Zucchini Bread

I finally got around to shredding the last of the giant zucchini that a friend of mine gave me -- I still haven't used it all of course, but I have shredded it.

I found this version of zucchini bread on Use Real Butter, one of my favorite sites for her commentary and pictures, and of course her recipes. I did adapt the recipe a bit since her version didn't have any spices in it, and I love some cinnamon and nutmeg to go with my zucchini. I love the texture and visual appeal of this bread -- much lighter looking and attractive than the earlier version I made. This version also won the flavor and texture competition as well -- light and moist and wonderful -- I had several people tell me this was the superior version of the two I made a couple weeks apart.

I would link to my other post about zucchini bread, but uh... it seems like I didn't get around to posting it. Which is kind of funny 'cause this is the third time I've made zucchini bread in about 3 weeks... The only excuse I have is the long hours at work. I've managed to keep continue baking with the long shifts, but the blogging has taken a bit of a hit.

My only "problem" with the recipe is really more of a quibble than anything else -- she didn't give a pan size, but after seeing how much batter there was it was pretty obvious that it made a 9x2 inch loaf.



Adapted from Use Real Butter
3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup veggie oil
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsps cinnamon
1 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
1 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a 9x2 pan.

Beat eggs in a mixer until light and foamy. Add sugar and vanilla extract and mix well. Next add zucchini and oil and mix some more. In a separate bowl mix the dry ingredients then slowly add them to the liquid ingredients. Fold in the chopped nuts (I used walnuts).

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake about 60 minutes, although it might take longer. Also, you might want to rotate the pan partway through -- my oven appears to have a hot spot which causes the bread to get a bit overly brown (okay, black) in spots.