Combine the magic of the Instant Pot, zucchini, a few other key ingredients and you've got yourself a perfectly moist, healthy, and sweet Instant Pot Zucchini Banana Bread – minus all the fat and sugar. Top it with a cream cheese and yogurt sauce to really take it to the next level!
I've always struggled a bit with muffins and sweet quick breads that are served as a “healthy breakfast” or “healthy snack” when in reality they are muffin-shaped birthday cakes.
I'd be happier with my kids eating a Snicker bar or ice cream for breakfast so they are at least getting some good fat and protein to start the day (to my children: FYI – no, I will not be serving that for breakfast).
To be clear, I have no objection to the consumption of bakery goods, pop tarts, kids' cereal, etc. My frustration lies in not calling them what they are (which is a treat or dessert) and instead sporting them as part of a well-balanced meal. Oh, and then serving them with chocolate milk.
I could go on about this topic for days, but that's not why you're here, so let me reign in mama bear and tell you about this heavenly loaf of Zucchini Bread that I discovered is even more wonderful in the pressure cooker!
WHY YOU WILL LOVE INSTANT POT ZUCCHINI BANANA BREAD
- It's moist, sweet, and comforting and could be served for breakfast, snacks, dessert, or even packed in your kid's lunch boxes
- Crunchy walnuts! Of course, if you're camp “Anti-Nuts in Baked Goods” substitute with raisins or chocolate chips
- Low in added sugar, but still perfectly sweet with the addition of bananas and applesauce
- Low in fat, but still moist because of the zucchini, applesauce, and mashed bananas
- A big slice of this bread with a cup of Crio Bru will improve your mood within seconds. True Fact
HOW TO MAKE INSTANT POT ZUCCHINI BREAD
- Mix up your wet ingredients
- TIDBITS Tip: Add the zucchini to the wet batter. It will make incorporating it evenly soooooo much easier
- Mix the wet and dry ingredients together . . .
- Just until combined
- Pour into greased bundt pan
- Make a tinfoil sling
- Transfer to Instant Pot
- Cook
- Serve! Look how perfectly moist and airy that cooked up!
TIPS FOR MAKING HEALTHY ZUCCHINI BREAD
- Use your Instant Pot, obvs
- The hot, moist environment keeps the bread moist without adding excess fat
- Substitute oil with applesauce
- Less fat, more natural sweetness
- Increase baking powder
- In general, when making baked goods in the pressure cooker, increase the baking powder by a third
- Make it sweeter, naturally
- Bananas, applesauce, and the best cinnamon in the world: Vietnamese Cinnamon
- Add some crunch
- I LOVE walnuts in quick breads! Since buying walnuts whole are cheaper than buying them chopped, here's a quick and easy trick for chopping walnuts.
- 1 – Place walnuts inside a clean towel
- 2 – Take a mallet and hammer away!
- 3 – Perfectly chopped walnuts in 5 seconds
- I LOVE walnuts in quick breads! Since buying walnuts whole are cheaper than buying them chopped, here's a quick and easy trick for chopping walnuts.
- Make it whole grain
- Use whole wheat white flour or whole wheat pastry flour. It swaps flawlessly for white flour
- Use a Bundt Pan
- A bundt pan cooks much more evenly due to the core through the middle. This means quicker cook time and also ensures that your bread is moist without being tough or gummy. This gummy texture is a big complaint among pressure cooker lovers in regards to baked goods. I'm convinced the center core solves this.
- If you don't want to make room for this cute 6 cup bundt pan, buy a heating core and use it in any pan. I LOVE my heating core! I use it often in large breakfast cakes like this Strawberry Lemon Poppyseed version or this Blackberry Almond Cake.
Above rant aside, I really do love taking on the challenge of making favorite foods healthier and whole grain, and this Instant Pot Zucchini Banana Bread is a prime example of how it's possible! Give it a try and report back with your thoughts.
