If you're like me you've got zucchini coming out of your ears! It's amazing how fast they grow. This is another wonderful recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe that I have used for a year or two. The only change I have made to her recipe is putting a frosting/glaze over the top.
INGREDIENTS:
1 pound zucchini ( approx. 1 to 1&1/2 cups shredded and wrung out)
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp allspice
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 cup plain yogurt (not fat-free)
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice or sour cream
6 tbsp butter, melted
DIRECTIONS:
Adjust oven rack to center position and preheat oven to 375 degrees. Coat 9 inch x 5 inch loaf pan with cooking spray. (Mel and I both use Baker's Joy brand spray. It's awesome)
Prepare the zucchini by cleaning, cutting off ends, seeding (if necessary) and shredding. In the original recipe it says to finely shred the zucchini however, I find that using a cheese grater is easy and I personally like the larger pieces of zucchini in the bread. With a clean kitchen towel wrap up the shredded zucchini and wring it out over the sink to squeeze out all the excess water. You should have about 1 - 1 1/2 cups of dry zucchini. Set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, allspice, and salt. In a smaller bowl, mix the sugar, yogurt, eggs, lemon juice or sour cream, and butter until combined.
Gently fold the yogurt mixture and zucchini into the flour mixture. Use a rubber spatula to fold the ingredients together until just combined. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan.
Bake 45 - 55 minutes until golden brown and a thin knife or skewer comes out clean when testing the center. Let cool for 10 minutes and turn out onto a wire rack to cool for at least one hour. Store well covered for at least 3 days.
This is fabulous with just butter however, I've added some frosting/glaze to the bread as well.
Glaze/frosting is a simple powdered sugar and butter frosting.
Melt 1/2 stick of butter or margarine
Add 1 tsp vanilla
Whisk in 1 1/2 - 2 cups of powdered sugar - add more if too thin.
If it's too thick add small amounts of milk until you reach your desired consistency.
NOTES:
Mel suggests using that if you are short on zucchini to add shredded carrots to make up the difference.(yum)
This recipe is for 1- 9x5 loaf. However, you can also get 2 loafs by using smaller loaf pans 8.5x4.5 and filling them up equally. This doesn't have a significant change in bake time. I checked mine 45 minutes and they were perfect. If you are making this bread into one loaf it will create a beautiful dome on top of your bread. Using 2 pans will not create such a dome but then there is more to share!
Recipe: Slightly adapted from Mel's Kitchen Cafe