Saturday, August 6, 2011

Good Enough to Eat : Zucchini Bread

Yeah. Zucchini Bread. I don't know, I've always assumed it was going to taste like, well, zucchini. And that as a bread always seemed really gross to me.

But oh lord that stuff is good. And healthy as long as you make the right choices with regard to whole wheat flour and cutting back the oil and using a HEAP ton of zucchini, which makes it so moist and fantastic.

This really is a fabulous bread that only tastes like a moist cinnamon loaf, even though you can see ribbons of zucchini running through it. Don't be afraid! Eat your zucchini!!

Ashley's Zucchini Bread
I've made so many changes and substitutions to this bread? It's mine now! 

Ingredients

1.5 cups of Whole Wheat Pastry Flour

1.5 cups of All Purpose White Flour

1 Tsp Baking Soda

1 Tsp Baking Powder

3 Tsp of Ground Cinnamon -you can also do half pumpkin pie spice, which has nutmeg and other spices in it for some fabulous flavor

3 eggs

1/2 cup Vegetable Oil

1/2 cup Applesauce - I know it seems weird, but it cuts back on the oil and you can't tell at ALL. I was skeptical, but it really works

1 cup of Brown Sugar

1 cup of White Sugar - so originally it was a LOT of white sugar. More than 2 cups. Yeah, SO not necessary and if you make half of it brown it adds all of the flavor without all that sugar.

3 Tsp of Vanilla Extract

2-3 cups of Shredded Zucchini - The more zucchini you put in, the more moist the bread will be. I used approximately 4 small zucchinis and it turned out just fine.

Optional Addition : 1 cup of chopped walnuts/pecans - I'm not a huge fan of nuts in my bread so I took them out. But if you love 'em? Go for it. 

Directions

Grease and flour two 8x 4 bread pans. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
Sift the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon/allspice/pumpkin pie spice, whatever you wanted to use, in a bowl. If you don't have a sifter, or don't want to deal with the mess of using one, add all of the ingredients in the bowl and whisk them. Just as good.
In a different bowl (sorry there might be some cleanup here... get the hubs to do it) cream the eggs, oil, applesauce, vanilla and sugar together. Add the "sifted" ingredients to the creamed mixture and beat well. Stir in the zucchini and nuts if you are using them and mix well. Do NOT over mix though. I did this all without my kitchen aid mixer and just did it all by hand. Easy stuff.
Pour the batter into the two pans and bake for 40-60 minutes, or until the tester comes out clean. Just know that I set the timer for 40 minutes and then proceeded to check it every 5-10 minutes or so. You really don't want to overcook this because it becomes a LOT less moist... and moist is what we're shooting for.
Cool in the pan on a rack for about 20 minutes. Take it out of the pan and let it cool completely if you can before devouring it.


3 comments:

laura said...

oooh, delish! my fave cafe, parker & otis, makes the BEST zucchini cupcakes!!!

and, i totally noticed annie's pre-katrina bachelorette party blog post just pop up on your link within. ah, memories! xo!

Shell said...

I love zucchini bread! Especially with chocolate chips. B/c the veggies and chocolate balance each other out.

supplements said...

Zucchini bread can be topped on with chopped walnuts.

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