Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Zucchini Bread


I've been fiddling around with zucchini bread recipes and have come up with one that I like. A lot of the recipes that I found seemed to have pretty much the same proportions of flour, leavening, sugar, eggs, oil and zucchini. I just played around with the types of flour and sugar. And since I can't resist tinkering, the next time I make it I will probably change something again. Today I used part whole wheat flour instead of all white and half brown sugar instead of all white. I also used more nuts than in the typical recipes. The bread seemed a bit less moist than the all white flour and white sugar version. It also had a heartier texture, but I rather like that. My loaf pans are an inch longer than is typical so my loaves baked more quickly and aren't as high.

So here's today's version of

Zucchini Bread

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups (12 to 14 oz) coarsely grated zucchini
1 1/2 cups chopped lightly toasted walnuts

Preheat the oven to 350F. Put the flours, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a bowl and stir together thoroughly. Set aside.

Beat the eggs in a large bowl until light and foamy. Beat in the sugar, oil, and vanilla. Stir in the zucchini. Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and stir until just combined, stir in the nuts. Divide the batter evenly between 2 greased 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pans. Bake for about 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted in the middle of a loaf comes out clean. Cool on a rack 10 minutes, then turn the loaves out and finish cooling on the rack.


I like to use extra virgin olive oil instead of refined vegetable oils when baking. Refined vegetable oils are treated with some really nasty solvents to remove color, flavor and odor - yuck. I've found that the olive flavor is not at all strong and nobody has ever even noticed the difference.

9 comments:

  1. Mmm, I do love zucchini bread! I haven't grown any this year but my friend gave us a couple, one of which we've eaten, the other i'm trying to come up with something and I might dgo ahead and try your recipe. I've never cooked w/extra virgin olive oil but I guess I could try that, too;-) I usually use canola oil. Hmm, speaking of zucchini, my friend allowed hers to grow HUGE! Is that typically the way to grow them or are they supposed to be picked before they get too large?

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  2. Hi Jan! I usually try to pick zucchini while they are still on the small side. But the big ones that hide in the foliage are great for making zucchini bread and that's what I've been using them for. Canola oil would work fine in the recipe, olive oil is just my own personal bugaboo...

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  3. Ooh this sounds good! I've never tried making bread with zucchini, but I will now. We haven't made bread much since we've been living here with an excellent boulangerie about 50 metres from our house! I quite agree about olive oil - can't understand why people say the flavour is strong, since I just love it and use it for everything.

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  4. I may have to do that. There's still a monster from Denise's yard in my refrigerator.

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  5. Thank you! this is delicious :-)

    I panicked when I was halfway through mixing the ingredients and realised it was enough for TWO loaves - eeek! Improvised with one loaf and one try bake.

    Yummy Courgette Cake! (no-one knows what a zucchini is here and bread wouldn't be as sweet and would need to be served buttered and/or toasted) Isn't it fun how food can get lost in translation! Even from English to English ;-)

    Celia

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  6. Hi Celia, It's like the biscuit/cookie difference we have as well. Zucchini bread is certainly more cake-like, not sure why it's called bread other than it's shape. It was yummy with a bit of meyer lemon curd on it this morning. I'm glad it turned out well in the end!

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  7. It looks fantastic Michelle, I would love to have a slice of two right now :-)It must be heavenly slightly tasted with butter and honey or lemon curd...

    xoxo Tyra

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  8. Thanks for this idea, although like you I always change recipes. I'm not that keen on sweet cakes, so I used less sugar and added paprika instead of cinnamon and vanilla and it turned out very well. It makes a good savoury accompaniment to an aperitif of rosé wine. A really great way to use up some of the courgette glut ... sorry, zucchini!

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  9. Tyra, I could use a slice or two right now also, guess I'll have to make another batch...

    Chaiselongue, that sounds good! I bet your version would be good with cheese, either in or on.

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