Zucchini Bread

Every summer, I plant a squash plant and a zucchini plant. One of each is plenty since it's just me and the cat at home, and then I have fresh veggies for most of the summer. The problem is that the plants often produce far more than I can reasonably use. My favorite solution to this problem is to grate the unused zucchinis or squash (Squashes? What's the plural of a squash?) in a food processor, then freeze them in 2 cup ziploc bags. This way I can make zucchini bread all winter long.

Recently, I realized that I have a lot of frozen zucchini left in my freezer, so I need to make batches of zucchini bread before the summer comes and I have fresh ones again. This is the recipe I've been using since I was about twelve, and found out what zucchini bread was. It produces a wonderfully moist loaf. I like to eat a slice with a nice cup of hot tea just before bed.

Zucchini Bread

Note: Zucchini turns out to be very wet when you grate it. When frozen, the water often leaches out during thawing, and you end up with a bunch of water and some zucchini matter at the bottom of the bag. It's fine, actually, it doesn't make a difference to the recipe, but I usually discard about half the water in the bag after thawing so that the batter doesn't get too thin. YMMV. With fresh zucchini, you don't need to worry about any of this.

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 1/4 cups white sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini (Or yellow squash. You can do substitutions within the squash family here)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 325F. Spray two 8x4 loaf pans with a non-stick baking spray (the kind that has flour in it as well as non stick spray). If you don't have a non-stick baking spray, use a regular non-stick spray, then flour the sprayed pans.

Mix together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together the eggs, sugar, oil, and vanilla. Beat these until they're mixed completely, then add them to the dry ingredient mixture and mix all of it until it forms a relatively smooth batter. Add in the zucchini, and stir until it gets incorporated. Add in the walnuts, and stir until those get incorporated evenly. Pour the batter into the loaf pans.

Bake for 45-60 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the middle of a loaf comes out clean. For my oven, it takes about 55 minutes. Another test of doneness is how much a loaf falls in the center when you remove it from the oven: it may relax a little, but it shouldn't fall too much. Too much collapsing means it need a few more minutes.

When the loafs are done, remove them from the oven and let them cool for ten or so minutes. Run a knife around the edges to separate the loaf from the pan, then invert them onto a plate and reinvert them onto a cooling rack (this process means you get a loaf sitting right-side up on the rack. You can do it with two cooling racks, if you don't want to dirty a plate). Let the loaf cool for another hour or so before cutting.

These loaves freeze well, and will last almost indefinitely in the freezer.

Servings: 2 loaves