Zucchini Bread

After our neighbor accidently cut down our grape vine the showed up at our door with a new grape vine and three of the largest zucchini I have ever seen. "A peace offering" they joked.

I whipped up zucchini bread and actually found a recipe that wasn't dry and flavorless. Good thing too because each one of these things made about 10 loafs! (I gave one to my sister after realizing that I already had a kitchen full of pears and apples and I would never use them all before they went bad.)

These keep well in the freezer and are easy gifts- which is what most of the 18 loafs I made will be!


Zucchini Bread
makes 2 loafs

Ingredients

3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 teaspoons cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup oil
2 1/4 cups sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini

Directions

Mix first five ingredients together in a bowl and set aside. In a large mixing bowl combine eggs, oil, sugar, and vanilla. Mix until well combined and sugar begins to dissolve. Add dry ingredients about a cup at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in zucchini and set aside.
Heat oven to 350 and grease and flour two loaf pans. Divide the batter between the pans and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 45-60 minutes.
Cool for 20 minutes in the pan then turn the bread out and allow to cool completely. Stores in the fridge for up to one week (although ours have NEVER made it that long without being eaten!) or in the freezer for 3 months.

You can also mix a cup of nuts or whatever else you would like into the batter. We tried walnuts, chocolate chips, and raisins and they all turned out yummy!


The longer I let the batter rest before baking the more evenly moist my bread was. The ones I baked immediately had tops that were flat and dry, the ones that rested for 30 min to an hour had a moist top that rose along with the bread.

More pictures of my baby, because I'm partial to her :)

Look at those muscles! 

Already eating one