Our neighbor has some great zucchini this year and even the big ones are good for zucchini bread. I decided to challenge myself and find a recipe in one of my cookbooks. Not so easy! But, as usual, Silver Palate had a great one.
I adjusted the recipe a bit - you will see below.
- 3 T of sweet cream butter to grease the baking dishes.
- 3 large eggs
- 1-1/4 cups cooking oil (Canola)
- 1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract (I used vanilla paste)
- 2* cups grated unpeeled raw zucchini
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsps baking soda
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp. ground cloves
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Cream the oil and sugar for several minutes on high speed to dissolve the sugar into the oil. Add the eggs and cream some more until the lemony color is consistent. Add the vanilla. (You could also add another extract like black walnut.)
*I grated the zucchini a few days before and refrigerated it. I pressed it through a sieve and poured off the liquid. I used about 4 cups raw zucchini in this process or 2 cups compressed grated, drained zucchini. Fold the zucchini into the egg/sugar/oil/vanilla.
Blend the dry ingredients before folding into the wet.
Pour into a buttered bread loaf pan. I found that the batter filled one bread pan and 2 smaller loaves.
I baked the smaller loaves (in waxed "paper" pans) for 30 minutes. I baked the terra-cotta loaf pan for about one hour, testing it every five minutes after about 45 minutes for doneness.
I always take the loaves out of the hot loaf pan right away and cool on a rack. Not so with paper pans - they cool perfectly.
Delicious moist loaves. Gerry loves them with butter and 15 minutes in the microwave.
This Silver Palate Cookbook has a great recipe for apricot raisin bread in it's Best Breads chapter.