Orange Poppyseed Zucchini Bread

Okay, so I know I said I couldn't make zucchini bread anymore this year because I used all the zucchini. I had frozen some, but I figured when I thawed it, it would be too juicy for bread. Turns out, it works amazingly well. I had chopped it finely in my food processor before freezing, so when I thawed it, all I had to do was let it sit and drain a while, pressing it every now and then. It actually might have worked a bit better than fresh zucchini, because I was able to squeeze most of the liquid out.

This bread is from Eat Cake For Dinner blog, and it was pretty good. I didn't follow her recipe exactly, of course, mostly because I wanted to use a whole orange. It turned out really well, but next time, I might add a bit more sugar since I didn't add glaze, and DEFINITELY a bit of almond extract, as it seemed like it would have been really good with the addition (like lemon poppyseed bread, but orangey). Also, if you have orange extract, you  might add a few drops, as the orange was a bit hard to taste in this.

Ingredients:
1.5 c. whole wheat pastry flour
.5 c. all purpose flour
 2 tsp. aluminum-free baking powder  
1 1/2 Tbl. poppy seeds
2 large eggs  
1/2 c. coconut oil, in liquid form (if it's solid, melt in the oven while it heats up)  
1/3 c. sugar (I'd use 1/2 c. next time)  
1 whole organic orange with the peel on
1/3 c. plain yogurt  
1 c. grated zucchini, squeeze some liquid out if possible

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  
Oil one loaf pan and set aside. 
Leaving the skin on, cut the orange in quarters and remove seeds. In a food processor or blender (or Ninja), blend until pulpy and finely chopped.
In a medium bowl whisk together the flours, baking powder, and poppy seeds
In a separate bowl whisk the eggs with a hand mixer until thick and lemon colored.  
Add the coconut oil and sugar and mix briefly with mixer to combine.  
Beat in the shredded orange, yogurt, and zucchini. 
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir together just until combined.  Do not overmix.  
Pour into loaf pan & bake for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (It took 1 hr in my oven and cooked perfectly, but my oven is a bit slow).
Remove from oven and cool in pan 10 minutes. Invert to a wire rack and cool further. We like our bread warm, so I never cool it completely as the directions say. We ate this with cream cheese for breakfast and it was a big hit. It would have made excellent muffins as well. Just a hint of sweetness and orange flavor. Not at all overpowering, and definitely not a dessert. Some of the zucchini breads I've made have been cake, but this was not. Would be good with glaze (see original recipe for a glaze recipe) or frosting (I made an orange-cream cheese frosting for it so we could use it as dessert the second time).

My improvised Orange Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 block cream cheese
2 tbsp. honey
1/4 tsp. almond extract
2 tbsp. orange juice

Soften cream cheese and mix all ingredients with a hand mixer until smooth.

Apple Carrot Zucchini Bread

 I am officially out of zucchini, but I had one small summer squash left, so I managed to squeeze out one more zucchini bread recipe!

 

• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 c. organic sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 c. whole wheat pastry flour 
• 1/2 c. all-purpose flour  
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1-2 tsp cinnmamon
• pinch of ground cloves
• pinch of ground nutmeg
• 1 cups shredded carrots
• 1/2-1 cup shredded zucchini or yellow squash
• 1/2 cup diced, peeled apple
• 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped 

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease and flour an 8x4 inch loaf pan.
3. Blend butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla together.
4. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg together.
5. Fold dry ingredients into wet along with carrots, squash, apples, and pecans.
6. Pour into prepared pans.
7. Bake until golden brown, approximately 1 hour, or until toothpick or knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Flaming Pears

I thought I saw this recipe in a cookbook, but then I couldn't find it. So I kind of winged it.

For this, I used:
About 1 lb pears, peeled and sliced
2 tbsp organic butter
2 tbsp organic sugar
rum

1. Melt butter in skillet.
2. Add pears and sprinkle with sugar.
3. Cook, stirring occasionally, until pears are soft and liquid has evaporated, 10-20 minutes.
4.  Pour rum over pears, light on fire, and let the alcohol burn off.
5. Serve while hot, with ice cream or cream.

Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread

 Today I made my very last zucchini bread of the year *sob.* I had a cup of leftover zucchini from the lemon blueberry bread I made, so I used it to make The Charm of Home's chocolate zucchini bread, since my last one was such an epic failure. Somehow, I hadn't made a chocolate one all summer after that, even though I love chocolate zucchini cake. Now that it's winter, I'm in more of a chocolate mood, so I chose this recipe out of all the delicious looking ones left on the list of 50. Below is the recipe for a whole loaf (I made a half-sized mini loaf).

