Yes, I know there are hundreds of zucchini bread recipes out there all claiming to be moist and delicious. But this recipe really does yield a most delicious and moist zucchini bread, one filled with raisins and toasted walnuts and enhanced with a generous teaspoon of cinnamon. The result is a zucchini bread perfect for breakfast (with a schmear of cream cheese), as a mid-day snack (with or without a schmear of cream cheese), or a before bed treat (definitely without the schmear of cream cheese).
The recipe makes two beautiful loaves. One for keeping, one for giving away. I am not big on freezing baked goods, with the exception of chocolate chip cookies. But I have known people who freeze loaves of zucchini bread. With a recipe is as simple as this one, and after having a taste of it warm, you might reconsider freezing a loaf.
The farm stand and road side stands are filled with beautiful zucchini now, making them a perfect end of summer, beginning of fall vegetable to cook, bake or make pickles with. And if you have friends how grew zucchini in their gardens, they are probably looking to give their bountiful harvest away. Which you can turn around and regift to them in the form of a freshly baked loaf of bread. The perfect win-win!
This zucchini bread calls for three cups of shredded zucchini. Depending on the size of the zucchinis you have, you will need anywhere from two to three of them. No peeling necessary as the skins remain on the zucchini when you grate them, adding bits of color to the finished bread. I used a hand grater to shred the zucchini but you can easily grate in your food processor.
Many zucchini breads have nuts in them, but not many of them have raisins. Whether you use golden or dark raisins or a combination of the two will not matter. The sweetness of the dried raisins further transforms this bread from ordinary into extraordinary.
All of dry ingredients, including the shredded zucchini, chopped toasted walnuts and raisins are mixed together in a large bowl. However, I like to first mix together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon before adding in the zucchini, raisins, and chopped walnuts.
In a separate bowl you will mix together three eggs, two teaspoons of vanilla and one cup of vegetable oil until well combined. You can mix the wet ingredients with a hand mixer or a whisk. When the eggs, vanilla and oil is thorough combined, you pour over the dry ingredients and stir using a wooden spoon until well blended. The result will be a very dense, thick batter.
The recipe makes two loaves of bread if you are using 5x9 inch pans. If you line the pans with parchment paper the breads will be so easy to remove from the pan. When having to divide batter between two pans I like to weigh them on my kitchen scale so that both loaves come out looking exactly the same. Equally important is that your baking time will also be the same for both loaves. In 5x9 inch pans at 350 degrees these loaves will bake anywhere from 55 to 65 minutes. I recommend you check them for doneness at 50 minutes, just in case your oven runs a little hot.
Recipe
Zucchini Bread (several adaptations to the Aunt Rose Zucchini Bread recipe shared by Dom DeLuise in his cookbook Eat This It'll Make You Feel Better)
Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar, plus some additional for sprinkling on top of loaves
3 cups shredded, unpeeled zucchini (2-3 zucchini will yield this amount)
1 cup raisins (golden or dark)
1 cup walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped
1 heaping teaspoon Saigon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 large eggs, room temperate
1 cup vegetable oil
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F) and line two 5x9 inch loaf pans with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl first mix in the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon. Stir to combine. Then stir in shredded zucchini, raisins and nut. Mix to blend.
3. In a separate bowl, mix the eggs, vanilla and oil using a hand mixer or whisk.
4. Pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients and stir until thorough mixed.
5. Equally divide the batter into the two loaf pans (unless you have a really good eye, suggest you weigh them).
6. Optional: top loaves with a sprinkling of granulated sugar
7. Bake for 55-65 minutes until done. Use a cake tester or toothpick to test for doneness.
8. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack.
While fall is not yet officially here, September has already had a few sunny, crisp days. Without a doubt, the fall is my absolutely most favorite season and not just because my birthday falls in it (although that would be a good enough, slightly narcissistic though, reason to love it). No really, the weather (especially those cool perfect sleeping weather nights), the flowers, the changes to the landscape, the autumnal fruits and vegetables and of course, the holidays (Halloween and Thanksgiving) are all of the reasons that make me love this season more than the others.
As I was driving the other day, the apple orchard/pumpkin farm had it's 'open' sign up. It may be a little too early, but I can hardly wait to fill the window boxes and decorate the porch with pumpkins. Of course, not the deep orange pumpkins, but the white, green and pale orange ones. And when combined with the flowering kale, they add such a great feel to the farmhouse here. Let's see how long I can wait until I go shopping for pumpkins. My guess is that it won't be too long.
