Zucchini Bread

 

When I was doing research for another blog post, I came across some recipes for zucchini bread. They sounded so good that I thought they deserved a post all to themselves. There are a few different ways to make zucchini bread; some of them are simple while others are a bit more involved. It's not that they are particularly difficult so much as that they have a lot more ingredients that some of us don't keep lying around the house. I've included an example of each.

For the simpler-

Simple Zucchini Bread

2 cups grated zucchini

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

3 eggs

3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 ¼ cups white sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In one bowl, combine salt, flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon. In a separate and larger bowl, beat the eggs and add vanilla, oil and sugar. Then, add the dry ingredients and stir until well mixed. Stir the zucchini and nuts. Now, grease and flour two 8”x4” pans and pour in the batter. Bake for about 40-60 minutes, or until you can poke it in the center with a toothpick and have it come out clean. Now, take the pans out of the oven and put them pans-and-all on a rack to cool for 20 minutes. Take out of the pans and cool the rest of the way.

This makes 2 loaves. That might sound like a lot, but it's going to go so quickly that you'll wish you'd made more!

Now, for the more involved-

Sort-Of-Complicated Zucchini Bread

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 ½ cups grated zucchini

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 ripe bananas, mashed

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon nutmeg

3 eggs

½ cup unsweetened applesauce

½ cup vegetable oil

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

½ shredded coconut

1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Put all-purpose flour, salt, baking soda, whole wheat flour, baking powder, nutmeg and cinnamon in a bowl and whisk to blend. In a separate bowl, mix the eggs, bananas, applesauce, vegetable oil, white sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla. Stir the two mixtures together and add the zucchini, walnuts and coconut until evenly mixed. Grease and flour 2 9”x5” bread loaf pans and pour in batter.

Bake for 40 or 50 minutes, or until your center-poked toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 25 minutes in the pans, remove from pans and let it cool the rest of the way on a wire rack.

Zucchini bread is great by itself or with any meal. It also freezes well, which is helpful for those times when you are planning to have people over and want to cook things ahead of time. Enjoy!