My mom used to make delicious Zucchini Bread for us. This recipe is adapted from her recipe. Thanks Mom! This Denver High Altitude Vegan Zucchini Bread recipe makes two loaves and you can freeze it or share.
High Altitude, in my case, equals a mile or 5,280 feet high. Sorry Stoners, this is not a marijuana infused recipe. It’s too yummy, you’d eat it, get the munchies, eat the rest of it and you’d be high…for days.
Vegan-ized ingredient:
Ground Flaxseed, a.k.a Flaxseed Meal in place of eggs. To make 3 Flax Eggs, measure 3 level Tablespoons and mix with 1/2 cup hot tap water and set aside. Normally a Flax Egg is 1 TBSP Flaxseed + 2.5 TBSPs Water. In this case we are rounding up a wee bit on the water and that is totally fine, especially because this is for high altitude baking, the tiny bit of water helps, because science.
If you are at sea level making this recipe, go ahead and remove 1/2 a TBSP from the water before you mix it in the Flax Eggs.
To confirm, High Altitude Flax eggs = 1/2 cup water.
Sea Level Flax eggs = 1/2 cup, but remove 1/2 TBSP from the water.
Other Substitutions
1. Subbing half of the sugar for maple syrup. Don’t be fooled, maple syrup is sugar. In this case, the maple syrup adds some nice depth of flavor and it adds moisture, since I am baking at a mile high, the moisture helps with the high altitude baking. If you are at sea level, I’d recommend sticking with all sugar, or brown sugar if you want more depth of flavor.
High Altitude = 1 cup sugar, 1 cup maple syrup.
Sea Level = 2 cups sugar or brown sugar.
2. The second substitution is subbing half of the oil for unsweetened applesauce. I’m still using some oil, but because I want it both ways, I am able to bring the oil down to 1/4 cup per loaf. You just could go all in on unsweetened applesauce or all in on the oil.
Healthier oil-free version: 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
My fav, In-between: 1/2 cup olive oil, 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
Full flavor: 1 cup olive oil or oil of your choice
3. The only other change? I added more chopped walnuts, ’cause I’m nuts for nuts in my delicious zucchini bread. Nom, Nom, Nom. Originally, the recipe had 3/4 cup nuts, I switched it to 1 cup lightly chopped walnuts.
Amount of nuts: this is your journey, you do you on the nuts.
Away we go!
First, mix up you flax eggs with a fork, in a mug or bowl and set aside. Then grease up those pans with Earth Balance and set aside.
Next preheat your oven (if you haven’t already) and grate that zucchini. Leave the zucchini juice in there, it wants to be one with the zucchini bread, you want this too.
Measure the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon into a medium bowl and stir with a whisk or fork to combine and set aside.
Then, in a big bowl with a mixer (I use a hand mixer), beat the flax eggs, oil, applesauce, maple syrup and sugar. Do this for one or two minutes, until it looks thick and uniform. Next, add grated zucchini and vanilla to the flax egg mixture and beat well.
Next, gradually add the dry flour mixture to the zucchini mixture in thirds while mixing at a lower speed, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Do not over mix, you want this to be a little lumpy. Fold in nuts.
And now, pour the batter evenly into your two greased pans and then put them into the 350° oven and set your timer for an hour.
If there is some batter left in the bowl, eat it! It’s vegan, no eggs! I love eating the batter. My favorite thing about baking and being vegan is the batter. Go full Gremlin on that batter!
How to tell your bread is done from The Spruce Eats:
- Quickbreads should be golden in color, and slightly darker around the edges.
- A large crack running down the center of the bread is normal. The inside of the crack should not look wet.
- The edges of the bread will begin to pull away from the sides of the pan.
- You can use the toothpick test for quick bread doneness too. It should come out with just a few moist crumbs clinging to it.
- If you want to use a thermometer, the internal temperature should be 190 F.
Cool off
Let cool for at least an hour on a wire rack before removing from pans. You can also put them in a cold water bath in the sink to help cool. Be careful not to get the zucchini bread wet. Once completely cooled, to remove from pans, loosen the loaf with a butter knife around the edges and carefully flip upside-down. Be patient and your loaves are more likely to come out in one piece. Of course, if you can’t wait to go at it, and it’ll get messy, I respect that too.
