At our previous house, we would garden year-round and I absolutely love planting zucchini. The hubby hated it because it was so vine-y and you’d get little flies all over the plants. Didn’t bother me one bit…the price you pay for owning a garden, I say. This little monstrous gem was the last of my crop for this year. I was so excited to make zucchini bread…one of my faves.
The recipe I used only made one loaf, but I doubled that because I had such a huge zucchini to use. It took SIX eggs.
Mixing of all the dry ingredients.
Shredding zucchini is a chore, but I found a little helper along the way ;-) She is so careful and has never cut herself (something I do almost every time) and I pray she doesn’t. I’m always so scared, but she begs to no end to help out. Must let them grow up sometime and I’m very happy that she loves to help in the kitchen. Her future husband (many, many years down the road) will thank me ;)
The shredded zucchini in all it’s glory. It took FOREVER to shred that beast. I got about 4 1/2 cups.
Crushed walnuts…a must have in any baked bread or cookie. Super healthy for you and as a bonus, you get the crunch factor.
I thought the bread was pretty darn good. Of course, I couldn’t leave the recipe alone and had to do substitutes. It’s what I do people. Here’s the recipe:
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups quick-cooking oats, uncooked
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup sugar (since I didn’t have the full 6 cups of zucchini, I substituted 1 cup of honey for the entire amount of sugar.)
- 1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (I heart cinnamon…so I doubled this)
- 6 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil (I used 1 1/2 c of applesauce)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 6 cups zucchini, shredded (I only had 4 1/2 cups, so I used that)
- 2 cups walnuts, chopped
Directions:
1. Combine the first 8 ingredients in a large mixing bowl; make a well in the center of the mixture. Set aside. (NOTE: Since I substituted honey for the sugar, I did not mix that in b/c honey is obviously not a dry ingredient. Instead, I mixed it in Step #2.)
2. Combine eggs, oil, and vanilla in a bowl; beat with a wire whisk until blended. Stir in honey, zucchini and walnuts. Add to the dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened.
3. Spoon batter into a greased 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove bread from the pan, and let cool completely on a wire rack.
Let me tell you…the loaves are SUPER HEAVY! I thought the recipe was great and will definitely make it again. I liked that it had oatmeal and walnuts in it and by omitting the white sugar and using honey, it made it even healthier. You could definitely eat a slice for breakfast or have it as a snack. If you do use all 6 cups of zucchini and plan on substituting the sugar for honey, I probably wouldn’t use 1 cup (maybe 1/2 – 3/4 c) just because it might add too much moisture to the bread and not bake correctly. Also, when you substitute recipes with applesauce and/or honey, it’s important to keep them refrigerated after baking. They don’t have the preservatives that regular sugar provides and will spoil rather quickly on the counter.
There you have it…a healthy dessert to make on the weekend and enjoy all week long :-)