Protein Zucchini Bread

Classic zucchini bread — tender, cinnamon-warm, craggy on top — with a portion of the flour swapped for ChiChi. The chickpea flakes add protein and fiber, and they soak up the water the zucchini releases, so the middle never goes gummy. Same loaf you're picturing, just one that holds you over until lunch.

Ingredients

• ½ cup ChiChi (Maple Brown Sugar or Original both work)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 large eggs
• 2 cups grated zucchini (about 2 small)
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• ½ cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 375°F. Grease a 9x5 loaf pan and sprinkle the ¼ cup of brown sugar across the bottom. It melts into a thin caramel layer and gives the loaf a sticky, slightly candied base.
2. Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large bowl: ChiChi, flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.
3. Combine the wet ingredients in a separate bowl: grated zucchini, eggs, oil, and vanilla.
4. Add the dry to the wet and mix until just combined. Stop as soon as you stop seeing dry flour — overmixing is what turns a tender loaf into a dense one. Fold in the chopped walnuts.
5. Pour the batter into the pan and bake 45 to 55 minutes, until the top is deeply golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. If the top is browning faster than the inside is setting, tent it with foil around the 35-minute mark.
6. Make the drizzle. Melt the butter and brown sugar together in the microwave in 20-second bursts, stirring between each, until smooth.
7. Drizzle it over the warm loaf and let it soak in. Do this while the bread is still hot — a cooled loaf won't absorb it, and you'll end up with a puddle instead of a glaze.
8. Let it cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then turn it out. Or don't, and eat the first slice standing at the counter. That's what we do.

For the pan and the drizzle

• ¼ cup brown sugar, for the bottom of the pan
• 2 tablespoons butter + 2 tablespoons brown sugar, for the finishing drizzle

The morning-after move