise a bit while cooking but it doesn't spread very much, so it will largely maintain whatever shape you made putting the dough into the cups. That means things come out looking nicer if you roll it into the muffin or loaf shape and smooth the top. My "muffins" ended up more like biscuits, which is 100% fine, but just FYI.

If you do have strict calorie requirements, according to my 2:1 recipe in the Keto Diet Calculator this comes out to 1889 calories, so divide 1889 by the per-snack or per-meal calories you're going for and see how many servings this recipe will make. Once you've made your dough transfer it to a new bowl on a scale to weigh it, and divide that weigh by the number of servings, and that'll tell you how much to weigh out into each muffin/biscuit or loaf.

Bake in pre-heated oven. My mini-muffins took 20 minutes and my mini loaves took 25 minutes. If you're baking one big loaf, expect it to take closer to 45 or 50. You may need to cover the top with foil partway through if it's browning faster than the inside is cooking. Check for doneness by inserting a toothpick into the middle and ensuring it comes out clean. Cool on a rack, then eat or freeze.

Variations:

If you, unlike M, are *not* allergic to nuts, many recipes call for chopped walnuts. That will bump your ratio up a little bit and add some crunch.

M very happily ate these straight, but you could cut in half or slice and spread some butter on, which by itself would bump up the ratio nicely.