Zucchini Bread

Wow! It's been a while since I've written. We were having really hot weather which made it unbearable to cook or bake so we were eating lots of wraps, sandwiches, and salads. The weather has since cooled down and in the past month, we've receive about 4 pounds of zucchini and summer squash through our CSA box. We grilled, broiled, sauteed, etc. And still had leftovers! So I thought I would bake zucchini bread. I love it but had never previously made it.

I searched and read many recipes. I tried really hard to find a recipe that didn't call for oil but couldn't so if any of you out there have such a recipe, I would be most interested in trying it out. In any case, I found the recipe I used and modified from the Food Network website. The recipe below includes the modifications but if you want to see the original (which isn't that much different) than click on the title of this entry.

So over the course of two days, I made two slightly different versions of this bread. On day one, I used the recipe you see below and baked it for 50 minutes. One day two, I left out the ground cloves and allspice, and added 1/2 tsp of nutmeg. I also lessened the amount of vegetable oil to 1/2 c and baked it for the full 55 minutes.

Mind you, when I made this recipe, I halved the recipe so that I would only have enough batter for 1 loaf. On day two, I realized that on day one I didn't add enough baking soda or powder but it still came out moist and wonderful if not a tad bit flat.

There were some interesting differences. Day one bread was lighter in color and sweeter. Day two bread was a rich brown and rose a little bit more (not surprising given that I added the right amount of baking soda and powder). Interestingly enough though my taste tester thought the darker one was more buttery but it had less oil for sure!

Ingredients
-1 cup granulated sugar
-1/3 cup + 1/2 cup brown sugar
-3/4 cup vegetable oil
-2 eggs
-2 cups flour
-3/4 teaspoons baking powder
-3/4 teaspoons baking soda
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
-1/2 tsp allspice
-1/2 tsp ground cloves
-1 1/2 cups finely chopped zucchini

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Combine sugars, oil, and eggs and mix. In another bowl, mix flour, baking powder, soda, salt, and cinnamon. Add to sugar/oil/egg mixture to moisten. Carefully fold in zucchini. Divide mixture into 2 greased loaf pans. Bake for 55 minutes or until done.

The first time I made this, I decided to put all the batter into one loaf pan and since it fit just fine, I figured it would work. It failed -- the middle collapsed so horribly. So if you get any grand ideas to do it this way, don't!