Lemon Poppy Sourdough Zucchini Bread with Protein

Moist and fluffy Lemon Poppy Sourdough Zucchini Bread with Protein is my new favourite cake. Zingy lemon and crunchy poppy seeds are a classic, but when you mix it with shredded zucchini, you not only add extra veggies, but also low calorie moisture and these lovely green flecks in the batter, that make it super pretty. The sourdough adds a layer of tangy flavour and helps the batter bubble up even more. It also becomes bouncier and lighter. The protein powder means we can reduce the sugar and get more flavour, plus of course a nice hit of nutrition.

 

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• Why You Will Love This
• The Ingredients
• How to Make This
• Meal Prep

Why You Will Love This 

TL;DR

Zucchini are grated and added to the batter for extra moisture and fibre, while protein powder replaces part of the flour and sugar while adding nutrition to these lemon drizzle cakes. Sourdough adds a lovely tang and lets you use up your discard.

Herby and Pretty

The unusual addition of thyme gives a tiny hint of herb flavour in the background, underlining the lemon notes inside the cake and in the glaze.
Topped with optional candied lemon slices, this is a pretty as it’s delicious.

Sourdough, Protein and Veggies in a dessert

During my weight loss journey, I was constantly on the hunt for recipes to satisfy my sweet tooth, that are lower in calories and have added benefits to fuel my body.

Cakes with sourdough, veggies and protein are very high on my list, as they hit all the boxes for me.
So, if you are on a similar journey, or simply are looking for ways to have your delicious protein cake and eat it, this is one for you.

You can serve this to friends and family and no one will ever suspect you smuggled something healthy into their diet, it tastes that good.

I wrote a whole post on why I use sourdough with added protein and how it benefits you here.

Here are 10 delicious Sourdough Protein Recipes.

Ingredient Notes

• Eggs – of course, as we want a light and fluffy cake. But we need only 2, since zucchini and protein powder take over the role of the third.
• For the flour, I used 1 cup of white, then replaced the other cup you’d usually use with half a cup of fine whole wheat flour (you could use coarse, but it will change the light structure of the cake and don’t let it rise that well).

Note:

Cups, due to the possibility of compacting the flour while dragging the container through it, can give you wildly different results. Use a tablespoon to gently fill the cup with flour, then drag the back of a knife over it to level. This should give you the closest to the standard 120g per cup of flour.

Alternatively, if you have kitchen scales, assume 120g flour per cup and weigh it out.

In some of my recipes I will give gram measurements for this reason, but I mostly try to accommodate the American cup system.

• The remaining half cup is made up from the flour content in the sourdough discard (you can use either discard or active, whatever you have on hand. Since we don’t want much gluten development for a light cake, we won’t let it ferment.) and
• A quarter cup protein powder. I used MyProtein Butter Popcorn flavour here (Which they discontinued much to my dismay! Bring it back! I implore you!), as its buttery vanilla taste goes amazingly well with cake. But any of your favourite vanilla powder should be ok.
  Though I won’t give any guarantees for the flavour, as personally, I have not found any other protein powder yet, that I would really want in my cake.
• The sugar content can be reduced by about ¼ cup, again due to the sweetness from the protein powder. It not only adds nutrition, but takes on several roles in improving the cake, which is why I keep adding it to many of my sweet baking recipes.
• Shredded zucchini (courgette for those of you in Ireland) of course. I shredded it relatively coarse with my food processor, as I love the structure and green flecks it adds.
• A mix of baking powder and soda gives more rise.
• For the fat source I used coconut oil instead of vegetable, as it’s healthier and adds a nice back note of coconut without being overpowering.
• Not to forget the lemon. We are making Lemon Poppy Sourdough Zucchini Bread with Protein after all. The zest of a whole lemon goes into the batter, plus 3 tbsp juice. Then we use more juice to mix with icing sugar later for the glaze.

Add-ins

• Poppy seeds add crunch and flavour that goes incredibly well with lemon.
• Adding thyme is optional but gives a lovely background flavour. Don’t worry, this will not taste savoury. It just adds this little “je ne sais quoi” to the cake.

Candied Lemon Slices

The candied lemons on top are also optional but highly recommended. They are not just pretty, but also add a delicious sweet and zingy lemon hit when you bite into them. They are also incredibly easy to make. You just cook some lemon slices in a mix of sugar, lemon juice and water for 15min while you are making the batter and are sure to impress anyone who gets to eat one of these lovely little cakes.

Equipment Used

Glass bowl

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Measuring Cups

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food processor

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Saucepan

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lemon squeezer

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mini loaf pan

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How to Make this

Candied Lemon Slices

You can make the Candied Lemon slices either before mixing the batter or while your cake is in the oven. I would do it before, to give them some time to dry later. Simply slice the lemons thinly, take out the pips if you find any.

Bring water, sugar and lemon juice to a boil in a large saucepan and spread the lemon slices into the liquid, letting them simmer for about 15 minutes. Turn them gently once or twice. When done, spread them out on a try lines with baking parchment, to let them dry a bit. They will remain sticky. You can store any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

Mix the Batter

As most sponge cake recipes, this is pretty easy, but relies on you properly whisking sugar, butter and eggs (and in this case also the protein powder), to achieve the spongy texture.
I find this easiest in a blender. In this case my Nutribullet*, which I bought initially to make smoothies, but am using so much for all kinds of recipes these days, that it has very much earned back the 100€ I invested and constantly lives on my counter.

Adding the Zucchini

The Zucchini can be shredded on a hand grater or on the grating attachment of a food processor*. Squeeze out only about ¼ cup of liquid over a sieve with a measuring cup underneath, to keep enough in it for the batter.

Usually for this recipe you’d leave all the moisture in, as the original from Sue Moran I used as blueprint (Which is amazing in its own right) calculates with the liquid included. But since I’m adding sourdough discard, which has about ¼ cup water content, I squeeze out about as much from the shredded zucchini and leave the rest in.

From here it’s adding the wet to the dry ingredients, folding them in, but not too much. Just so all the flour is incorporated, as we don’t want to develop the gluten, to keep your Lemon Poppy Sourdough Zucchini Bread light and fluffy.

Choose your version

You can either make one large loaf* with this, which will need to bake for about 60-65 minutes or, as I did, these super cute mini loafs*, which need to bake 25-28 minutes.

Let them cool before adding the glaze and candied lemon (if using), so the glaze can firm up.

Lemon Icing

For the lemon glaze, add the lemon juice very slowly, starting with 1 tbsp for 1 cup of icing sugar, mixing it in completely, before adding more. It will look too dry first, but the sugar will melt into it, trust me. Only add more juice if it’s too thick to spread after all juice is incorporated.

Meal Prep

This bread keeps for about 3-4 days covered, but the icing will melt a bit.
So if you want to make this for guests ahead of time, I would add the lemon glaze about 1h before serving for the prettiest white cover. Maybe garnish with a bit of thyme if you used it, for more contrast.

The bread (or mini loafs) freezes well and comes back to life amazingly with just a few minutes in the air fryer or oven, if you like a crisp crust as I do. The icing does not freeze too well, but if you don’t mind the looks, it works, as it seeps into the cake and adds even more flavour, giving you a quick and nutritious Lemon Poppy Sourdough Zucchini Bread with Protein whenever a craving strikes.

Other recipes you might enjoy

Looking for more recipes with Protein?

I have a whole category full of them!

Now I’d love to hear from you in the comments!

Have you tried this? Did you enjoy it?
What other recipes would you like to see?

And if you enjoyed this recipe, please consider rating, sharing, or leaving a comment – your feedback truly helps my blog grow!

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