Recipe: Zucchini Bread

I found this delicious-sounding recipe for Zucchini Bread at allrecipes.com . It’s called “Mom’s Zucchini Bread”, but whose mom, I do not know. I suppose it’s going for a home-made feel.

The ingredients are really simple:

• 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


• 1 cup chopped walnuts

As you can see, it’s probably going to be a relatively sweet bread. I’ve never made bread before that contains no water or milk and only relies on moisture from oil and zucchini.

I made a few changes to the recipe, but not on purpose. I didn’t have this mysterious “all-purpose flour”, so I used bread flour. Also, I accidentally put 3 teaspoons of ground cardamon instead of cinnamon! WOOPS! I had no “vegetable oil” and used sunflower oil instead. Finally, I had no vanilla extract, so I took my beautiful, delicious-scented vanilla stick and chopped a part of that into little bits. Damn. That thing smells so divine. Vanillin does not stand a chance!

Then, you’re supposed to do the following:

1. Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).


2. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.


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


4. Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.

Of course, I had to disobey the instructions here too. I did not grease any pans. Instead, I just made sure the breadpan from my bread machine was good and clean. I took out the mixing blade.

I sifted the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cardamon (woops again!) into a bowl. Then I beat the eggs and oil together in another bowl, added the chopped vanilla and sugar, and looked amazed at how such a mixture could look so tasty!

Then, because I had started the flour-salt-mixture in the bigger bowl, I poured the liquid mix into the flour-mix. The wrong way around according to the instructions, but I didn’t care. At this point, I whipped out my handy-dandy spatula and began to blend the paste into a beautiful, beautiful batter. It was very smooth and even. How did I ever survive without my spatula?

I grated zucchini with the medium-small sized holes. It was so juicy and yummy-looking I had to take a photo. I didn’t squish the vegetable grating into the cup - I put it inside it without compacting it too much. I hope this was the right decision.

I almost forgot to add the walnuts, but remembered in the last minute and chopped them up on a cuttingboard a little bit before tossing them into the mix and blending it all together.

Finally, I poured the whole batter into my breadpan, trusting it to be large enough to contain two small-sized loafs. It can supposedly hold a 2 lb-loaf, whatever that means. Crazy Brits… should switch to metric. ANYWAY… I put it on the “extrabake” setting, which is basically just an oven. I set it for one hour, and once the scent of the baking bread began to be too much to resist, I started peeking at it every five to ten minutes to see if it was doing alright.

It turns out 1 hour is not enough for the loaf, and I had to add more time. The surface looks like it has risen nicely but looks raw.

After about 1½ hours of baking, things are starting to look more finished. I can’t wait to sink my teeth into this bread.

I cut off a slice and put some cream cheese on it. Not very zucchini-ey but definitely tasty! It is crunchy while being juicy and soft as well. Recommended by Ann-Mi!