Adapted from a glutenous recipe by the California Avocado Commission. Converted to gluten-free (and whole-grain!) for sensitive sorts, this is the best zucchini bread we’ve ever made. Could be the avocados. Could be the bitter chocolate chunks. Could be the roasted nuts. Try it for yourself and see!

2 cups *gluten-free flour
2 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. ground nutmeg

½ cup ripe avocado (or 1 small-medium one)
3/4 cup dextrose powder (available from iherb.com)
1/4 cup malted barley syrup (available at Whole Foods)
2 eggs
1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract
1 ½ cups grated zucchini

3/4 cup chopped walnuts, pan-roasted
1/4 cup chopped cashews, pan-roasted
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds, pan-roasted
4 oz. chopped **bitter or semi-bitter chocolate pieces

  • Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Oil a loaf pan. Set aside.
  • Combine first 6 ingredients in a large bowl and stir to combine.
  • Place mashed avocado and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat until almost smooth (there will be a few lumps of avocado). Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla extract and blend to combine.
  • Pour avocado mixture, grated zucchini, nuts and chocolate into bowl with dry ingredients. Gently fold ingredients together until combined.
  • Pour mixture into 2 prepared loaf pans and bake for 30 minutes or golden brown on top.
  • Cool in pan for 15 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool to room temperature.  Slice and serve. Even better the next day.

*Gluten-free nut/grain/seed flour mix:

1 ½ cups nut-grain meal
½ cup Bob’s Red Mill all-purpose baking flour

Place buckwheat, oat groats, teff grain, brown rice, almonds, cashews and flax seeds in Rocket or Bullet; grind into flour. You can replace Bob’s Red Mill flour mix with your own approximation. The ingredients are: garbanzo bean flour potato starch, tapioca flour, white sorghum flour, fava bean flour.

**Yes, a 100% chocolate baking bar. I haven’t yet found glucose-only-sweetened chocolate bars, so diehard processed-fructose-free bakers will either have to go it full-strength (which is surprisingly just fine) or melt, sweeten and resolidify.