Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Zucchini Bread


Zucchini bread. One of the simple but super tasty desserts. It has that no - nonsense, country farmhouse look to it. Make a double batch, throw in some extra grated vegetables and nuts, and you've got some healthy muffins as well, with almost no extra time being added.

When I'm baking for our family, and I know it's primarily going to be my own kids eating what I'm making, I almost always substitue whole wheat flour for white flour. Sometimes this dramatically changes the taste, but more often than not, it simply boosts the dense and moist factor, which is generally a bonus in baked goods anyhow.


I begin with an average Zucchini Bread recipe, and then double it. Any zucchini bread recipe will do, as long as it is standard. Something along the lines of this

3 cups all-purpose flour (6)
1 teaspoon salt (2)
1 teaspoon baking soda (2)
1 teaspoon baking powder (2)
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon (6)
3 eggs (6)
1 cup vegetable oil (2)
2 1/4 cups white sugar (4)
3 teaspoons vanilla extract (6)
2 cups grated zucchini (4)
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Once this is mixed, I will put roughly half of the mixture into two greased and floured loaf pans. With about half the mixture left, I will throw in some extra healthy stuff. In this case I grated a couple more carrots, threw in three large handfuls of sunflowers seeds, and put in about a cup of raisins.




Mix in in the new additions. Fill some medium paper-lined muffin tins about 2/3rds full. Bake the muffins in a pre-heated (325 degrees) oven for about 20 minutes, the loaves for about 50 minutes. And in almost no extra time, with no extra dishes to wash, using the same base ingredients, you've got twice the amount of baking done.


Enjoy!!