Zucchini Spice Bread

Yay, another zucchini bread! I used the shredded zucchini I froze last summer. Thawed and left in a strainer for a few hours and all the water drains right out!

I have a lot of different types of flours, so I used an assortment for this. If you want to go gluten free, you can substitute for the 1/2 c. of wheat flour and use gluten free flour (I love Bob's all-purpose mix). If you're fine with wheat, just use 1 1/2 c. wheat flour.

This is what I used: 

• 1/2 c. buckwheat flour
• 1/4 c. whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/4 c. organic white flour
• 1/4 c. coconut flour
• 1/4 c. garbanzo flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
•  1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 eggs
•  1/4 cup coconut oil (in liquid form)
•  1/4 cup applesauce, (I used pear sauce), mashed banana or more coconut oil
•  1/3 cup organic sugar
•  1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
•  1 cup grated or shredded zucchini
•  1/2 cup chopped pecans (or walnuts)

This is what I did:

1. Grease and flour a glass 8 x 4 inch pan. 
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 
3. Mix flours, baking powder, soda, cinnamon and nutmeg in medium bowl.
4. Beat eggs, oil, applesauce, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. 
5. Add dry ingredients to the wet ones and mix well. 
6. Stir in zucchini and nuts until well combined. 
7. Pour batter into prepared pans.
8. Bake for 40 to 60 minutes or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. 
9. Cool in pan on wire rack for 20 minutes. 
10. Remove from pan and eat warm or cold with butter, peanut butter, cream cheese or by itself. 

This turned out very dark but tasty. I think it was the buckwheat flour. It also didn't hold together all that well, despite the bit of wheat flour and the eggs. I was hoping that would be enough but it was very crumbly. Despite that, it tasted delicious and everyone enjoyed it. Would definitely make this again.

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.

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. 

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.

Banana Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

Okay, so this is the very last of the banana zucchini bread recipes from the collection of 50 zucchini bread recipes. I don't know why I always end up with overripe bananas, but I do. So now that I've made all the recipes, I guess I better start eating my bananas faster!

This one wasn't much different from the Greek yogurt chocolate chip zucchini bread, but it was okay. It, like most of the recipes, turned out a little gummy. I don't know why I can never get it to rise and stay all puffy like when I first take it out of the oven. This wasn't my favorite, but it was edible.

I used:

3/4 c. whole wheat flour

3/4 Cup All Purpose Flour

1/2 Cups Sugar

1 tsp. Ground Cinnamon

1/2 tsp. Baking Soda

1/2 tsp. Baking Powder

1 Egg

2 Mashed Ripe Bananas

1/2 c. coconut oil

1 tsp. Vanilla Extract

1 Cup Shredded Zucchini

About 2 oz. chopped dark chocolate (or chocolate chips, if you have them)

 

Preheat oven to 350.

In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder

In a small bowl, beat eggs, bananas, oil, and vanilla

Combine wet and dry ingredients and beat until moistened

Add zucchini and mix until combined.

Add chocolate and mix.

Spread in buttered loaf pan.

Bake approximately 60-75 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. I baked mine for 85 minutes and it still came out sort of gummy. Grrr.

 This bread was okay with some butter on it, but Fanny's banana bread is much better.

End of Summer Vegetable Saute with Cheese

This is one of my lazy non-recipes, where I just throw together everything that sounds like it would go good together, smother it with cheese, and eat it in mass quantities. Though I've never used a recipe, I've decided to try to replicate my methods on some of the dishes that I make often but without following a recipe. So if it's not exact, that's because I never measure anything and just throw together most of my old standbys without much thought.

Here's what I used for this one:

• 1 small zucchini
• 1 small yellow crookneck squash
• 1 onion
• 1-2 cloves garlic
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 green bell pepper
• 1 ripe tomato
• 1 c. shredded cheese
• 2-3 tbsp. olive oil
• salt & pepper to taste

Instructions:

1.  Heat olive oil in cast iron skillet
2. Add onion and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently
3. Meanwhile, chop bell peppers & garlic or shred in food processor
4. Add to pan and cook about 3 minutes, stirring frequently
5. Meanwhile, slice zucchini and squash, and chop tomatoes
6. Add to pan, cover, and cook about 10 minutes or until zucchini is tender, stirring occasionally.
7. Remove from heat, add salt & pepper and top with cheese, cover,  and let sit until cheese is melted.

Gluten Free, Grain Free Zucchini Lasagna

Confession: This was actually an impromptu meal that was salvaged from a failed attempt at zucchini ravioli. The person who made the ravioli is way more talented than I am at wielding a grater. After clutching my stand-up grater so tightly I managed to grate half the skin off my thumb on the opposite side while I attempted to wrangle a zucchini through the slotted side, I gave up. I lifted the grated to find a sad little pile of 2-inch long, paper-thin zucchini shreds and a few longer, thicker, choppy pieces.

