High Protein Zucchini Bread

Soy-free Option

• Replace the soy milk with a different dairy-free milk.

Nut-free Option

• Omit the walnuts in the recipe.

If you’re still on the fence about using vital wheat gluten in sweet recipes, I hope this High Protein Zucchini Bread will be the thing that finally convinces you that it’s an awesome idea! This recipe takes less than 10 minutes of effort in the kitchen, and you end up with a big loaf (12 servings) of High Protein Zucchini Bread to eat for breakfast or as a little high protein snack all week!

Most recipes tend to use protein powder in their protein baked goods recipes. You might be wondering why I don’t, and there are actually a few reasons.

• I want my recipes to be accessible to as many people as possible, so I try my best to not include specialty protein powders that you have to order to get the same results as me. Vital Wheat Gluten is one of those ingredients that is pretty much the same no matter what brand name is on the bag.
• I don’t like shilling for large corporations or just chucking their products into my recipes to sell more shit for them, unless it actually makes the food taste better 🙂 In my experience, protein powder almost always makes food taste worse or have a gritty texture, but that’s just my opinion.
• Protein powders bake very differently from one another, which is why if you create a recipe around a specific protein powder, you really hope that everyone uses that protein powder or something very similar. Protein powders have different base ingredients, like soy, pea, etc. and they all have their own texture and properties that make them bake differently from the other protein powders or protein powder blends. When I use basic ingredients, like vital wheat gluten, tofu, TVP, etc., it takes the guesswork out of the recipe and how it will turn out.

Anyways, that’s not to say I will never use protein powder in my recipes, but that I only do it if it actually makes sense. Vital wheat gluten works really well in baked goods like this High Protein Zucchini Bread because it doesn’t add any weird flavors (because vital wheat gluten tastes like flour, which is already something we use in zucchini bread), and it doesn’t have a gritty texture. VWG does make the zucchini bread a little more springy and chewy than a normal zucchini bread, but in a nice way!

If I’ve convinced you to try dessert seitan, you should also check out my very popular High Protein Banana Bread and High Protein Pumpkin Bread recipes!

Stuff You’ll Need

• Zucchini – use a medium zucchini for this recipe, with the peel on. It should work out to around 1 cup of shredded zucchini.
  • Side note – have you ever tried holding a peeled zucchini? That shit is so slimy.
• Soy Milk – if you’re soy-free, you can swap this for a different dairy-free milk.

• Vital Wheat Gluten – you may know vital wheat gluten from seitan recipes, but it also works really well in baked goods and bread-y foods like this High Protein Zucchini Bread. It’s an excellent shelf-stable vegan protein source that you should be able to find in most grocery stores (my stores usually have it near the gluten-free flour options oddly enough). Since it’s shelf-stable, you can also buy it online. I like the brands Anthony’s and Bob’s Red Mill.
  • I highly recommend weighing out the vital wheat gluten because it’s very dense and just using measuring cups will be inaccurate and could change how this recipe turns out.
• Flour – I used AP (All-purpose) Flour. Using a little bit of AP Flour cuts down the chewiness of the High Protein Zucchini Bread a bit. If you’re trying to maximize the protein and don’t really care about if the bread is a little chewier, you can swap it out for vital wheat gluten.
• Light Brown Sugar – the brown sugar in this recipe doesn’t just add sweetness, it also helps a lot with the texture of the bread. For most of my recipes, it’s fine to sub out the sugar for a low cal/no cal sweetener like monk fruit, but for this recipe, it will change the texture and make it more dense and chewy. It also may not rise properly if you don’t use the brown sugar. If you’re really prioritizing your calories/macros, you can sub it, but please know that the texture will come out differently.

• Vanilla Extract – a must have, obviously.
• Baking Soda, Baking Powder – important for the texture and rise of the High Protein Zucchini Bread.
• Salt – adjust to taste.
• Cinnamon – every good zucchini bread needs cinnamon.

• Chocolate Chips – I used the Enjoy Life Vegan Mini Chocolate Chips, because you end up with a little bit of chocolate in every bite!
• Walnuts – ok, so I took a poll on my Instagram to see if people prefer zucchini bread with or without nuts. Nuts won by like 60%. But if you’re in the 40% of people who are either allergic to nuts, or just don’t want nuts in their zucchini bread, you can omit them! 🙂

How to Make This & Pictures

• Pre-heat the oven to 325 F (163 C).
• Using a vegetable grater, grate the medium zucchini.

