I still have a freezer full of zucchini from the summer's harvest and I figured I had better start using it before it reaches its limit. Usually when I make zucchini bread, I go online, google some recipes and go from there. I do not have a go-to zucchini bread recipe. Until yesterday that is. I found a recipe on recipezaar that gave this recipe its basic structure but I tweaked it a bit. I tried a few things that could have all flopped but the bread turned out richly-colored and deeply-flavored.
Best Zucchini Bread
1-1 1/2 c. shredded zucchini, pressed through a cloth napkin to get rid excess moisture
1 egg
3/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. vegetable oil
1/4 c. apple butter
1 t. vanilla
2/3 c. white flour
1/3 c. wheat flour
1/4 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
1 t. cinnamon
a couple of turns on the pepper mill
1/2 cup toasted pecans
Mix together wet ingredients (excluding zucchini) and dry ingredients in separate bowls. Add the wet ingredients a bit at a time to the dry until well mixed. Stir in the zucchini and nuts, if you're including them. Pour into a greased loaf pan and sprinkle with sugar. Raw sugar looks especially nice. Bake for about 50 minutes at 350 degrees.
Notes: The zucchini out of the freezer retains a lot of water. I was shocked how much came out when I squeezed it through the napkin. I think that it is very important to get rid of that so the batter isn't watery. I like to believe this is low-fat and all-around healthy since I halved the amount of oil and subbed apple butter, as well as using white and wheat flour. Both these substitutions make for a very sticky, dark bread. For whatever reason (probably because I am obsessed with my new Unicorn pepper mill) I thought this would lend itself well to freshly cracked black pepper. Weird, possibly, but I thought it was great and will probably add more pepper next time. I wasn't sure how this would come out, it looked very dark but it was dubbed "phenomenal" by my trusty taste testers and this is certainly my new go-to recipe for zucchini bread.
2 comments:
The most interesting ingredient here is the few added grinds of PEPPER.
How do you like your new pepper mill?
very nice girlie! lemme know if you ever want my aunt's recipe b/c i grew up eating the BEST bread from the zucchini in her garden, and ive had many others in my time which have paled in comparison.. ive got it here in my trusty old book of family recipes so just say the word.. prob missing the darn black pepper all these yrs tho!!
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