Whole Wheat Zucchini Bread and a Farewell to Summer

by Katya Simkhovich

And before I could even bake my third zucchini filled delicacy, the zucchini season was over.  Alas, we gardeners in New England are doomed to a temperamentally short time period in which to enjoy the fruits (and zucchinis) of our labor and alas, we must begin to bid the ephemeral summer months a sad farewell.  Looking forwards, the winter months have never seemed bleaker.  How can I ever go back to tomatoes shipped from who knows where in the dead of winter and $6.99 boxes of baby spinach?

Anyhow, enjoy yet another recipe for zucchini bread as I go sob in a corner.

Whole Wheat Zucchini Bread from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking

Ingredients

  • 2 cups white whole wheat flour
  • 1 cup unbleached bread flour
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 2 large eggs
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini
  • 1/2 cup raisins (I left these out, I’m not exactly the most die-hard raisin aficionado)
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (used toasted pecans instead – a decision I will never regret)
  • 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
Preparation
  1. Preheat oven to 350 F.  Lightly grease and flour a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.
  2. Whisk together the flours, sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg in a large bowl.  Whisk the eggs, milk, and oil in a small bowl or large mixing cup.
  3. Stir into the dry ingredients until everything is evenly moistened; stir in the zucchini, raisins (nahhh), walnuts (pecans, actually), and lemon zest.
  4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.  Bake for 1 hour.  Check the top, if it’s wet looking and wobbles when you touch it, tent the bread loosely with foil and bake until a cake tester (aka a toothpick) in the center comes out clean, 10 to 15 minutes more (this will depend on how many zucchinis you are desperately trying to use up as you add what you figured could be 1 1/2 cups of zucchini if you steamrolled it)
  5. Remove the bread from the oven and cool in the pan for 15 minutes before taking it out of the pan and putting it on a rack to finish cooling completely.
Now if only making zucchini bread were as easy as saying goodbye to summertime.
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