I thought it was going to be hard to keep up with the tomatoes from Lou’s garden. Somehow I managed to not think about what was going to come from those mutant zucchini plants. But they started producing anyway. So of course I asked the baker of the house to make some zucchini bread.
Ingredients
first bowl
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
second bowl
1 cup sugar
1 cup finely shredded unpeeled zucchini
1/4 cup olive pomace oil
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon finely shredded lemon peel
reserved
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Directions
I’m so glad my wife likes to bake. Because I love baked goods but good grief that’s a lot of ingredients. And 1/4 teaspoons? Man, that’s precise. That’s why doing a good mise en place is really useful when baking.
Once you’ve got everything set out, there’s really not much to this process. Start by pre-heating the oven to 350°. Then combine the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, baking powder and nutmeg in your second-largest bowl.
And stir to combine.
In your largest bowl, combine the sugar, zucchini, lemon, egg and oil, then stir to combine.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and stir until just incorporated.
Coat a loaf pan with butter (or lard) and dust with flour, and pour half the dough into the pan.
Now mix the walnuts into the remaining batter and pour into the pan.
The reason for adding the walnuts halfway through the pour is that the nuts will slowly settle through the batter until it starts to bake. Instead of trying to fight gravity, we just start the nuts higher up in the batter. So when they do sink, they end up evenly distributed through the loaf. (This trick is even more important when making blueberry muffins.)
At this point, the batter is already surprisingly tasty.
Try to get some of it into the oven — for 50-60 minutes, until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Let it cool for 10-15 minutes, then turn the pan over and rap gently to pop it out.
Slice some nice, thick pieces.
Check out how the nuts are not all sunk down to the bottom.
As is, still warm from the oven, is delicious.
But of course, everything’s better with butter.
And that’s it.
I’ll have some shots of the mutant zucchini that went into this tomorrow. Sign up using the form in the column to the right to make sure you don’t miss it.
7 Comments
I discovered your blog yesterday, and have already added you to my Favorites on my blog. Your recipes are easy-to-follow and concise. They’re also quite humorous.
I’m a college student and like to conduct cooking experiments in my kitchen. I have little to no cooking experience, but trust that your recipes will assuage my kitchen-phobia. Your bruschetta pizza recipe is next on my to-do list. I’ll save zucchini bread for the holidays (I’ve been much more successful at baking it seems).
Keep up the good work!
Another good recipe!
I recommend some thyme in there as well, it goes nicely with zucchini (or courgettes)!
I have had not one bite of zucchini this summer.
Let that one sink in.
I think we may be the only people in the country with a garden who don’t grow zucchini. And if I don’t grow it, I’m sure not going to buy it. This means no grilled zucchini, no zucchini fritters, and no zucchini bread. I think we’ll have to have at least one plant next year. I really like zucchini bread. And I REALLY like the idea of adding lemon to it.
Vicky, I’ve got a question for you since you said you’ve been more successful at baking. Why do you think that is? I’m completely the opposite.
Ryan, wouldn’t thyme make it more of a savory? This version is actually quite sweet and fruity.
Kristin, I was surprised at the lemon. I knew I liked my wife’s version, but had no idea there was lemon in it until I saw the mise. (Ooh, lookit me, using trendy foodie lingo picked up from Food Network.)
Hi Drew
Thyme would work well in a savoury loaf, but it is also pretty good in sweet dishes too! Have a look at this one…
http://www.goodcooking.com/recipes/lemcaker.htm
I think I have lemon thyme in the garden, and it does have a real sweetness to it. Sweet flavour, its not especially cute.
I wish I had more time to post on my own blog, I made some courgette and thyme savoury bread recently and have the pics saved to blog about!
Drew, how did you get that copyright message on my reader? I would love to do that.
On the Blogger control panel, go to the Settings tab, Site Feed link. There’s a field for “Post Feed Footer”. Put it there.
Feel free to copy the text from mine, I got it from someone else.