Enjoy the delicious zucchini bread or store wrapped in plastic wrap at room temperature for 2 days, then move it to the fridge. I think it tastes best the next day when the flavors have melded and it sweetens up. You can also wrap in plastic and then wrap in foil and freeze it for later. Then to thaw, just move it to the fridge.
Vegan Denver High Altitude Zucchini Bread
Equipment
- Something to grate zucchini with, I use the smaller grate side of our old cheese grater
- Two 8" x 4" pans
- oven
- mixer, I use a hand mixer
Ingredients
- 3 TBSPs ground flaxseed a.k.a flaxseed meal mix with 1/2 cup hot tap water
- ½ cup hot tap water mix with ground flaxseed/flaxseed meal to make 3 flax eggs. See notes below for sea level.
- 1½ TBSPs Earth Balance to grease the pans, you might use more, you might use less
- ½ cup olive oil
- ½ cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 cup sugar see notes below about vegan sugar
- 1 cup maple syrup the real stuff (grade A, formerly called grade B) See notes below for sea level.
- 2 cups grated zucchini No need to peel
- 1 TBSP pure vanilla extract
- 3 cups flour I'm using AP, you can sub-out with Gluten Free if needed
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt fine
- 1 TBSP cinnamon
- 1 cup lightly chopped walnuts
Instructions
- First, mix up you flax eggs with a fork, in a mug or bowl and set aside. Then grease up those pans with Earth Balance and set aside.
- Next preheat your oven (if you haven't already) to 350 Degrees F and grate that zucchini. Leave the zucchini juice in there, it wants to be one with the zucchini bread, you want this too.
- Measure the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon into a medium bowl and stir with a whisk or fork to combine and set aside.
- In a big bowl with a mixer (I use a hand mixer), beat the flax eggs, oil, applesauce, maple syrup and sugar. Do this for one or two minutes, until it looks thick and uniform. Next, add grated zucchini and vanilla to the flax egg mixture and beat well.
- Next, gradually add the dry flour mixture to the zucchini mixture in thirds while mixing at a lower speed, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Do not over mix, you want this to be a little lumpy. Fold in nuts.
- Pour the batter evenly into your two greased pans and put them into the 350° oven and set your timer for an hour. See note below to determine doneness.
- Let cool for at least an hour on a wire rack before removing from pan. You can also put them in a cold water bath in the sink to help cool. Once completely cooled, to remove from pans, loosen the loaf with a butter knife around the edges and carefully flip upside-down.
- Enjoy or store wrapped in plastic wrap at room temperature for 2 days, then move to the fridge. I think it tastes best the next day when the flavors have melded and it sweetens up. You can also wrap in plastic and then wrap in foil and freeze it for later. Then to thaw, just move it to the fridge.
Notes
- Remove/discard 1/2 TBSP from the 1/2 cup of hot water before mixing the flax egg.
- Omit maple syrup and increase sugar to a total of 2 cups of sugar, brown sugar or a combination of the two sugars.
- Bread may require less bake time, check after 50 minutes.
How to tell your bread is done from The Spruce Eats:
- Quick breads should be golden in color, and slightly darker around the edges.
- A large crack running down the center of the bread is normal. The inside of the crack should not look wet.
- The edges of the bread will begin to pull away from the sides of the pan.
- You can use the toothpick test for quick bread doneness too. It should come out with just a few moist crumbs clinging to it.
- If you want to use a thermometer, the internal temperature should be 190 F.
Nutrition
If you are looking for a quick and easy holiday snack recipe, check out these Easy Stove Top Maple Pecans.
For your shopping convenience, this post contains an affiliate link.
Did you make this zucchini bread? Do you live in a high altitude area or at sea level? How’d it go? Any substitutions? Let me know in the comments below.
Hi Amy,
I’m in the process of making your recipe for high altitude zucchini bread, and I cannot find an oven temperature listed for baking it. I would “normally” see it for 350°F, BUT… this is high elevation baking, so I was guessing it would be closer to 375°F for my 5000’ elevation.
Would you please let me know what temperature you did yours at so I do not make either a dry or soggy bread?
Thank you!
I think 350 degrees F, as stated in the recipe card and photo description. I live at 5280 ft elevation. Usually lower temp and longer cook times work best for high-altitude. I hope this helps!