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Deliciously simple almond flour zucchini bread with sweet cinnamon streusel layered into the soft vegan + paleo loaf. Hidden veggie baking at it’s best!
Not every recipe needs to contain all the dates.
A difficult truth I am currently working on coming to terms with.
But with every slice of Cinnamon Streusel Zucchini Bread it gets a little easier to accept. Some recipes just aren’t meant to be filled with those fruity gooey guys. Some recipes are better sweetened with syrups. Some recipes will turn out an actual pan of mush with too many medjools in the mix. Yes there was an instance of zucchini mush eating with a fork that took place earlier in my week. I have zero regrets.
What I do regret is not putting streusel on every single quick bread ever made in my kitchen. Good news: there is still time.
While I intended for the zucchini part of this bread to be the emphasis, the streusel kinda swooped in and stole the show. And I wasn’t about to stop it. Crumbles of soft but slightly crisp cinnamon sweet stuff that turns the most golden shade of toasty brown on top – that kinda goodness cannot be contained.
Can we talk about the deceiving nature of zucchini for a minute?
One would think a cup of shredded zucchini would add some moisture to a recipe, but also some fiber and texture and color and stuff. One would NOT think that a cup of shredded zucchini is basically like dumping a cup of water into a recipe plus some green flecks just for kicks. But that’s the undisclosed zucchini baking reality. Oh and you better believe I squeezed the hell out of those green shreds too.
As if the the whole hey-all-this-time-you-thought-green-means-vegetable-but-I’m-actually-a-fruit-because-seeds things wasn’t misleading already. Enough with the curveballs, zucchini. We get it, you don’t like to be predictable.
So that’s a fun twist to account for when crafting a zucchini quick bread that is both vegan and grain-free. And that is why this recipe is not date-sweetened, the last thing it needed was anything so naturally squishy. But maple syrup plus almond butter is the perfect ingredient combo to combat this zucchini trickery, and gift us with a perfectly moist-but-not-mush loaf.
After sorting out the bread part, the streusel was a piece of cake slice of bread (That really just doesn’t have the same effect, does it?) The bread itself already uses almond flour and maple syrup, and you know what makes for the best easy streusel? Almond flour + maple syrup. And gobs of cinnamon. Obviously.
I went all out with a little double-decker streusel-ing so there’s a layer in the middle AND on top. But that’s not essential. Just the top layer will do, that’s the one that gets the toastiest and tastiest anyways.
So tell me – which of those four words in the name drew you in the most? Was it the second one thats starts with an “S”? Because if so this streusel-forward bread will be your dreams coming true in quick bread form. Also, you have awesome tastes.
P.S. I take no responsibility for the little bits of streusel soon to be all over your kitchen/table/floor. Quick bread consumption tidiness is all on you.
Cinnamon Streusel Zucchini Bread
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 6 slices 1x
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Description
Deliciously simple almond flour zucchini bread with sweet cinnamon streusel layered into the soft vegan + paleo loaf. Hidden veggie baking at it’s best!
Ingredients
Scale
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 1/3 cup nut/seed butter
- 1 cup grated zucchini
- 1 1/2 cup almond flour
- 1/2 cup tapioca starch
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 2 tsps cinnamon
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
Cinnamon Streusel
- 1/2 cup almond flour
- 1–2 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Using a nut milk bag or dishtowel, squeeeeeeeeeze out as much liquid from the grated as zucchini as possible.
- Add the maple syrup, nut butter, and zucchini to a blender or food processor. Blend to combine.
- Add the rest of the ingredients. Blend again stopping to scrape down the sides as needed.
- Combine all the streusel ingredients in a separate bowl. Mix with a fork until sticky and clumpy.
- Lightly oil a small baking pan or loaf pan (I used this 8×5.5″ glass dish).
- Spread half of the batter into the pan. Layer on half of the streusel. Repeat with the remaining batter and streusel. Lightly press in the top layer of streusel.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes at 350F.
- Remove from the oven and cool for 10-15 minutes before slicing and eating.
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