• Using a kitchen or paper towel, pat the grated zucchini until it’s as dry as you can get it. This step is pretty important, because having a lot of moisture in the grated zucchini can cause the zucchini bread to bake unevenly and even not rise properly.

• In a large bowl, add the brown sugar, soy milk, vanilla extract, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Whisk together well. I personally use a whisk to make sure all of the clumps of brown sugar are broken up, but you can also use a spatula.

• Once well mixed, in the same bowl, add the grated zucchini, chocolate chips and walnuts. Mix together well (I switch to a spatula for this part).

• In the same bowl, add the AP flour and Vital Wheat Gluten.
  • As long as you follow the order of adding and mixing these ingredients, you only need one bowl for this recipe. The minor ingredients are mixed in with the wet ingredients first to make sure they are well incorporated. The flour and vital wheat gluten go in last because we want to mix them as minimally as possible.
• Mix all of the ingredients together. You want to mix as minimally as possible, because over-mixing once the vital wheat gluten has been added can result in a chewier texture.
  • Your mixture should look like the picture below. If yours is drier and/or you couldn’t get all of the vital wheat gluten to incorporate in, add a tiny amount of soy milk until it looks like the picture. If yours is much more wet and loose looking, add in a tiny amount of vital wheat gluten until it looks like this picture.

• Once the flour and vital wheat gluten are fully integrated, add the mixture to a parchment paper-lined loaf pan. Spread as evenly as you can with a spatula.

• Bake for 47 – 53 minutes. Check at the 47 minute mark to see if it passes the toothpick test (where you stick a toothpick in the middle and make sure it comes out clean – this ensure that it’s cooked all the way through).

• Allow to cool for a few minutes and enjoy!
• For storage, allow it to cool completely and then either store in an airtight container or wrap very tightly in parchment paper. This keeps the loaf soft and moist. You can store it at room temperature for 2-3 days, and in the fridge for about 1 week.

Troubleshooting

There are a few things that could cause your High Protein Zucchini Bread to sink in the middle so I wanted to mention them in case you run into that issue.

• Altitude – I’m near Chicago which means I’m around 575-600 feet above sea level. All of my recipes are created based on that altitude. Most recipes will work as written if you’re below 3,000 feet. If you happen to be higher than that (Denver is a good example), you might need to make some modifications to the recipe because that high of an altitude can really impact this recipe and the bread’s ability to rise. Unfortunately, I’ve never baked in Denver (or anywhere except my house), so I can’t provide you with my own personal advice but I have researched it and this article on high altitude baking seems well-researched and provides guidance on adjustments that can be made to baking recipes to make them work better.
• Sugar replacements – replacing the brown sugar with a sugar-free alternative can cause a more dense and chewy texture, and it can also result in the the Zucchini Bread falling in the middle and not fully rising. If you care more about the macros that the texture, I wouldn’t worry about it too much – it will still be tasty, but if you want it to look and taste like mine, I would recommend using the brown sugar instead!
• Not fully baked – if the Zucchini Bread was fully risen like the pictures show in this recipe, and then it fell a few minutes after pulling it out of the oven, it likely wasn’t fully cooked in the middle. You could try throwing it back in the oven for a few more minutes to see if that helps, or just bake it for a little longer next time.
• Opening the oven – if you happen to open the oven at the wrong time during the baking process, it can actually cause the Zucchini Bread to collapse and it may never fully rise again, so try not to open the oven until the end when you’re ready to take it out and check for doneness.
• Too chewy – most people who I’ve talked to about this recipe, don’t mind the chewiness of the Zucchini Bread (it is chewier than a normal Zucchini Bread because we’re using vital wheat gluten as the protein source). There are a few things that you can do to minimize the chewiness though.
  • Mix as minimally as possible once the vital wheat gluten has been added.
  • Allow the Zucchini Bread dough to rest in the loaf pan for an hour or two before baking.
  • Replace some of the vital wheat gluten with AP flour (this will change the macros some).
  • Make sure you use brown sugar and not a sugar-free alternative like monk fruit. Using something like monk fruit will change the texture.
• If you have any other questions or need some help troubleshoot, send me a message!

Silly Little Haiku

Vital Wheat Gluten

All hail the dessert seitan

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