Post-vacation garden harvest |
It's that time of the year (and has been for a while) when your neighbors start to ask "Can I give you some zucchini?" and you run away screaming.
We planted four zucchinis, and at first it seemed like the perfect amount. Every day, we had one or two on-the-small side squashes, perfect for sautéing with green beans as a dinner side. But for the last few weeks, we've been so overrun that I'm now avoiding peeking under the umbrella-like leaves at all.
Upside, I've settled on a zucchini bread recipe. The first two I tried were just not right--even my usual favorite people at America's Test Kitchen didn't win me over in the end with their attempt to better old-school zucchini bread recipes by toning down the amount of oil and nixing such add-ons as cinnamon, nuts, and chips. The result? Bread that was too light and flavorless, I thought. Boring.
I rediscovered the winning recipe thanks to my mom and a 1970s-era church cookbook. This one brings on the vegetable oil, cinnamon, nuts, and chocolate, and manages to be moist and light at the same time. The spices and add-ons give the zucchini the helping hand it--let's be honest--really needs. Because the irony of zucchini bread is that it's not about the zucchini. At least, that's what I've decided after a double batch of it cleaned me out of flour, sugar, eggs, and chocolate chips, and made barely a dent in our pile of squash. The zucchini is merely an excuse to consume slice upon slice of chewy chocolatey nutty cinnamony quick bread with morning coffee.
Now that our freezer is stocked with loaves, I'm trying other things to conquer the pile. Zucchini blanched and frozen. Zucchini in vegetable soup. Zucchini soup puree. Zucchini slices baked with bread crumbs and parmesan. And, because it's a losing battle, zucchini for the chickens. They love it!
Zucchini Bread
Adapted from Westminster Presbyterian's 1970s cookbook
I prefer to use zucchini that's over 1 pound here--save the smaller ones for stir-fries or salads, as they're moister. The larger ones are dryer, which is better for this bread.
2 1/2 cups grated zucchini
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
3 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1 cup chocolate chips
Toss the zucchini with 1 tablespoon of the sugar and set in a fine-mesh sieve over a bowl. Let the zucchini drain for about 30 minutes--you'll be left with greenish water beneath and much dryer zucchini. Squeeze the squash with paper towels to sop up any excess moisture.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F and prepare a loaf pan or a muffin tin by oiling the bottom and sides, then dusting with flour. Alternately, use parchment paper or muffin cups.
Cream the remaining sugar and eggs; add the oil and zucchini. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Stir the wet and dry ingredients together until just combined. Add the nuts and chocolate and stir.
Pour into the prepared loaf pan or muffin tin. Fill the loaf pan about two-thirds of the way full; fill the muffin cups about halfway full.
Bake a loaf for 1 hour or muffins for 25 minutes, until the tops are more golden than glossy and a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean. Let the bread rest in the pans on a cooling rack for about 7 minutes. Then remove and let cool all the way (or, okay, as long as you can wait).
You can freeze the loaves wrapped in plastic wrap, then tinfoil or butcher paper.
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