While you're at it, do yourself an enormous favor and toast up a slice under the broiler then slather it with Cream Cheese Yogurt Sauce. I wish I could insert a video here of my kids attacking my photoshoot images to show you just how delicious this is. Kids don't lie. And if they do, they're so bad at it, you'll still know the truth.
Does the Mommy Lie Detector still work when they're teenagers? Please lie to me and tell me it does.
For more zucchini recipes, be sure and check out this Instant Pot Zucchini Recipe Round-up
Enjoy!
VARIATIONS
- Swap shredded carrots for the zucchini, add raisins, and Voila! Carrot Cake bread, YUM!
- Add chocolate chips, pecans, cranberries, or raisins, etc
- Substitute yogurt for the applesauce
- To cook it in a 7 inch springform pan, try cooking it for 45 minutes to get it cooked all the way through the center.
TOOLS/INGREDIENTS USED TO MAKE INSTANT POT HEALTHY ZUCCHINI BANANA BREAD
- Instant Pot
- Food Processor
- 6 Cup Bundt Pan
Instant Pot Healthy Zucchini Banana Bread
Healthy, whole grain zucchini bread made in the Instant Pot so it stays soft and moist without all the fat and sugar.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Total Time: 70 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Category: Bread
- Method: Pressure Cooker
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsweetened applesauce
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 ripe medium bananas, mashed
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups shredded zucchini, drained and squeezed dry by hand or in a towel or reusable produce bag
- 2 cups white whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon (preferably Vietnamese cinnamon)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup chopped walnuts
- ⅓ cup dark chocolate chips (optional)
Cream Cheese Yogurt Sauce (Double if desired)
- ¼ cup whipped cream cheese
- ¼ cup plain greek yogurt
- 1–2 tablespoons milk
- 3 – 4 tablespoons powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Generously grease a 6 cup bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray, set aside.
- In a medium size bowl, whisk to combine applesauce, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, mashed bananas, and vanilla extract. Stir in shredded zucchini.
- In a small bowl, combine whole wheat flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt; whisk to combine. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir 2-3 times. You will still see dry flour.
- Add walnuts (and/or chocolate chips, if desired) and stir just until flour is incorporated. Pour into the prepared bundt pan.
- Make a tinfoil sling and place pan on top of foil.
- Add 1 ½ cups of water to the pressure cooker pot and place a trivet inside. Carefully place the bundt pan on the trivet.
- Secure the lid and turn pressure release knob to a sealed position. Cook at high pressure for 35 minutes.
- When pressure cooking is complete, use a natural release for 10 minutes and then release any remaining pressure.
- Remove pan from pressure cooker. Cool slightly. Loosen the sides of the cake from the pan and gently turn over onto a plate.
- Can be served hot or at room temperature with a shmear of Cream Cheese Yogurt Sauce
- Once cooled, store leftover in a sealed container or ziplock bag at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Cream Cheese Yogurt Sauce
- Whisk together the whipped cream cheese, yogurt, milk, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract until smooth. Add more powdered sugar if a sweeter sauce is desired.
Notes
- The Instant Pot keeps the bread nice and moist, but it can also be baked in the oven at 350 for about 45 minutes
- Use White Whole Wheat Flour or Whole Wheat Pastry Flour in this recipe. Red Wheat can also be used but will be denser
Keywords: instant pot bread, zucchini bread, healthy zucchini bread
This tasted wonderful, but I think I did something wrong. I used the bundt pan which made it look wonderful. When I first took it out, it had risen above the pan. I was very impressed. Left it on the counter to cool, and it settled a bit. Ok, no problem, but when I cut into it, it had doughy streaks that looked uncooked and the texture was gummy. I had ‘guesstimated’ the amount of banana because I was using some I had frozen to use in baking. Could there have been too much banana? Or should I have cooked it longer than the 35 minutes suggested? I also only had all purpose white flour, full disclosure. I would like to use this recipe again, because I love not using oil. Suggestions?
