Who knew ‘grain free, refined sugar free’ could taste this good?! Not to mention my kids think they are eating real “chocolate cake” when I give them this for breakfast or desert. Loaded with coconut oil, almond butter, almond flour and zucchini, I’m happy to give them this “treat” any day or meal of the week. Plus, this is one of those baked goods I like to keep in the fridge so that I have something to grab on-the-go, or to snack on before a morning workout.
This recipe is basically a copy/paste from www.paleorunningmomma.com (one of my fave sites for grain free baked goods) however I made a slight modification to allow for the inclusion of zucchini…
…because I’m sure many of you may be thinking, “I thought zucchini’s were on the ‘no’ list because they are a nightshade??”
You’re right. They ARE a nightshade – which means they are high in lectins (i.e. low grade toxins found in certain foods that can cause inflammation) – so technically should be avoided. That said, the lectins in zucchinis are primarily found in the skin and seeds (similar to most nightshades) so I decided to make this recipe without the skin and seeds and it worked out great!
So how do you avoid the lectins in zucchini? The trick is to first peel the skin off the zucchini using a vegetable peeler. Then grate the zucchini on its side, rotating and stopping just before you reach the core (to avoid the seeds in the center). See pic.
INGREDIENTS
NB! Source organic wherever possible.
Heads up! For this recipe you will need a 9×5 loaf pan and a cheese grater, in addition to your standard baking essentials.
- 1 ½ cups almond flour (ideally blanched)
- 6 tbsp cacao powder or unsweetened cocoa
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 large eggs, well beaten (ideally room temp)
- ½ cup coconut sugar
- ¼ cup coconut oil (melted and then cooled to almost room temp)
- ¼ smooth almond butter (ideally blanched)
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 large zucchini, peeled
- ½ cup dark (ideally 70% cocoa) chocolate (or more for the chocolate lovers out there)
DIRECTIONS
- Pre-heat oven to 350 F
- Grease a 9×5 loaf pan/dish with coconut oil or spray
- In a medium sized bowl, combine and mix well: almond flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt
- In another medium/large sized bowl, blend together until smooth: eggs, coconut sugar, coconut oil, almond butter and vanilla extract
- Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients until just moistened – batter will be quite thick
- Then fold in the zucchini
- Then the chocolate chips
- Transfer the batter to the loaf pan
- Bake for 55 minutes until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean (with the exception of catching a melted chocolate chip on the way out)
Would love to know if you make this! Please take a pic and tag me on Instagram @karliskitch or leave me a message in the comments.
As always, don’t hesitate to DM me on Instagram or email me with any questions.
Karli 🙂