Monday, July 28, 2014

Zucchini Spice Bread & Muffins


This recipe immediately tastes like my childhood.  I remember growing so many zucchinis in our garden, we didn't know what to do with them all.  This was one of my mom's favorite ways to use it up.  So, this instantly makes me think of her.  I've taken her recipe and tweaked it a bit to make it my own.  I think she'd be proud.  :-)

INGREDIENTS:
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/4 tsp ground ginger
  • 1/8 tsp cloves
  • 3 eggs (or 3 "flax eggs")
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 cups white sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2-3 cups grated zucchini
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts
  • 1/2 cup raisins or dried cranberries


 DIRECTIONS:
  1. Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch pans (or fill muffin tins with paper liners). Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
  2. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and spices together in a bowl (basically all dry ingredients except the sugar).
  3. Oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Beat in one egg at a time.  Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. (It will seem too thick at first.)  Stir in zucchini until well combined. Stir in nuts and raisins/cranberries.  Pour batter into prepared pans.
  4. Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.
  5. For muffins: You'll do everything the same, just bake for 15-25 mins depending on the size of your muffins.  Fill your cups about 2/3 of the way.

NOTE:  The bake time on this varies greatly on several factors (type of pan used, whether your oven runs hot, the moisture content of your zucchini, etc.)  So please just keep an eye on it and it'll be done when it starts to lightly crack on top and a knife or tooth pick comes out clean.

Also, you can tweak these to make them a bit healthier by using flax, applesauce, increasing baking powder, and adding less or no eggs.  I've done this recently, and it turned out well.  I didn't really measure for that one, though.  :-)