Recipe Challenge - Lemon Zucchini Bread tweaking

I usually take this recipe, split the flour between whole wheat and white, replace the sugar with splenda, and the oil with applesauce or greek yogurt... but I think it needs to step up it's game.  It's a super awesome moist delicious lemon zucchini bread that tastes great toasted with some not butter spray.  I'd like to reduce the calories, carbs and fat while adding some protein but keeping it super yummy... any takers?  Anyone wanna give it a shot?

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons lemon zest

 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease an 8x4 inch loaf pan.
2. In a bowl, beat together the zucchini, sugar, egg, and oil. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder; stir in the cinnamon and lemon zest. Stir the flour mixture into the zucchini mixture just until blended. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
3. Bake 45 minutes in the preheated oven, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from heat, and cool about 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Serving Size	1/12 of a recipe
Servings Per Recipe	12
Amount Per Serving
Calories	195
Calories from Fat	87
	% Daily Value *
Total Fat 9.7g	15 %
Saturated Fat 1.6g	8 %
Cholesterol 18mg	6 %
Sodium 165mg	7 %
Potassium 65mg	2 %
Total Carbohydrates 25.2g	8 %
Dietary Fiber 0.7g	3 %
Protein 2.3g	5 %
Sugars 12.8g
Vitamin A	1 %
Vitamin C	5 %
Calcium	2 %
Iron	9 %
** Thiamin	14 %
Niacin	11 %
Vitamin B6	3 %
Magnesium	2 %
Folate	20 %

 

I seem to have zucchini coming out of my ears right now in the garden.  :)

I have never tasted zucchini bread. My only other suggestion for you would be adding unflavored protein powder. Any Whey bakes nicely into things and I make banana bread with it all the time.

You need to taste zucchini bread.

Would you replace a portion of the flour with the protein powder or just in addition to?

I usually replace some of the flour. But when you use protein powder, you also need to up the baking powder (protein powder will only briefly rise then fall...hard). The rule of thumb is when baking with protein powder use twice the baking powder as a regular recipe. But if you're using some flour/some powder you would probably use 1.5 times the amount.

I'd start out with 3/4 of the amount of flour (in whatever mix you do) to 1/4 protein powder.

Thanks, I'll give that a try.

Seriously, Nik, you are missing out.

What about using almond flour at least as a partial substitution for some of the other flour?

Worth a shot; I do have some almond flour in the freezer.  And LOTS of zucchini to experiment with.

A word of advice... never say "I'll let it grow one more day" and then come back in two.  I have a few that are the size of my forearm!

LOL!

Here's a GREAT zucchini recipe:

Sausage-stuffed Zucchini:

4 medium/large zucchini, ends cut off, boiled in sal****er
1 lb. sausage of your choice (I use Jimmy Dean Sage), browned with onion, drained
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
6-8 saltine crackers crushed
Let zucchini cool enough to handle, split in half and scoop out seeds. Dab some of the moisture out from the boiling. Place in greased shallow casserole dish.
Combine the sausage and saltine crackers. Fill zucchini "boats" with mixture. Top with mozz and bake at 350 until cheese is bubbly.

I have also seen zucchini, cut into strips, topped with pepperoni, pizza sauce and mozz cheese and baked. Don't have the exact recipe, but I'd think you could wing it.