Zucchini Bread

In my household we prefer to grow as many fruits and vegetables as we can. This year’s crop included blueberries, tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini.  For some reason we had an abundance of zucchini this year. So much so that we were trying to figure out what exactly you can make with zucchini. We decided to make a couple of loafs of zucchini bread since you can always freeze the extra loaf to eat at a later date.

What I love most about zucchini bread is that you can add almost anything you want to it. I added walnuts or pecans to add an extra crunch to the batter. You can also put in chocolate chips, dried cranberries or raisins if you are looking for a little more sweetness. There are also several spices that mix well together like cinnamon and nutmeg.

Zucchini Batter Recipe

3 cups all-purpose flour

1-teaspoon salt

1-teaspoon baking soda

1-teaspoon baking powder

3-teaspoon ground cinnamon

3-teaspoons of nutmeg (optional)

3 eggs (or 1 egg and 1/3 cup egg whites)

1-cup vegetable or canola oil

2-¼ cup sugar

3-teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups grated zucchini

1-cup chopped walnuts (optional)

1-cup chocolate chips (optional)

Zucchini  Bread Batter

Directions

Grease two 8 by 4 inch pans. I used a 9 ¼ by 5 ¼ by 2-¾ inch pan greased with butter and flour. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Sift flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg together in a bowel.

Beat eggs, oil vanilla and sugar together in a large bowel. Add sifted ingredients to the mixture and beat well. Stir in zucchini, nuts and chocolate chips until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake for approximately 50 minutes. Inserting a toothpick in the center to determine if the zucchini bread is done. The toothpick will come out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes then remove from pan and completely cool.

Zucchini Bread