Ingredients

2 large eggs

1/4 c honey
1/2 c coconut oil, in liquid form
1/2 c organic sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon non-aluminum baking powder
1/3 c cocoa powder (I use Hershey's Special Dark b/c it's more chocolatey)

1 c all-purpose flour
2/3 c. whole wheat flour
2 c shredded zucchini
1 c chocolate chips, save 1/4 cup for sprinkling on top of bread

Instructions:
Prepare a loaf pan & preheat oven to 350.
Combine in a mixing bowl eggs, honey, oil, sugar, vanilla
Add flours, baking soda, baking powder, and cocoa powder and stir to combine
Add zucchini and chocolate chips and mix well.
Pour into loaf pan and spread 1/4 chocolate chips on top
Bake 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. 
Remove from oven and cool 15 minutes
Remove from pan and cool completely on a rack. I like the chocolate chips still melty, so I always eat it warm. 


This turned out really well! I would definitely  make it again. It tasted like my mom's from when I was a kid...not all dry and gross like the one I made earlier in the summer.

Lemon Blueberry Zucchini Bread #2

 

 This is probably my last zucchini bread recipe of the year. I have a bit of grated zucchini leftover, though, so I may make a small loaf. I have loved making so many recipes for zucchini bread this year, but sadly, today I grated my very last zucchini, which has been sitting on the counter for months. I thought it might be seedy and hard or bitter, but it was tender and perfect. So I made lemon zucchini bread, which has such a delicate flavor that it needs a perfect zucchini.

I made a lemon blueberry zucchini bread recipe earlier in the year, so this is my second one. It's adapted from The Baker Mama's recipe.

Here is what I used:

Ingredients:

1/3 cup coconut oil, (or use 1 stick butter, softened, which I recommend)
1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 tablespoon lemon zest
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons aluminum-free baking powder
1-1/2 cups shredded zucchini
1-1/2 cups blueberries (I used frozen, but fresh would be great, too!)

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease and flour two 9x5-inch loaf pans. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and beat until well combined. Beat in the yogurt, lemon zest and 2 tablespoons lemon juice until smooth.
3. By hand, mix in the flour, baking powder and salt until just combined.
4. Mix in the zucchini, then blueberries.
5. Divide batter evenly between two prepared pans.
6. Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

I used coconut oil here, which didn't turn out to be the best idea. Coconut oil is either liquid or solid. It's very difficult, if not impossible, so get it 'softened.' So I used it more on the melted side, but it immediately congealed when I added cold ingredients. It was virtually impossible to mix or spread into the loaf pans. So I would definitely use butter for this one! I don't know why I didn't, as I usually only use coconut oil if the recipe calls for cooking oil. Oh, well. Live and learn!

Coconut Lime Zucchini Cake/Bread

I made this with my second-to-last zucchini on the counter, so it very well may be my last zucchini bread recipe of the year. By next year, I'll probably have a new obsession, but I have to say, it's been fun testing out many of the zucchini bread recipes (and eating them, of course) on this list of 50.  This one was for coconut lime zucchini bread, which I admit, sounded a little odd. But, I was getting lemons for the lemon bread, and I remembered there was one with lime, so I grabbed one. And I didn't want to let it go to waste, so....

Ingredients:
2 eggs
3/4 C coconut oil
3/4 C sugar
1 Tbsp lime zest
1 Tbsp lime juice
1 tsp coconut extract
2 C shredded zucchini
1 1/2 C whole wheat pastry flour
1 c. all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 C finely shredded coconut
GLAZE:
1/4 C sugar
2 Tbsp lime juice
1/2 tsp coconut extract
 
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350
In a large mixing bowl, with a hand mixer, mix eggs, oil, sugar, lime zest, lime juice, coconut extract
In a separate bowl, combine flours, baking powder and soda
Gently stir dry ingredients into wet mixture
Stir in the zucchini
Fold in the coconut
Pour into two bread pans, or bread pan and cake pan
Bake 45 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean.
While bread bakes, mix together glaze ingredients
When bread is done, let cool in pan ten minutes, then move to plate.
Pour or brush glaze over bread while still hot.
 
