Thriving Recipe: Cassava Flour Muffins/Bread

Cassava flour is one of my favorite nutrient-dense flours! Made from the yucca root, this flour is easy to digest, packed with nutrients and free of common allergens (gluten and nuts). And, best of all, it can be substituted as a one to one ratio with all purpose flour. This makes baking your favorite recipes a breeze!

Here is a “behind the scenes” look at how I crafted this recipe:

I converted a “regular” zucchini bread recipe into a Thriving Health approved treat! First, I swapped out the processed ingredients as follows: cassava flour for white flour, coconut oil for vegetable oil, and maple syrup for white sugar. The flour and oil quantity stayed the same. Sugar changed from 2 ¼ cup of white sugar to ¼ cup of maple syrup. Maple syrup is sweeter than regular sugar. Then I increased the amount of blueberries, which also compensated for added sweetness. (I didn’t want to skimp on the best part!) Last of all, I found that this recipe did have to bake longer because the cassava flour is a little more dense than most flours. A good hour does it, and then, voilà, delicious bread!

Also, when I put these same ingredients into my muffin pans,they turned out great! In fact, I enjoyed the recipe even more as muffins!

Cassava Muffins or Bread

Yields 2 small loaves of bread or 18-24 muffins

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs, lightly beaten

• 1 cup coconut oil (melted)

• 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

• 1/4 cup maple syrup

• 2 cups shredded zucchini

• 3 cups cassava flour

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

• 1 1/ 2 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease loaf pans or muffin pan with coconut oil.

2. In a large bowl, beat together the wet ingredients: eggs, oil, vanilla, and maple syrup. Fold in the zucchini. In a small bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Add to wet ingredients. Gently fold in the blueberries. Transfer to the prepared baking pans.

3. Bake 60 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a knife inserted in the center of a loaf/muffins comes out clean. Cool 20 minutes in pans, then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.

*Note: Cassava flour can be purchased at Wegmans, Amazon, and local health food stores.