Serving Up {Bread}: Pumpkin Zucchini Bread

My youngest child started kindergarten this week!!!  I don't think there is anything cuter than watching him walk into the elementary school with his two older brothers.  I watch in the rear view mirror and see three boys - large, medium and small - all walking away from me with their backpacks on their backs and it is stinkin' cute!  One of these days I am going to greatly embarrass the 10-year old by jumping out of the car and taking a photo of them all together.

I mention school, and more specifically kindergarten, because you just never know what your child will learn (or do) at school.  My insight yesterday was more than I wanted to know....my five year old asked me, "how come when you lick the kickball after you have played with it, it tastes bad?"  Seriously???  I cook a lot and you would not believe how difficult it is to get that same 5 year old to take a taste of ANYTHING...but he is licking kickballs?  I am speechless!

Today's recipe is hopefully more tempting than a kickball and guaranteed to taste better.  We are entering fall, with all the yummy fall flavors...which in the food world equates to PUMPKIN!  But I still have zucchini that I am harvesting and baking with (a little of this and never enough of this)!  Lucky for me, last year I discovered this recipe for Pumpkin Zucchini Bread and I absolutely love the combination.  It is perfectly moist and tastes like it could be the poster child for fall with all the yummy spice flavoring.  Not to mention that your house smells divine while it bakes.  For your sake I really do hope that you still have a few lingering zucchini so that you can enjoy this recipe and share it with someone you love!

One Year Ago: Snickerdoodle Blondies
Two Years Ago: Candy Bar Pudding Dessert

PUMPKIN ZUCCHINI BREAD     
(recipe from Taste of Home)
printable version

3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup butter, melted
1 Tbs. vanilla
3 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1 cup shredded zucchini

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Prepare two 9 x 5-inch loaf pans by greasing and flouring.

In a bowl, combine eggs and sugar. Add pumpkin, butter and vanilla. Combine dry ingredients; gradually add to pumpkin mixture and mix well. Stir in zucchini (and nuts if desired). Pour into prepared loaf pans. Bake at 350° for 45-50 minutes or until breads test done. Cool in pans 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack.

Serving Up {Brownies}: Moist Zucchini Brownies

It is nearing the end of zucchini season around here, but I still have a few stragglers coming on in my garden.  What about you?

We have enjoyed zucchini cookies, zucchini muffins, zucchini bread and even zucchini pumpkin bread.  I have also shredded and frozen enough bags of zucchini to keep us in zucchini until next harvest season.  My kids actually love all the zucchini baking that has been going on, but it was these brownies that caused my daughter to declare, "everything is better with zucchini!".  Brownies made better by zucchini?  Now that is zucchini marketing at it's finest!

Truth is, these REALLY are awesome brownies!  We have gone through two pans of them in just the past five days.  Even my husband (the only zucchini-adverse in the family) ate four of them before I finally told him the secret ingredient.

The batter, when prepared and put into the pan, is really dry.  Don't worry, you have not left an ingredient out.  Somehow while baking the zucchini works magic and turns the dry batter into something moist and magical...and chocolate!

One Year Ago: Strawberry Lemonade Quencher

MOIST ZUCCHINI BROWNIES with Buttermilk Chocolate Frosting     
(recipe adapted from Blogchef)
printable version

1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2-3 cups shredded zucchini

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a 13x9 baking pan with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl, mix together oil, sugar and vanilla and mix until well blended. In another bowl combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt and add the flour mixture gradually to the sugar mixture, mixing well. It will be VERY dry and crumbly - it's okay! Fold in the shredded zucchini. Spread the mixture into the prepared baking dish.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until brownies test done.

Chocolate Buttermilk Frosting
6 Tbs. cocoa powder
1/4 cup butter
2-3 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup buttermilk***
1 tsp. vanilla
pinch salt

In a saucepan, melt the butter and cocoa powder together. Allow to cool slightly. Add the vanilla, buttermilk and salt and then gradually add the powdered sugar until you reach the desired consistency.
Frost cooled brownies.

***You can make this recipe using regular milk instead of buttermilk, but you have to use more powdered sugar in order to reach the desired spreadable consistency.

Serving Up {Bread}: Zucchini Bread

Today is the first day of September and we woke up to a crisp coolness in the air.  All of my kids came to breakfast wrapped in blankets.  It felt like autumn had arrived overnight!  School begins in four short days and then autumn will officially be in full force for us here in the Northwest.

I look forward to the autumn harvest, especially now that I live in Oregon where I can readily access fresh produce.  Earlier this week I was busy bottling homemade tomato sauce and last week I was elbow deep in peach pits and apricot pits.  I hadn't intended to neglect the zucchini sitting on my counter, but I noticed yesterday that it was beginning to show evidence of neglect.   My solution was to bake zucchini bread, much to my kids delight!

This is my favorite recipe, and despite zucchini breads bad reputation, this recipe is so moist!  The secret is grating a single tart apple into the grated zucchini.  It adds a burst of flavor as well as increasing the moisture content.  The recipe was not written with the apple, but years ago I was at a local orchard market and was purchasing a zucchini (who buys zucchini?).  An older lady shopping near me commented that if I was going to make bread with that zucchini, I needed to grate an apple into the batter.  I took her recommendation and have never made the recipe again without the apple addition.  So even if you already have a favorite zucchini recipe, and you don't try this recipe, try the apple tip and see if it doesn't make a delightful difference.

ZUCCHINI BREAD     Pin It
printable version

1 cup oil
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 cups grated zucchini (1 small tart apple, like granny smith) ***
3 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. baking powder
3 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. cloves
½ tsp. nutmeg
3 cups flour
1 cup nuts (optional)

*** Grate the tart apple into a measuring bowl. Grate zucchini into the same bowl to come up with the 2 cups of grated “zucchini”. The addition of the apple will create a delicious, moist loaf of bread and is my secret ingredient :)

Prepare two loaf pans and preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place oil and sugar in a mixing bowl and combine. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the zucchini and the vanilla.
Sift together the try ingredients and add to the wet ingredients, without over mixing.
Stir in nuts.
Divide batter between the two greased loaf pans. Bake in 350 degree oven for approximately 45-50 minutes, or until toothpick tests done.

The topping is optional.  It's actually the topping for my apple bread but it is delicious on zucchini bread too!
You can place it on top of the batter before placing in the oven, or sprinkle it on 15-20 minutes into the cooking time.

Topping:
½ cup quick cook oats
½ cup coconut
½ cup packed brown sugar
4 Tbs. melted butter

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Sprinkle the topping over the batter prior to baking.
(The topping, as listed, would top two loafs of zucchini bread)