Thinking outside the bread

Zucchini bread is one of my favorite breakfast items to bake. I found a good recipe a while back on allrecipes.com, and I've been addicted ever since.

The recipe I have makes two loaves, which is great because I can give one away and keep one for myself, heehee. For our Easter brunch, I wanted to make the bread again, but since we were setting the food up buffet style, and people would be picking at stuff all afternoon, I thought muffins might be easier to handle.

I made a full batch of the batter and made one loaf of bread (which I sent to Mike's Nana, who is a big fan of it), and 12 muffins:


You can see pictures of the bread in this post.

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tspn salt
1 tspn baking soda
1 tspn baking powder
3 tspns ground cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil (for a healthier version, substitute 1/2 c of the oil for 1/2 c applesauce)
2 cups white sugar
3 tspns vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

Grease and flour two 8X4 pans. Preheat oven to 325.

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

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.

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

I baked the muffins for much less time than the bread, of course. Maybe about 20 minutes. I think I started checking them around 15 minutes and once they passed the clean toothpick test, I pulled them out and let the bread keep baking for the full time.

Note: This freezes very well, although isn't quite as moist after it has been frozen.

Source: allrecipes.com

All dressed up for Easter:

Banana-Zucchini Bread

I faced the age-old aged banana dilemma a few weeks ago. I set out to searching allrecipes.com for a recipe to use with other ingredients I had - some shredded zucchini in the freezer and some cranberries in the cupboard. This just seemed like the perfect thing to bake. I sent a loaf to work with my husband and took a loaf to work with me. I omitted the nuts but made the rest of the recipe as directed.

As I've been gaining back my appetite, this was the perfect thing for me - moist, flavorful, somewhat healthy and easy to snack on. And trust me, as I speak from experience - it's good warm or cold, fresh or a couple of days old.


Ingredients

3 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 cup grated zucchini
2 bananas, mashed
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour two 8x4 inch bread loaf pans.


2. In a large bowl, beat eggs until light yellow and frothy. Add oil, brown sugar, white sugar, grated zucchini, bananas, and vanilla; blend together until well combined. Stir in the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix in the cranberries and nuts. Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared loaf pans.


3. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Allow to cool in the loaf pans on a wire rack before removing and serving.


Source: allrecipes.com