Delicious New Takes on Zucchini Bread

This is a great recipe for anyone tired of the same old zucchini bread. The combinations of either banana or pumpkin with shredded zucchini are a new twist on an old favorite– and an easy way to use up an overabundance of zucchini!

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Zucchini recipes are a category of cooking borne from overabundance. If you’ve ever planted more than one or two hills of zucchini in your home garden, you probably regretted it by mid- to late-summer.

I grow my zucchini as a single hill in a square foot garden that contains three individual plants. My zucchini occupies four, one-foot squares in my garden and the plants cascade over the side of my raised bed. Techinically this means they occupy more than the four square feet they’re planted in, but by planting them on the end of the bed, they don’t take over the entire raised bed, and I can still harvest plenty of zucchini.

These plants produce A LOT. And as any grower of zucchini can attest, if you forget to check on your plants for a day or two, you will likely be greeted by a zucchini as big as a newborn baby.

While I love smaller zucchini (6-8 inches or so) for grilling and sauteing, the larger ones can be a challenge to cook in an appetizing way. As they get bigger, the skin thickens, and large seeds form inside.

If you’ve looked away from your garden and found a few of these giant zucchini upon your return, bake some zucchini bread! It’s a great way to use these vegetables in a way that your family will love.

This recipe is not your traditional zucchini bread. Add either banana or pumpkin, and the result is a dense, moist bread that your family will love. It freezes well too.

Ingredients:

4 eggs

2 Cups sugar

1/2 Cup vegetable oil

1/2 Cup unsweetened applesauce

**Choose ONE**

2-3 mashed bananas (approximately 1 cup)

**OR   1 Cup canned pumpkin

1 1/2 Cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 Cups whole wheat flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 1/2 Cups shredded zucchini

1 Cup chopped nuts or chocolate chips (1/2 Cup of each is also great!)

Directions:

1. Combine eggs, sugar, oil and applesauce in a mixing bowl. Add either bananas or pumpkin. Combine remaining dry ingredients (flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices) in a separate bowl.

2. Slowly add dry ingredients to egg mixture. Stir until just combined. Gently fold in zucchini and nuts and/or chocolate chips if using.

3. Divide batter between two greased loaf pans and bake at 350° for 50-60 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Allow bread to cool for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and cool completely on a wire rack.

Notes:

• If you are using a human baby-sized zucchini, it helps to remove the spongy, tough seed containing center before shredding. If the skin is particularly thick, or your children will freak out if they see anything green in the bread, go ahead and peel the zucchini before shredding,
• A large zucchini will produce a lot more shredded zucchini than you can use in one sitting. Even as bread. I measure out and freeze the shreds, 1 1/2 Cups per freezer bag. That way I can thaw out one bag and know it’s enough for a batch of bread. The shreds will tend to be watery after they thaw. You will want to squeeze out some of the water before using them.
• Overripe bananas go straight into a gallon-size freezer bag at my house, peel and all. When it’s time to use them, I thaw them for a few minutes on the counter or under some running hot water– just enough to loosen the peel. An electric mixer will mix a semi-frozen banana like in this recipe with no issue. If you are mixing by hand you may want to thaw the banana completely after peeling (they are easier to peel when semi-frozen).
• If putting food in Ziploc bags without getting the bag’s seal all full of food is a challenge (as it is for me!), this kitchen gadget will hold the bag open for you. If you are a fan of prepping meals in advance or freezing vegetables from your garden, you will wonder how you ever lived without this tool!
• I am a huge fan of stoneware baking dishes and pans. I’ve had my Pampered Chef loaf pans for over 20 years now. The lovely crust I get on bread with these pans can’t be beaten. The only drawback is you may need to add a few minutes to the bake time. As long as you check the doneness with a toothpick before removing from the oven you should be fine.
• This recipe can be doubled, producing 4 loaves. I may have learned this by accident when my kids distracted me while I was making a batch. But I don’t have 4 loaf pans, and bread that uses baking powder/soda for leavening really shouldn’t sit around for long before baking. The bubbles will dissipate and you’ll end up with a first-class doorstop of a bread. So I used a Pyrex baking dish that was approximately the volume of two loaf pans to bake all four loaves at once. I just kept a close eye on the Pyrex and removed it as soon as it was done– which was only a few minutes longer than the loaf pans.
• This bread freezes well. I wrap mine in plastic wrap, then two layers of aluminum foil before putting into the deep freeze. Take it out at night and it’s thawed in time for breakfast the next morning.

If you liked this post, please subscribe to Grounded and Growing today and receive your copy of “15 Tips to Become a '15 Minute Gardener'” so you can spend less time working ON your garden and more time enjoying being IN your garden.! It’s absolutely free. When you join the Grounded and Growing community, you’ll finally take the garden off your “To-Do” list and allow yourself time to enjoy your garden and savor the peace and serenity there. I tell subscribers about new posts as soon as I hit ‘publish’ and send weekly-ish updates on what’s going on in my garden– good, bad AND ugly.

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All Rights Reserved. © 2019 Jennifer Schultz Nelson.

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