Homemade Zucchini Bread
First order of business!! This is the first new post since the Homemade Rustic Pita Bread Recipe… And I have some exciting news to share! I want to proudly announce the birth of my newest beautiful niece, Caroline Elizabeth. She was born September 9th, happy and healthy! It has been a busy year for my sister and brother-in-law, but they are so happy and so proud of their new bundle of joy! Also, that their first born daughter Meredith has a sister to grow up with! Coming from a family of 4 girls {myself} it is important that every girl has a sister {or a best friend}… someone to play with, read to and borrow shoes from! So when they are older they can keep secrets and have sister nights! It was such a wonderful sunny day to bring such a beautiful little baby into the world!! Congrats Christine & Aaron!! I have a feeling they will be best of friends!!
So in other news, today is school picture day!! It’s a love/hate day for me, because I have to get up at the crack of dawn and make sure my girls are dressed and do their hair special, make sure they don’t get a speck of breakfast on them… even though I try, they still find a way to make it happen. Then I make sure I wipe every trace of breakfast off my youngster’s face and out of her teeth, Hey she’s five and would rather stare at her Justin Bieber poster then brush her teeth! My oldest however is always on it and I totally trust her to get the job done!
For breakfast on this special school picture day was this very zucchini bread that I made just this past Monday. I would have posted it sooner, but I do work and twelve hours a day at that, so that is my excuse for why this wasn’t up sooner… but me and my girls have been snacking on this and it has been breakfast for them the past two days {they think it’s cake and I’m thinking about how my youngest is eating a green vegetable in her breakfast!!} SCORE! The specks of green and the flavor of cinnamon is my favorite and the cake ends up being very moist due to the applesauce and olive oil!
I had so much fun making this bread and photographing it. The colors popped! … and I finally got to use my new mixer!! It was great! I loved it! This zucchini bread recipe must be one every kitchen should have. It is simple, quick and yummy!
Here is what you’ll need: 2-3 Zucchinis, eggs, Olive Oil, Applesauce, Kosher Salt, Baking Soda, Baking Powder, Cinnamon, Flour and Sugar. Dang… and Vanilla…sorry it must be hiding in back of the cinnamon!
In your mixer, add 3 eggs, the half cup of oil and the half cup of unsweetened applesauce. Don’t be nervous about the olive oil, you won’t even taste it!
Mix until just combined.
Then add the 3 teaspoons of vanilla, 3 tablespoons of cinnamon {I know… 3 Tbs. sounds like a lot but it’s meant to be}, 1 teaspoon of kosher salt, 2 teaspoons of baking soda and a 1/4 teaspoon baking powder and mix.
Next add the two cups of sugar and the two cups flour.
Mix until it just comes together. It should be a rich brown color… that’s the cinnamon!
Give it a final stir with the spatula to insure you got all the stuff on the bottom of the bowl. Set aside just for a moment, it’s time to grate some zucchini!
Lob off the tops and ends of the zucchini. If you have a gigantic zucchini you probably will only use one. I have 3 smallish ones, but it is always better to have too much than not enough!
Halve your zucchini lengthwise to expose the seeds.
Scrape…
… and scoop out all of the seeds. You don’t want the seeds in your bread!!
Oh yeah… I forgot! Preheat your oven to 350 degrees!
Grate all your zucchinis until you have a huge heaping pile of shredded zukes. If you are using a box grater {like I did} wear some form of protective gear, because once you get going grating, pieces of zucchini start flying! You’ll find pieces of it all over! I found some in the pockets of my apron, stuck to my cupboards and in my shoe… I’m still not sure how I got in there!?
Measure out a two generous cups of freshly grated zucchini. Really pack the cup full!
Add it to the batter and fold it in.
Now the next step is crucial, get a spoon… place it into the batter. Remove and taste. Okay, maybe not crucial… but delicious!
Butter and flour a loaf pan. Pour the entire bowl of zucchini batter into the prepared pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 1 to 1hr and 10 minutes. Keep checking on it using a cake tester. Every oven is different, so when the tester comes out clean and the cake isn’t all jiggly… let cool and remove from loaf pan… then go ahead… slice and serve!
Now, you know if you made a successful zucchini bread, when you see the tiny specks of the green zucchini flesh in the cake… and there is a nice crispy top to it as well. By the way there is only ONE way to eat zucchini bread.
Get a slab of zucchini bread… yes I said slab. You want a nice thick piece… okay, maybe I want and nice and thick piece!
Smother it with butter… I pulled out the best for this… my farm butter!
Well not my farm…
The bread is still warm so it melts the butter in to a creamy layer of goodness.
Now it’s the moment I have been waiting for… come to Mama!
Homemade Zucchini Bread
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 60-70 minutes
Ingredients:
2 {generous} cups of Zucchini, freshly grated
2 cups flour, plus more for dusting loaf pan
2 cups of Granulated Sugar
3 tablespoon Cinnamon
2 teaspoons Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
3 whole Eggs
1/2 cup good Olive Oil
1/2 cup {unsweetened} Applesauce
3 teaspoons Pure Vanilla
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Butter and flour a loaf pan.
Combine eggs, oil, applesauce and vanilla into your mixer.
Mix until just combined, add cinnamon, salt, baking soda and powder. Mix again.
Then add sugar and flour and mix until incorporated.
Remove and fold in grated zucchini with spatula.
Pour into prepared loaf pan and bake for 60 to 70 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.
Let cool, and remove from pan.
Slice, smother with butter and devour!
Over the past few years I’ve been on a mission to find and create recipes that I can make from scratch. I hope you enjoy the recipes on this blog as they are tried and true from my kitchen to yours! (
That looks delicious as always, and congratulations Auntie. You should link this up @ my open house tomorrow!
What a sweet baby girl! Congrats to your family.
Yum, this looks so good. Gotta save it. Amanda
Congrats on your beautiful niece! the zucchini bread looks delish, its one of my all time favs. Like you I get excited at the thought that my daughter is actually eating a green veggie, muchless at breakfast
Thank goodness for zucchini bread!
Wow, and here I'd been looking for the best zucchini bread recipe ever! This looks moist and cinnamony. Thanks for the step-by-step on grating zucchinis too – I've baked seeds into things before, but agree, it's better without.
I looooove zucchini bread! I'm excited to try it out using applesauce.:) Beautiful pictures!
-Amanda
http://www.seegirlcook.com
Now I'm craving zucchini bread, I may have to make a run to the store:) Congrats on your beautiful niece, she is such a doll!
I need to get baking!!!! Thanks for the post shout out Laur…LOVE YOU!!!!!
cleaned the zucchini out of my garden the other day and made a TRIPLE batch of this bread…my husband says it's the best ever! I love the cinnamon.
I'm making this for brunch this morning. 49 more minutes in the oven. The wait is torture!!
Okay, i know this comment is a little late but I just linked back here to see the baby pics and saw the beautiful photos of the zuchini bread too. You have Adorable nieces! And the bread photos are sooo pretty! I love zuchini bread. I think I have one last bag of shredded Zuch in the freezer. Anyway, great job on the pics here. I really like how you ended it with bit on the fork-