While I liked this bread, the coconut extract was a bit strong for me. I'd probably cut it in half next time. The glaze really made the cake so much better!

Lemon Blueberry Zucchini Bread

This is yet another zucchini bread, this one from Married/Single Parent. She has a recipe for glaze as well, though I skipped that and didn't miss it a bit. This may be my favorite zucchini bread to date, though it's a tough competition with the lemon poppyseed zucchini bread. But this was the first one I've made that was cooked all the way through and not at all gummy. And those blueberries...soooo delicious.

Ingredients:
1 c. white flour
1 c. whole wheat flour (I use whole wheat pastry flour, as it's softer texture)
2 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 c. coconut oil
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. buttermilk
Juice of 1 lemon or 2 tbsp lemon juice
Zest of 1 lemon
1 cup grated zucchini
1 c. blueberries (I used frozen, but fresh would be great too)


Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 35o ⁰F. 
2. Grease and flour a 9×5″ loaf pan, set aside. 
3. In large bowl, blend flour, baking powder.
4. In the mixer bowl beat 2 eggs well. 
5. Then add oil and sugar, and beat on low until well combined. Add the buttermilk, lemon juice and lemon zest and blend everything well. 
6. Fold in zucchini and stir until evenly distributed in mixture. 
7. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients in the large bowl and blend everything together, but don’t over mix. 
8. Stir in blueberries.
9. Pour batter into prepared 9×5″ loaf pan and bake for 55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. I had to bake 1 hr and 15 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes then remove to a wire rack and cool completely.
10. 

The Best Oatmeal Raisin Cookies Ever

I've made a handful of oatmeal raisin cookies over the years, since that's my favorite kind, find recipes everywhere from cookbooks to the top of an oatmeal container. But these are my all-time favorite, adapted from bits here and bits there, and tested many times over.

Ingredients:
1 stick butter
1/2 c. sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c. white flour
1/2 c. whole wheat flour
3/4 c. rolled oats
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 c. raisins
 


Directions:
Preheat oven to 375.
Cream butter in a large mixing bowl.
Gradually add sugar and cream into butter.
Add egg and vanilla and mix well.
In a separate bowl, mix flours, baking soda and cinnamon.
Add to butter mixture and mix well.
Add oatmeal and raisins and mix well.
Form into cookies of desired size on a buttered or nonstick cookie sheet.
Bake 10-12 minutes.

Lemon Poppyseed Zucchini Bread

I've been wanting to make lemon poppyseed cake for ages. It's my all-time favorite cake, and I've never made it. So when I found this recipe on the long list of zucchini bread recipes, I immediately went out and bought a lemon. I stuck it in the door of the refrigerator and promptly forgot about it for about a month. Sadly, when I went to make this, the lemon was a bit dry. So I had to grate the 'zest' on the largest setting of my grater to make anything come off. So, it was more like lemon rind slices than zest, but of course I did not let that deter me.

I've been getting up on Saturday or Sunday morning every week and making one of the zucchini bread recipes for breakfast (although it's usually more like brunch time when we eat it). While I always use whole wheat when baking, this time, I went for the decadent cake I remembered loving so much, so I used only organic white flour. So it was definitely more like dessert than breakfast this time around.

Ingredients 
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2-3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup plain yogurt (or sour cream)
1 cup shredded zucchini
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. almond extract
2 teaspoons poppy seeds

 
Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 325°. Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition.
2. Stir together flour, salt, and baking soda. Add to butter mixture alternately with yogurt, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition. Stir in zucchini and next remaining ingredients. Spoon batter into a buttered loaf pan.
3. Bake at 325° for 40 to 45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. (I had to bake it for 1.5 hrs). Cool in pans on rack 10 minutes, then remove from pan and cool for 30 minutes more.

This bread was probably my favorite of the zucchini bread recipes I've tried so far. It's way better than the ones I've made before. I'm going to add more poppy seeds next time, but other than that, this was sooo good. We just ate it plain, without frosting or cream cheese or butter. It didn't need anything.

Coconut Cookies

 Ingredients:

• 1 stick butter
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 1/4 c. flour (I used 3/4 whole wheat, 1/2 white)
• 1 tbsp. milk/cream
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder 
• 1/2 c. finely shredded coconut

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Cream butter, then add sugar, beating until light
3. Add vanilla, egg, milk and mix thoroughly
4. Mix flour and baking powder, then add to butter mixture and stir to combine
5. Stir in coconut 
6. Arrange by on a cookie sheet and bake 8-12 minutes until golden brown on edges.

