Zucchini Bread

Here in Maryland, gardens are turning out bushels of zucchinis.  I was fortunate to be given one by a nice couple in my church that was big enough to club someone to death with.  I have never seen one that big, and I regret that I didn't get a picture of it before we attacked it like wolverines.  The problem was that I didn't have any recipes requiring zucchini.  My friend Marina was nice enough to send me a recipe for Zucchini Bread that she had found on AllRecipes.com, and it turned out to be a real winner.

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
3 tsp cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil (I said that it was tasty, not that it was good for you)
2 1/4 cups sugar
3 tsp vanilla
2 cups grated zucchini (1 decent-sized zucchini)
1 cup chopped walnuts

Start out by greasing and flouring 2 8x4" loaf pans.  These are the normal-sized ones, so don't feel the need to get your ruler out.  I actually chose to go with 4 smaller pans for this, since my husband and I can't go through a whole loaf of bread before it goes stale.  The pan is made by Wilton, and you can probably find it at about any store that sells cake decorating stuff such as Michaels.  I also opted to use Pillsbury's "Baking" spray, which is basically grease and flour in a can.  Trust me, this worked just as well and is by far easier and less messy than the old method.

Sift together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon (basically all of the dry ingredients except sugar). I have recently been using a new sifter.  It is just a fine wire mesh strainer that I picked up at Bed, Bath, and Beyond and I really prefer it to my old one with the hand crank.  The only problem is cleaning all of those tiny holes.  The hand-cranked ones were also hard to clean and it took much longer to get the ingredients through them.  Just beat this one against the side of your hand and it is done.

In another bowl, beat the eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together, then gradually add the dry ingredients.  Beat it well.  It deserves it.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones and mix well.  Now its time for the star of the show, the zucchini.  I like to just wash it, whack the ends off, and feed it through the food processor with the shredder disk on it.  Done and done in about 10 seconds.  If you don't have a food processor with a shredder disk, feel free to spend about 6 hours manually shredding it.  I weep for you.

I decided not to peel the zucchini because the peel is a good source of dietary fiber and besides, you will never know that its in there.  In case you're wondering, zucchini is also high in potassium, vitamin A, vitamin C, the B complex vitamins, and folate and is low in calories.

I had no earthly idea how many zucchinis to buy to equal two cups, so I ended up shredding 2 medium-sized ones.  That yielded about twice as much as I needed, so I simply froze the other half.  Now the next time that I want to make this bread I will have pre-shredded zucchini that was in season, all ready to go.

Stir your shredded zucchini and the nuts into the batter.  Pour it into the prepared pans and stick it in the oven.  My recipe says to bake it for 40-60 minutes, but it took 60 minutes in the mini pans, so expect at least an hour for full-sized loaves.  Basically leave it in there until a toothpick comes out clean.

When it comes out of the oven, leave it in the pan but put the pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes or so before you take it out.  Then you can remove it in one piece.  It will still need to cool a bit, so you will have to continue to be patient.

This bread is so tasty that my picky toddler will even eat it for breakfast, which is practically a miracle since he seems to be living on crackers and air most of the time.  We ate one of the four loaves in the first few days and wrapped the others up for the freezer.  It freezes extremely well in case you want to get ahead on your holiday baking.  Just wrap it up tightly in Saran wrap, then in aluminum foil.

If, like me, you are looking for a good use for zucchini, or if you simply want to try something that is good-tasting but has sneaky veggies inside, try this out.