Whole Wheat Zucchini Bread and a Farewell to Summer

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.

Lemon Blueberry Bundt Cake

Alas, summer is coming to an end.  And yet I feel like it never began.  The day after school ended I had to pack my bags and move into a dorm room to take Philosophy and Essay Writing for the next seven weeks.  Although I met the most amazing people I have yet encountered in my life and learned more than I thought was possible in seven weeks and discovered my wild side, there was a severe lack of beach-going, swimming, cold watermelon, s’mores by a campfire, homemade ice cream, berry-picking, slacking off and feeling like a bum, tanning in the summer sun, and my grandmother’s garden-fresh vegetables.  And after seven weeks of writing essays, listening to three-hour lectures, running around campus to find a place with a printer AND a stapler, and sweating like a madwoman in our un-air-conditioned dorm rooms I returned home for only a week before I had to pack my bags again and leave for California for my last three college visits.  I’d like to add I am SO DONE with college visits.  Twenty college visits has been more than enough for me to get a feel for colleges across the country.  They’ve all started to meld together into one large blob of brick buildings, core curriculums, dorms, and sports facilities.  But here I am, back home for one last week full of meetings and summer-reading and unfortunate rain and cold weather and stuffing my face with chocolate chip cookies before school starts. Don’t get me wrong, it’s been a great summer.  It just doesn’t really classify as summer in my mind.

But this cake, it tastes likes summer.  The bright lemon flavor will blind out the rain you might see falling outside your window.  The bright, juicy bursts of blueberry scream summertime.  And the sweet tanginess of the glaze reminds one that life is sweet, although it might be a little tangy sometimes.  Just like my summer.  It’s been a lot more hard-work than I had ever expected to do during the summer time.  Yet that work was balanced out with the sweetness of what a great time I had meeting people of so many ethnicities and personalities in the freedom and fun of a college setting.  But regardless of what your summer was like, if you’re in need of a taste of summer, this cake IS summer.

Blueberry Lemon Bundt Cake – thank you Baking Addiction, for reminding me that summer exists.

For the Cake:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus 1 teaspoon for blueberries and zest – I used half white whole wheat and half all purpose
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup sour cream – I used light sour cream
• 2 cups blueberries
• 2 tablespoons grated lemon zest
• juice of one lemon
• nonstick cooking spray, for pan

For the Cream Cheese Glaze:

• 1 (4-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 tablespoon butter, softened
• 2 cups confectioner’s sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon milk

Directions for the Cake:

*For best results, coat the inside of the Bundt pan with cooking spray just before filling it with the batter to prevent it from pooling in the bottom.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a bowl, whisk 2 1/2 cups flour with baking powder and salt; set aside.
2. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars on high speed until light and fluffy.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until incorporated.  Beat in vanilla and lemon juice.
4. Reduce speed to low; add flour mixture in three addictions, alternating with two additions of sour cream.
5. In a bowl, toss blueberries and zest with remaining teaspoon flour; gently fold into batter.
6. Coat a 12-cup non-stick Bundt pan with cooking spray.  Spread batter in prepared pan.
7. Bake cake on bottom rack of oven until a toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean, 60 to 70 minutes.  Cool in pan 20 minutes.  Invert onto a rack; cool completely, top side up.  Dist with confectioner’s sugar before serving or drizzle with cream cheese glaze.

Directions for the glaze:

1. Mix the cream cheese with the butter, confectioner’s sugar, vanilla extract, and milk in a bowl.
2. Heat in a microwave for 10-15 seconds.
3. Drizzle spoonfuls over the cooled cake.