Zucchini Walnut Bread with Agave
Last month in San Francisco, I had a great slice of zucchini bread at a restaurant called Tartine. It was dense, thick, moist, and packed with nuts and as I ate it, I made a note to try to find a good zucchini bread recipe when I got home. Making a rich, traditional style bread like Tartine’s was the plan, but then I was gifted with a big bottle of agave and decided to try something new.
You can make this bread with any brand of agave, but since Xagave mailed me a free sample of their product, I used Xagave. I liked the flavor and would definitely buy this brand again because it has the added benefit of fiber. They make it with white and blue agave and the fiber comes in the form of inulin, which is in the blue. I also like that it comes in 25 oz bottle so you don’t use it up in a day! You can also buy it in larger sizes.
But back to the bread.
My loaf pan is slightly larger than the usual 9×5, so my loaf the loaf was shorter and a bit wider. I decided to cut in like a cake square rather than the usual loaf slice. The bread was cinnamony, moist, packed with walnuts and overall, very good!
Zucchini Bread with Agave
3 large eggs, well beaten
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/3 cups agave (I used Xagave)
2 cups raw zucchini, peeled and grated
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 tablespoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray a 9×5x4 inch loaf pan with cooking spray.
Combine eggs, oil, agave, zucchini, and vanilla; mix well. Mix the flour, cinnamon, salt, baking powder and baking soda together in a second bowl. Add dry flour mixture to zucchini mixture and stir until blended. Stir in the nuts.
Pour batter into pan and bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
I love the healthy twist. It looks delish.
Yum. That looks tremendously moist.
Here’s a really great zuchinni bread recipe that uses agave nectar. Because I am a vegan, I used oil instead of butter and a flaxseed slurry instead of the egg.
http://cook-aunaturel.blogspot.com/2008/05/i-have-to-stress-that-this-bread-is.html
This looks great! I might try it and add chopped dried apricots (I think the Tartine version had these, but I can’t remember
). I scored a big bottle of Agave at Costco and was scanning the link you sent out a while back with related recipes – I will let you know if I find a winner!
That was good zucchini bread in SF! This looks like a good one, too. I’ve been liking the results with my baking almost every time I use agave!
I’ve never tried agave, but this looks wonderful.
I am all about the agave nectar right now! I love that it does not really affect the taste like other sweeteners. How was the taste of the bread?
Yummy! I love zucchini bread.
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I will try this because it looks good and you have given it a thumbs up. I’ve never looked for Agave at the grocery store. I wonder if it will be difficult to find..What section would it be in? Juices? My mom is diabetic so she should be able to eat this.
I’ve still never made anything with Agave nectar, so now might be the time to try it! I love Zucchini bread and this recipe sounds really good! I especially like that you said it is cinnamony!
Oh, I love zucchini bread, and the addition of agave nectar makes it even better.
If I used regular unbleached flour, do you know how that would change the recipe? I don’t usually have whole wheat pastry flour around.
I couldn’t find agave nectar at the grocery store so I tried this recipe using a 12 oz jar of sugar free apricot jam, 1/2 cup of apple juice concentrate, and another almost 1/2 cup of splenda. It worked, but it could have used more sweetness. I’m guessing agave is fairly sweet..When I find agave, I’ll give it a try. Thanks for the inspiration!
Hi Gloria, I hope you can find agave. Your subsitution sounds innovative, but agave would probably be better. Why don’t you order the Xagave? It’s good stuff.
Thanks for the positive innovative!! The recipe must be a good one because I totally screwed it up and it still came out edible. First, no agave and I didn’t really think out the substitutions well, second when I incorporated the dry into the wet, I realized I hadn’t preheated the oven, then I tasted the batter and realized my subs didn’t give it enough sweeteness so I started mixing more stuff in. The batter was bubbling at me and I said what I usually say when I totally flub something…..
!*%@
and then said Oh Well, my mom can always slap some butter on it. Butter or frosting fixes a lot around here!
I now have 3 bottles of Agave! I found my own at Trader Joe’s ($3.99 for 11 oz) and then one of my friends surprised me at work with (2) 21 oz bottles for $7.70 purchased at Cosco! Excellent price..Will try this again this weekend.
Do you think this would work as bars in a 9 x 13 pan? I think I will frost it with this sugarfree frosting found on allrecipes.com
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Sugar-Free-Frosting/Detail.aspx
Made these in a 9×13 pan and served them like cake. (They would be good in a jelly roll pan as bars too I think-frosted with a sugar free cream cheese frosting.) I only had one cup of zucchini so I used another cup of shredded carrots and they were pretty with the orange carrots and green zucchini (I didn’t peel before shredding.) These were excellent! So moist and tender. Thanks for the recipe!
Wow, that sounds good! Thanks for the improvisations.