 These were pretty good, a basic cookie, a bit plain for me, but good enough. My son liked them and we all ate them in a few days, so they were a success overall. If I made them again, I'd add some spices and maybe raisins to make them more interesting.

Pumpkin Banana Nut Bread

Okay, so you know  how I got all obsessed with putting zucchini in every bread possible after I found the post with 50 zucchini bread recipes? Well, the same blog also has a collection of 50 pumpkin bread recipes. So guess what's coming soon? That's right--I'm testing some of them out!

Of course I failed to use my bananas in time again, so the first recipe I made was Banana Pumpkin Bread.

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/4 cup plain yogurt

1/2 cup organic sugar

2 tablespoons honey

2 large eggs

1 cup pureed pumpkin

1 cup ripe mashed banana (about 2 bananas)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 c, whole wheat flour

1/2 cups white flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup chopped walnuts
 

  1)  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease a loaf pan.

2)  In a large bowl, beat together the oil, yogurt, sugar, honey, eggs, pumpkin, banana, orange juice, and vanilla.

3)  In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.  Sprinkle the walnuts over the top, if using.  Fold the dry ingredients into the banana pumpkin mixture, and mix just until combined.

4)  Spoon the mixture into the prepared bread pan and Bake for 53 - 58 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  (I think there's something wrong with my oven, because I baked it for 1 hour and 40 minutes and a toothpick never came out clean so I finally just took it out)  Remove from the oven and cool on rack in pan for 10 - 15 minutes.  Remove from the pan and continue cooling on rack.  When completely cooled, slice and enjoy, or wrap in plastic wrap and store in fridge overnight. The original says it is better after sitting overnight, but I always like my bread warm. 

 

This one was still gummy even after the crazy amount of baking time, so I think my oven is wrong or I need to drain the bananas after mashing or something! It tasted okay, but I don't think I'm very crazy about pumpkin bread. I may make a few of the recipes on the list, but definitely not as many as the zucchini bread list. My husband and son really like this one, though, and it ended up being eaten up before I got around to making frosting for it, which I'd tentatively planned.

Applesauce Walnut Bread

This is one of the few quick bread recipes in Fannie Farmer that calls for 'fresh' fruit or vegetables. I say that, but in actuality, it doesn't. But since I used fresh apples to make the applesauce for this, it's about as close as Fannie gets. A real disappointment, too, because I love making breads and cakes with fresh fruit or zucchini (that goes without saying at this point, right?)

What wasn't a disappointment was this bread. It was quite delicious, much better than the apple bread I made before. Again, I couldn't taste the apples at all, but my husband took one bite and said, "Wow, you can really taste the applesauce." So I guess my taste buds weren't working right! However, it was still very good, and highly recommended.


For this, I used:

• 1 stick butter
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 c. white flour
• 1 c. whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1 c. applesauce
• 3/4 c. walnut pieces

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 & butter a loaf pan.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar

Add eggs & vanilla and mix well.

In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients. Add to butter mixture and stir to combine well.

Stir in applesauce & walnuts and pour into loaf pan. Bake 55-75 minutes, watching closely at the end. I always have to add extra time to the baking time suggested. I think I cooked this for 60 minutes, maybe 65, and it was perfectly done.

Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

Slice and enjoy. I like mine slightly warm, with butter and perhaps honey.

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Guess where I got this recipe? Off the wonderful collection over on this blog. My goal is to make 10 of them this year, so I'm working my way through. I already made a zucchini banana bread, but I was at my mom's and she asked me to make something from the overripe bananas she had sitting on the counter. Instead of making regular old banana bread, I went to the list and found one I hadn't made. This one calls for Greek yogurt, but I used regular vanilla, since that's what she had. I didn't adapt this one a whole lot, since it's already healthy-ish.

For this, I used:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cups white flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup organic sugar
• 3 large over-ripe bananas, mashed
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup vanilla (or plain) yogurt
• 1 cup zucchini, grated
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

Directions

1. Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl.
2. Mix brown sugar, bananas, eggs, vanilla extract, yogurt, zucchini and chocolate chips in another large bowl.
3. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
4. Pour the mixture into a greased 9x5 inch loaf pan.
5. Bake in a preheated 350F oven until golden brown and a toothpick poked into the center comes out clean, about 60 minutes.