Zucchini Bread, Part 3

Well, here's our last zucchini bread post! And technically, this recipe isn't even technically zucchini bread. It's a cross between carrot cake and zucchini bread. But let me just say this: 'tis delicious.

This zucchini bread was much, much lighter than the others, which is a huge plus with me, but that's just personal taste. There's also (gasp!) NO FAT ADDED. No oil, no butter. Crazy, right? All the moisture of the bread comes from the grated zucchini and carrot.

I got this recipe from a cake cookbook, which called it, "Spiced Passion Cake."

I made two muffins with some of the batter, just for kicks, but you by no means have to. Enjoy!

-Caroline

Click here for the printer-friendly recipe.

Zucchini Cake

Recipe adapted from the book

Cakes and Cake Decorating, Step by Step

Yields: 1 loaf

Ingredients

1 medium zucchini, grated

1 medium carrot (or ⅔ cup baby carrots), grated

3 eggs, separated

½ cup brown sugar

2 tablespoon ground almonds (optional)

zest of 1 orange (or lemon), grated

1 cup self-rising flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

¼ teaspoon ginger

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Beat the egg yolk with sugar until fluffy and lighter colored.
3. Mix together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger.
4. Add dry ingredients to the wet. Stir in zucchini, carrots, and zest.
5. Beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Fold into the batter.
6. Pour batter into a greased 9 in. x 5 in. loaf pan.
7. Bake for 55 - 60 minutes.
8. Let cool and enjoy!

Zucchini Bread, Part 2

I think one of the best things about zucchini bread is that it's a recipe that hardly takes any time on prep work, as long as you have a food processor and electric mixer. And the results are consistently moist, fluffy, and delicious. To be honest, I'm not that big of a zucchini fan to begin with, but you wouldn't believe how tasty it is when you make it into bread. Zucchini bread to be exact!

Zucchini bread is perfect for a quick snack, smeared with butter or honey. Try introducing a couple chocolate chips -- okay, maybe more than that -- to add a little pizzaz.

This bread doesn't even really taste like zucchini, in my opinion. But there's definitely zucchini in it! So it's somewhat healthy, right? A ne

at trick to this recipe: I used 1/2 cup oil, but you could easily replace that with 1/2 cup applesauce or do a half-and-half combo -- 1/4 cup oil and 1/4 cup applesauce.

Of course, we all know applesauce must be healthier than oil, but don't overlook oil's contributions to a quality dessert recipe (Does zucchini bread count as a dessert? I'll just say yes for the sake of this blog.). I've heard that applesauce changes the texture of a recipe a little bit, making it "cakier" or less dense. So it depends on your preferences. Applesauce also works great as a healthy alternative to oil in other recipes like brownies and cakes.

I recently (belatedly) discovered Instagram's awesomenss, so I just had to try it out on this photo of the zucchini bread. Which, by the way, can you believe that this is a photo taken by a mere cell phone? I love technology. And food.

Special thanks to Katie Havard for showing me this amazing recipe! It's a keeper. (:

Love,

Monica

Printable recipe of Zucchini Bread

.

Zucchini Bread

Moist, delicious zucchini bread with chocolate chips

!

Recipe from Katie Havard

Yields: 2 loaves

Time: 1 ½ hours

Ingredients

2 ½ cup flour

2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon lemon peel, fully shredded (or, a dash of lemon extract)

¾ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ginger

1 cup granulated (white) sugar

¼ cup vegetable oil

¼ cup applesauce (or, 

¼

 cup vegetable oil)

2 cup zucchini, fully shredded (using food processor)

1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Some chocolate chips (optional)

Directions

1. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, lemon peel, salt, cinnamon, and ginger. Add sugar and vegetable oil/applesauce.

2. Add zucchini. The mixture will "magically" become more moist (cool, huh?). Mix well.

3. Add nuts and/or chocolate chips. Pour into greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes. Cool and enjoy!

Zucchini Bread, Part 1

At this point, if you're a gardener, the zucchinis must be coming in by the basketful. Ergo, Monica and I have decided to devote ourselves to baking with this green squash thingy. This will be the first of a couple of zucchini bread recipes we'll be sharing and reviewing on the blog in the next couple of weeks.

So, grab some zucchinis, and let's get started!

Today's recipe is from the blog

Chocolate and Carrots

.

Stick your sugar in a bowl (I used a little bit of brown sugar). Add flour (I didn't have whole-wheat flour, so I used 2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour.) Add baking powder and baking soda.

Add cinnamon and nutmeg. I also added 1/4 tsp. ginger.

 Mix it up good.

 I used one medium zucchini. Now, you could use a grater to shred the zucchini. Or, you could do what I did: start chopping it...

 ...into about 1-inch cubes.

 Stick them in the food processor and pulse a couple of times.

 It'll look something like this.

 Add oil, the egg, lemon zest, and milk to the zucchini mush.

 Add the wet ingredients to the dry.

Mix well. It'll look sort of gross. But don't fret children, Caroline will make it all better. Or at least, the oven will.

Put it in a greased 9 x 5 loaf pan. Bake it.

Stick a skewer into it. If it come out clean, it's done. Caroline honey, stick it in the middle of the loaf next time, okay?

The recipe includes a lemon glaze, but I chose not to make it. The temptation of extra sugar couldn't even overcome my laziness that day.

Now for my thoughts on it:

It was very, very moist, with lots of yummy spice flavoring, and sweet without being too sweet. It also used relatively little oil, and is fairly healthy (at least, I think that's the word I'm looking for...it's a little foreign around these parts.) However, it is very dense, especially the bottom part of the loaf, and a litte too gummy.

Overall, it was is fairly good. Personally, I prefer my breads to by a little lighter and cake-y, but this recipe isn't bad.

Enjoy!

Monica and Caroline

Click here for the printer-friendly recipe.

Zucchini Bread

Recipe from

C

hocolate and Carrots

Yields: 1 loaf

Ingredients

½ cup sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

½ cup whole wheat flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

1 cup finely shredded zucchini

½ cup reduced fat milk

¼ cup oil

2 tablespoons lemon zest

1 egg

For the glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
3. In another bowl, mix together the zucchini, oil, milk, lemon zest, and egg.
4. Mix the dry and wet ingredients together.
5. Pour the batter into a loaf pan and bake for about 55 minutes. Allow to cool.
6. Mix together the powdered sugar and lemon juice for the glaze. Pour over the loaf.