Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Yummy Zucchini Goodness

A friend of mine is doing the same CSA farm share as I am and we have been blessed with summer squash and zucchini the past few weeks. And by 'blessed' I mean we have summer squash and zucchini coming out of our ears at this point.

So, I teased her by telling her I would post my mom's Zucchini Bread recipe and then I never did. I didn't want to forever be known as the big-zucchini-no-action gal, so I got to work last night making zucchini bread.

First step...pick the most ASS HOT day of the summer and turn on your oven to 350 degrees. Then, sweatily consult your iPhone for the recipe your mom sent because it is too hot to even go upstairs and print it out...and yet apparently not too hot to turn the oven on:

Gather your ingredients...you will need three cups of flour:

1.5 cups of sugar:

One teaspoon each of salt, baking powder and baking soda:

And one teaspoon of cinnamon:

Stir all of those ingredients around in a bowl until combined:

Then get your zucchini and start shredding...you will need 2 cups of shredded zucchini which is about 1.5 large zucchini: My mom shreds hers over paper towels so that it drains a bit before mixing...I forgot to do that at first so I dumped what I had over some paper towels and squeezed out some of the moisture before adding it to the bowl of dry ingredients.

Think about doing what the recipe says, which is to add in one cup of raisins to the mixture as well...but decide that raisins are for chumps and think, 'who wouldn't prefer chocolate chips'?

Dump a cup of Ghirardelli Chocolate Chips into the mixture.

Next, combine three eggs with one cup of oil:

Realize it is almost quarter to eight, you're almost done preparing your recipe and you haven't actually turned the oven on yet even though it certainly feels like it in your kitchen. Come to the conclusion that it is too late to go back and turn the oven on causing husband and kitty to protest angrily:

Add the egg/oil mixture to the dry ingredients/zucchini/chocolate chips and stir:

Pour into the largest greased loaf pan you can find:

Bake for 90 minutes then let cool for 10 minutes. Realize it is a very good thing that you used your biggest loaf pan (I think it said 2 quarts on the bottom) because anything smaller would have created a monumental mess in the oven:


Stare at the deliciousness:
Decide it is way too late to wait the full 10 minutes before turning bread out onto a cooling rack, and go to bed.

In the morning...stare longingly at the yumminess that is Zucchini Bread...marvel at your baking ingenuity and the decision to swap out chocolate chips for raisins. Realize that baby can't have chocolate which means you are the only one who can eat this entire loaf of bread. Celebrate your brilliance while baby whines because he's hungry.


Slice it up:


And enjoy with coffee!!

Ahhhhhhhhh...

So...with all that said and done, I have to tell you, I'm not a huge fan of the chocolate chips. They are overpowering the delicious, slightly nutty flavor of the Zucchini bread. I am wondering if perhaps only adding 1/2 cup would be better. Or really, I could just forgo the chocolate chips all together...I love me some raisins in my zucchini bread.

So here's the actual recipe for any of you folk who are still with me here:


ZUCCHINI BREAD

3 cups flour
1 ½ cups sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
2 cups shredded unpeeled zucchini*
1 cup raisins**
3 eggs
1 cup oil

In large bowl stir together flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, baking soda, zucchini and raisins. In another bowl beat eggs and oil. Pour over flour mixture and stir until moistened. Turn into greased 9x5x3 loaf pan. Bake in 350 degree oven 1 hour and 30 minutes or until pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes, invert onto rack, turn top side up and cool completely.

*I always shred the zucchini onto paper towels so that it drains a bit before mixing.
** you can substitute 1/2 cup chocolate chips for the raisins or leave them out all together

3 comments:

  1. Overpowering chocolate chips? Oh this is so wrong it's right. I'm getting right on this. (And thank goodness you chose chocolate over raisins. On account of my dried fruit phobia.)

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  2. That looks super tasty.. is it wrong that I covert your spice organization? Cause I do...

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  3. So I have to do a photo shoot in Milton on Saturday, what time should I swing by? I take my coffee milk, no sugar. Kthxbye!

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