Soooo not going to be able to make ravioli wrappings with THIS!

This is nothing like the perfectly uniform ravioli-wrapping strips in the pictures. I didn't know what to do at this point, since I'd already started my sauce and had this wonderful ravioli picture in my mind. So I winged it and made lasagna on the fly, without a recipe. I've made regular lasagna enough that I didn't feel too lost as I attempted a noodle-free version. Forging onwards, I set about slicing the zucchini lengthwise with a knife, making the thinnest slices I could, and laid them out for lasagna noodles.

I then discovered we only had about 1/2 c. of cottage cheese and no ricotta (the ravioli didn't have cheese--it was meat/spinach ravioli). Though tempted to give up, I persevered, using the cottage cheese in one layer and meat in the next, layering with sauce and zucchini and cheese as I went.
When it came out of the oven, it didn't look half bad, all layered and pretty, although my pasta-infused Italian blood did not find the zucchini an equal substitute for noodles. However, it really was quite good. If you're gluten-free and used to things like spaghetti squash and other noodles substitutes, I would absolutely recommend this. But I can't honestly say I didn't feel a *little* deprived, knowing what 'real' lasagna tastes like.

For this, I used:
2 tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp. chopped onion (fresh or dried would be fine, or leave this out altogether)
1 c. ground beef or lamb
1 large zucchini (2 small would be fine)
1 c. cottage cheese or ricotta (2 if you like more cheese)
1 egg
1 c. grated mozzerella
1/2 c. parmesan cheese
1 batch of marinara sauce (or 1 jar canned)

1. In a medium skillet, heat oil, then add onion, garlic and ground meat. 
2. Cook over medium heat until pink is gone from meat, then set aside. 
3. Meanwhile cut zucchini lengthwise in as thin strips as possible (or grate on the side that makes strips, if you are a talented grater-user).
4. In a small bowl, beat egg and then stir in cottage cheese or ricotta. You can add a dash of Italian seasoning or other herbs to this if you wish.
5. Put about 1/4 c. marinara sauce in the bottom of an 8x8 baking dish, spreading to cover the bottom of the dish. Then lay out zucchini slices as you would lasagna noodles.
6. Top with half your cottage cheese mixture.
7. 
8. Top that with third of your mozzerella and parmesan
9. Follow with another layer zucchini, then about half your remaining sauce, then the meat, the rest of the cottage cheese, third of mozzerella and parmesan.
10. Top that with your last layer of zucchini, the remaining sauce, the last third of your mozzerella and parmesan.
11. Bake in a 375 oven for about 45 minutes.

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.

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins (or Bread)

 When I was a kid, my mom made chocolate zucchini cake every summer. I still remember exactly how it tastes, unlike any other chocolate cake. I looked up some of the recipes for it on Pinterest, and they are almost all nearly identical. This one was a tiny bit different, as the chocolate chips were supposed to be mixed in and not spread on top of the bread. I didn't have chocolate chips, so I just made these a bit more chocolatey by adding extra cocoa powder, and I made them into muffins instead of bread. Unfortunately, I didn't add extra oil to make up for the dry cocoa powder, and they turned out a bit dry and not very good. Also, I was making these at the same time as I made pancakes for my son, and I got distracted and used all whole wheat, which didn't help any. They tasted really healthy, and not in the good way--kind of like a power bar.

The original recipe, this one from the list of zucchini bread recipes, calls for a brown sugar glaze, but I'm obsessed with cream cheese frosting, so I put it on everything, including these. It still couldn't save them, though.

I used:

• 1 C whole wheat flour (would recommend half white!)
• 1 t cinnamon
• ¾ t baking soda
• 5 T unsweetened cocoa powder
• ¼ C coconut oil
• ½ C organic raw sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 t vanilla
• ¼ C sour cream
• 1½ C grated zucchini
• 

1. Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour a large 9″ bread pan (or muffin tin with cupcake liners) and set aside.
2. Whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and cocoa powder in a small bowl until combined. Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, beat together sugar, oil, and eggs. Add vanilla and sour cream.
4. Fold in the grated zucchini. Add the remaining dry flour ingredients. Stir to combine.
5. Pour into prepared 9″ bread pan or cupcake liners. Bake for 50-60 minutes for bread, 25-30 minutes for muffins, or until a toothpick in the center comes clean.
6. Let cool for about 5-10 minutes and remove from pan. Top with cream cheese frosting if desired. 

It's hard for me to give directions for this, since it was NOT good. Just don't follow my directions, or look for an alternative recipe, or try following the original recipe exactly. All I know is, these hung around on the counter for DAYS, and that's saying a lot for a chocoholic like me. I finally managed to eat them all, just to use them up, because I felt too guilty to throw them out, seeing as they weren't burnt to a crisp or anything (dang, I should have thought of that earlier...)