Saturday, July 31, 2010

Midnight Baking...

The garden has produced some lovely zucchini this summer. Some of them are as long as my forearm and are bigger around. (It's true that I have skinny arms, but this shouldn't diminish the ample girth of my beautiful zucchinis! They are whoppers!) I've braised, broiled, boiled, blanched, roasted, sauteed, stir-fried and even stuffed them. But I haven't made zucchini bread yet. That is, until now.

Unfortunately, my kitchen saw a casualty this evening while preparing the zucchini bread. My beloved hand-mixer beat its last egg. Apparently the recipe I used is a "spatula only" recipe, because at one point the batter got so thick and gummy that the beaters refused to spin. And with a spark and smelly black smoke, that was the end of Sir Mix-a-lot. Luckily it wasn't a fancy brand and can be inexpensively and easily replaced.

The bread itself turned out wonderfully! I did make a few changes to the recipe. Instead of using grated un-peeled zucchini, I used peeled zucchini. (I had it in the fridge and didn't want it to go to waste.) My loaves came out a little lighter in color than they normally would have been if the skins had been included. I was also running low on walnuts, so I substituted half the portion with toasted pecans. The difference is subtle, but pleasant. I also added some golden raisins and sweetened coconut flakes. These two additions remind me of the holiday loaves my mom used to bake when we were little. She'd turn the kitchen into a factory and bake dozens of loaves. We'd eat it for breakfast, carry it in our lunches, have it as an after-school snack, eat it for dessert AND we'd spread the love by giving it away as gifts. I remember those aluminum foil-covered bricks fondly. I found the consistency of my loaves nice and dense (the way I like them), while maintaining a satisfying moistness. I can't wait to toast this in the morning for breakfast and smear some butter and cream cheese all over the hearty slices.

13 comments:

Kokopelli said...

Would you mind to share the whole receipe? The zucchinis grow like hell this year.

Alice said...

Sounds heavenly! I love zucchini bread but don't get the pleasure of eating it very often.

Cristi Baxter Clothier said...

Yummy! I add chocolate chips to my zuchinni bread sometimes.

Trish said...

I love reading about your culinary endeavours and your descriptions are fantastic! You could write a wonderful cook book - between the delicious recipes, gorgeous photographs and descriptions, it would surely be a huge seller! Of course this doesn't take into account all of the other thousand of things that you are accomplished at doing! Your blog always makes me hungry - either to eat or to bead - Thanks Andrew!

SueBeads said...

Cool! Also, at least I'm not the only one up at 1:30 am these days!

Jeannie said...

I should give you my mommy's recipe for chocolate zucchini bread.

Raida said...

That wonderful bread loaf reminded me I need to find my recipe for mango bread I promised my husband. Our trees are full of them. I've never had zucchini bread I'll have to look up a recipe for it.

Cindy said...

Your zucchini bread looks yummy...I love to bake as well. I've never tried it with cream cheese, but that's a wonderful idea!

belvedere beads said...

I made some this week too - but I used yellow squash, golden raisins, bits of dried apricots and cashews. It was like a loaf of sunshine.

Courtney Breul said...

YUM! I love fresh zucchini bread! It is also good if you grate it and create zucchini "hash browns'.

Darcy Marshall said...

oo this sounds so good, over here in the UK we call them courgettes. i have used them to make cake before, courgette and pistacchio, but never bread.

Speaking of garden produce, I have a lavender scone recipe on my blog.

Unknown said...

Yum, yum, yum! I love zucchini bread.

Shai Williams said...

That looks so yummy! I am so looking forward to next year when I will be able plant a garden and grow zucchini!