�You could make zucchini bread.�
�You could make zucchini bread.�� Those were Madame�s parting words the other day as she left for work.� I looked at the large zucchini sitting on the counter.
I smiled and sighed. �Waiting in the garden were two more.� (And this is in spite of the squash vine borers!). �Zucchini is wonderful, but it is also very unforgiving if you get even the slightest bit behind in eating it.
My young assistants and I were waiting for their two young friends to arrive.� Every week a friend of mine and I take turns swapping our kiddos so we can each get some things done, and the kids enjoy it too, it�s a win-win!
I began looking at different recipes, hoping to find one that used honey in place of sugar*.� I found a few but none appealed to me.� In the end I made up my own, loosely based on the�Joy of Cooking�s version. �The other boys arrived and after they had played for a while my young assistant and his friend helped me do all the dumping of various ingredients, stirring, and licking of the utensils. �We waited and then ate most of the bread while it was still warm. �And that was before lunch� woops.
Zucchini Bread
- � cup all-purpose flour
- � cup whole wheat flour
- � tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1+ tsp. cinnamon
- � tsp. nutmeg
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 2 eggs
- � cup oil
- � cup honey*
- 2 cups grated zucchini, squeezed to remove water
- � cup chopped walnuts (optional but recommended)
- � cup (or more) chocolate chips (also optional, but in reality you know they�re not optional)
- Preheat oven to 350.� (Or don�t preheat�just know that you�ll need to turn the oven on at some point.)
- Mix together the dry ingredients in one bowl.
- Mix together the wet ingredients in another.
- Mix the two bowls� contents together.
- Dump the mixture into one normal sized bread loaf pan, or two smallish ones.
- Bake for 40 minutes (30 minutes for the small pans) and check by inserting a toothpick or your finger (probably a better idea to go with the toothpick).� Bake 5 minutes longer if it sticks heavily to the toothpick.
- Allow the bread to cool a bit and then eat it!
And now, get moving, there are bees working hard to make more zucchinis!
*As an experiment we split our recipe in half and made one loaf with 1/4 cup sugar and the other with 1/4 cup of honey. �Interestingly there was very little difference between the two sweeteners. � That�s why for the recipe I�ve posted here I just said to use 1/2 cup of honey, it works great! �But of course you could just substitute 1/2 cup of sugar, or possibly other sweeteners.
July 31, 2013 @ 8:24 am
That must be a squash bee in that flower! It�s only squash bees that pollinate squash plants � bumblebees don�t do any of the work. I just find it super interesting that specific foods have their own specific pollinators. They did a study on pollinating squash with colonies of honey bees, and those aren�t nearly as effective as squash bees. I love evolution. There�s your interesting bee fact for the day: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squash_bee
July 31, 2013 @ 2:34 pm
That�s awesome. It seems that squash has a number of insects that have coevolved with it, since there are also the squash vine borer, as well as several beetles associated with the squash plants. I didn�t know about the squash bees though so that�s pretty cool that something good has aligned itself with the squash plants. Thanks for the info, Sylvie!
August 1, 2013 @ 12:15 pm
Jon, your pictures are really great! and that bread looks delicious.
August 1, 2013 @ 12:30 pm
Thanks, Sarah! That�s very lovely of you to say so. Along with your chocolate espresso zucchini cake, we�ve been loving zucchini in baked goods!
August 1, 2013 @ 7:44 pm
You know how i love beautiful things, your photos are awesome. I just love the way the colours are blending on that table and the zucchini bread by the look of ingredients, must be very tasteful, plus it has honey, one of my favourite ingredients and walnuts. I have bookmarked this recipe. Thanks for sharing.
I like the idea of kiddo swapping, it does give someone a break and those Zucchini flowers a friend of mine made some fried zucchini blossoms and they looked great. Thanks for popping by and best wishes to your family!
August 1, 2013 @ 11:12 pm
Thanks, Liz! Very kind words 🙂
The walnuts are from Grimo Nut Nursery in Niagara on the Lake, and it�s an awesome place to visit if you�re ever down there.
And interestingly enough, my kiddo-swapping-parent-friend made some fried zucchini blossoms recently and blogged about it! They did look great, and I keep meaning to do it myself.
Thanks for stopping by and y�all have a great weekend too!
August 2, 2013 @ 10:13 am
This bread looks delicious! I�ll have to try it soon. I love zucchini bread, and if I add in chocolate the hubby might even eat it (would have to leave out the walnuts, though. According to him, they �taste like wood chips�. What is wrong with his palate? Also, I second everyone else, the pictures are gorgeous!
August 2, 2013 @ 10:14 am
PS- if you still need more ways to use up zucchini, I can send you my recipe for ratatouille.
August 2, 2013 @ 12:57 pm
Hey Kate, yes please to the ratatouille recipe! And thank you for the nice words 🙂
That�s funny about the walnuts, I can�t say I relate to that but I�m glad he and I see eye to eye on the merits of Anthony�s Pizza�. Anyways, if the zucchini bread doesn�t work out with him try the zucchini espresso chocolate cake that I linked in the comment above, it�s incredible. Either way, the truth is the zucchini just disappears in all these recipes!
August 3, 2013 @ 10:09 am
Yum, looks delicious! Love the shot of the bee!
Sophia 🙂
August 3, 2013 @ 10:21 am
Thanks, Sophia! Yeah, I thought the bee was a cutie. Although I was a little bit apprehensive about him being in the house�.
August 3, 2013 @ 4:19 pm
Oh yeah, I wouldn�t be so excited about that, but would definitely snap a photo, too!
August 8, 2013 @ 4:07 pm
Right! I had to move somewhat quickly�.
August 5, 2013 @ 2:21 pm
Zucchini bread was one of my favourite treats growing up. My nana would make it around this time of year when there were too many zucchinis. My brother and I were always happy to eat the bread. Your recipe looks so similar to hers!
August 8, 2013 @ 4:02 pm
Hey Amber,
Yeah, there seems to be a lot of overlap with these recipes. My focus was finding a way to make it 100% local (well, not counting the baking soda etc). And yes, it seems like the whole point is to see how many places zucchini can be placed besides neighbour�s porches�
August 6, 2014 @ 8:26 pm
I know this is forever old, but zucchini time is close at hand again, and you may need another suggestions whispered in your ear: Zucchini Fritters� Mmmmm