Zucchini Bread 2 Ways

Patch recently made a request for zucchini bread, and some neighbors who own Amadio Ranch had offered a free HUGE zucchini to each of our garden club members, so I decided to ride "Sunny" my electric power assist recumbent trike over there. I mentioned this a couple posts ago and a picture of the delicious organic apricots I purchased while there. We will be returning to the ranch tomorrow for eggs, blueberries, apricots if we're lucky and hopefully some MORE Zucchini, because we so enjoyed the last one.

I have been rather ill so this post is actually a bit late, but hopefully you all will enjoy the recipe anyway. Our friend Jen aka LoveJen came over (we know many people named Jennifer so most have nick names) has been our friend and extended family member for some time now. She once lived in our spare room for a much too brief time, and if we could pick anyone to start a sustainable living community with, it would be her. So we are always happy when she visits. And usually Jen and I make use of our visits to bake, because we are both lovers of baked goods who have foods we try to avoid. Jen knew about the zucchini which we did not want to spoil, and came prepared to bake bread. I however was just starting to get over the flu, so spent most of the time laying on the lazy boy chair in the video game space next to the kitchen.

We made two loaves of bread based on a Vegan Zucchini Bread recipe, and added dark chocolate chips to one, making it eggless, but not vegan. None of us are vegan, but I mention this here for my vegan friends, please feel free to add your own favorite dark chocolate replacement. These breads are also lower in sugar, and higher in fiber. And if you like black walnuts, would be delicious with some of those in there as well.  I have some specific food issues. I avoid sugar so reduced that and have allergies: egg and vanilla, so replaced those. I like it better and it didn't make me sick, so best of both worlds! But if I hadn't mentioned it you would not know this bread is eggless, or that the sugar is reduced. Give it a try and let me know what you think, Patch loved it so much we're going to have to make more. If you like dark chocolate, (Jen insists it is health food)  then you will LOVE this bread so you may want to freeze a loaf to make it harder to over indulge.

The yum-ness which resulted from Jen's efforts are worthy of food porn, but due to my feeling sick, I did not get out the good camera and have only a cell phone photo to offer. I actually forgot to take a photo of the Dark Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread till the next day, when it was almost gone since we sent 1/2 home with Jen in gratitude for her efforts, and ate most of the rest that night, because it's that good. So here's the lone picture of the Dark Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread. I had this for breakfast with some red jiggly gelatin dessert from Fresh and Easy.

Here is the recipe, which includes the walnuts and chocolate chips. If you wish, you can add steel cut oats and you can use use raisins (or a vegan chocolate subsitute) instead of dark chocolate chips for a slightly sweeter and vegan recipe. As is, this recipe is vegetarian, not vegan.

Ingredients:

1 cup unbleached all-purpose white flour

2 cups wheat flour

1/2 cup steel cut oats

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons almond extract (can use vanilla which is slightly sweeter and less nutty)

2 1/2 cups shredded zucchini

1 bag dark chocolate chips (optional)

1/2 cup chopped black walnuts (optional)

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 350
Mix 3 tablespoons flax  seeds with 6 tablespoons water and set aside (becomes gooey like eggs)

Grate 2 1/2 cups shredded zucchini and set aside

Mix dry ingredients:
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour with 2 cups whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup steal cut oats, 1/3 cup packed brown sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, and 1/2 teaspoon baking powder.

Mix wet ingredients:
2 tablespoons agave nectar, 1 cup apple sauce, flax seed mixture, and 3/4 cup vegetable oil

Combine zucchini with wet ingredients, then mix with dry ingredients, pour into 2 bread pans  
Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick can be removed dry. 
Let bread cool on cooling rack. 
Add 1 bag dark chocolate chips and 1/2 cup chopped black walnuts if desired. 


Tips: 
If you lay the bread across the rack so that the bars of the rack lay vertically across the width of the bread, it marks it easily into nicely portioned servings 
When adding walnuts and dark chocolate chips only do so in one loaf if you want the other one vegan. If doing so, cut the chocolate chips in 1/2, it really is plenty for one loaf.
When it comes to nuts and chocolate, you really have to eyeball it based on your personal preference, but we added 1/2 a bag choc chips per loaf, and about a 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts.
Using dark chocolate chips does cut down on the sweetness compared to semi sweet chocolate chips or 


This was truly delicious bread the first time we made it. The second time we forgot the almond extract and I must say, it was not at all the same. It was especially delicious with the dark chocolate chips. Thanks for the idea Jen! 


If you don't tell people, they won't even realize it's vegan. We do not use eggs or vanilla in our recipes because of my allergies, and I find I actually like the almond extract flavor better, and if cooked properly, you don't even notice the lack of eggs. Since I am diabetic and do not want to be on tons of diabetes medication, we cut the sugar down as well. We used the 2 tablespoons of agave and 1 cup of apple sauce to add sweetness. In this case, the flax seed and apple sauce replace the eggs. The 3 also add liquid, but the steel cut oats balance that out. 


Patch is not a fan of vegan food but loves this so much she requested more, so tomorrow she'll be taking me to Amadio Ranch and we'll see if we can get some more of that delicious zucchini. Although the recipe only used 1/3 of the huge zucchini, we preserved the rest in small chunks which we blanched and froze. I will be using it in baked zucchini and eggplant. So I thought a fresh zucchini was in order since it seems so plentiful this time of year anyway, and the frozen zucchini will last for quite some time.


Edit on June 7, 2012: Patch loved this so much she wants still more. So we got more zucchini, and are making 4 more loaves. this way we can freeze some. this bread does freeze pretty well in my experience. We are hoping to have some left later in the year when zucchini is out of season, and that way we will not need to shop for zucchini that is carted in from long distances. In the past this bread was divided between 4 adults and went too fast to bother freezing either loaf.  I suspect the bread in the freezer will not last that long because people will probably defrost it before it's time and eat it all up, but we will see.

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