Zucchini Bread

As mentioned in my previous blog, I am going zucchini in my garden and it is growing very well. Almost every day for the past week I have been able to pick a ripe, medium sized zucchini. That starts to add up fast! I like zucchini because it is so versatile and has a very mild flavor. My goal this week is to prepare it in a way that my husband 1. eats it and 2. likes it!

Because he has told me that he doesn't really like "squash," I ate it  almost every day when he was out of town last week. When I still ended up with four ripe zucchini I decided it  was time to make bread. Zucchini bread is a great way to use up several zucchini at one time. I came across a Paula Dean recipe from The Food Network that had a lot of positive comments. Normally I steer away from Paula Dean recipes because she tends to use a lot of fat and cooks more comfort, southern foods that are not usually part of my repertoire. However, this recipe used oil instead of butter and had so many good reviews I thought it was worth a try. The first time I made this recipe last week, I made it in a bundt pan and it turned out amazingly good! I added whole wheat flour, changed up the sugars, and added in some ground flax. It was so moist, but also seemed a little greasy due to the amount of oil. I brought it into work one day and it was gone by that afternoon.

Today I made it again as muffins. This time I made a few more adjustments- less oil, less eggs, and less sugar. Normally I do not mess around with taking out eggs in recipes, but because of the fat content of flax that I added, I knew I could eliminate a couple of eggs as long as I added some water. The end result was just as moist with less grease. Success! Now I am waiting for my husband to try them. . . then we will know the true result. I think he will like them and I think you will too! Enjoy!

Zucchini Bread (adapted from Paula Dean)

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
1/4 cup ground flax.
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs beaten with 2 tbsp of water
1/3 cup water
2 cups grated zucchini
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two standard loaf pans, one bundt pan, or two muffin tin pans with non-stick spray (if not using paper liners in muffin tins).
2. Combine the flours, flax, sugars, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large bowl.
3. In a separate bowl combine zucchini, eggs, oil, water, lemon juice and vanilla
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix together. Fold in walnuts if using. Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake until browned and toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. For loaf pans- approximately 60 minutes, bundt pan- approximately 45 minutes, and muffins- approximately 30 minutes.