Laurice, Hmmm…if you used a bundt pan, 35 minutes should have been a great cook time. Too much banana would definitely make it more gummy and I’m guessing if using white flour, you might need a sprinkle more. I would definitely give it another try. We adore this one!
Do I need to cover bread with foil while cooking
Annette, no, I never do 🙂
Can you substitute something else for bananas?
I haven’t tried it, but I’ll bet applesauce or pumpkin puree would be great. Let me know if you give it a go!
This has become my go to recipe for my overripe bananas. Other banana bread recipes have too much sugar and fat. I can get 2 cups of squeezed zucchini in here and the whole wheat flours are an added bonus for the pre-diabetic in our household.
★★★★★
Lin, Isn’t it great!? I try so hard to limit the amount of sweeteners in these types of foods. Makes it feel like a meal instead of dessert, ya know? I’m glad you guys can enjoy it too!
What do you mean by step 5? The tinfoil sling goes where exactly?
Luellyn, take a look at the collage pictures above the recipe and you’ll see exactly I mean. Some people have silicone ones and that works great too!
I have the same question as Donna – If I make this as muffins in my silicone muffin cups, how long should I cook them?
Same question! I don’t have the 6 inch Bundt cake yet but would love to try this recipe. I do have the spring form pan for the IP. Which would be better? 🙂
Erin, Yes that will work but will need extra cooking time. I’m thinking between 5-10 minutes, so maybe go with 8.
Sabrina, I would try 10 minutes. That seems to get everything cooked through in the egg bite trays.
I made this in my springform pan and added nine minutes to it. It’s super delicious and moist! 🙂 great recipe!
★★★★★
Erin, thanks for letting me know the cook time you used. I’m glad it worked out great!
I was impressed by the texture and flavor! Much better than another recipe that I had tried. I’d kind of given up on Ipot cakes! The pan probably helped but the recipe was really great! Thanks so much!
★★★★★
I agree, the texture really works on this one! I make this on repeat when my zucchini plant starts producing. I can’t wait!
I don’t have a bundt pan for my Instant Pot. Can I make this in a regular cake pan that fits the IP? If so, do I need to change the baking time?
Karen, Yes, that could work. I suspect it will need another 10 – 15 minutes.
This is delicious! I made it Gluten Free, egg free, and cows milk free. It came out moist and very satisfying! I don’t care for the tase of applesauce so I substituted it for 1/3 c sunflower oil. I used Ener-G (egg replacer with aqua-fava [garbanzo bean water]). For the flour, I used 1 cup Trader Joe’s GF flour, 1/2 cup oats, and 1/2 cup garbanzo flour. I also used 2 Tbsp. goat Keefer. I put it in the broiler after the Instant Pot for 8 minutes to brown the top. I will definitely be making this again and share it with friends.
P.S. I used a springform pan with an empty can with a cup of dried beans in the center to create the equivalent of a bunt pan.
★★★★★
Amrit, thank you so much for taking the time to write out your alterations, that’s so valuable to have to refer people to. Sounds like you are a pro with substitutions.
If I make this as muffins in my silicone trays, how long would I cook it?
Donna, I’ve never tried that, but it’s a FANTASTIC idea! I’m going to have to make a wild guess here and say I would try 10 minutes with maybe a 5-minute natural release. Let me know if you try it. I’ve got tons of zucchini sitting on my cupboard and if I get time today, I’ll also try this out.
Have you tried this with GF flour?
Chalet, not with this recipe, but I’ve been playing around with Bobs Red Mill Gluten Free Blend and haven’t had a bad recipe with it yet.
If the GF flour I’m using doesn’t have xantham gum, how much should I put in? I’m out of Bobs so am going to try King Arthur
Chalet, I’m not really the person to ask on this, but as I’ve experimented with xantham gum in the past, I typically only put about 1/4 teaspoon for smaller batches like this. If you play around with it, let me know how it goes!