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I’ve always been a huge fan of banana bread. It should really be called banana cake, let’s be honest… but I like the bread lingo when I’m scarfing down slice after slice for breakfast. If I recall correctly, page 64 of my very first cookbook, The Fannie Farmer Junior Cookbook (I highly recommend it!), is still smeared with bananas, butter, what-have-you from back when I did not yet have the recipe memorized. So you can imagine my delight/glee/gluttonous joy when my high school put out trays of zucchini bread for one of its legendary Parents Weekend Spreads first semester. Another cake posing as bread! And the world got that much better.
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In the years since my introduction to zucchini bread, I’ve never actually made it. But the farm stand had such beautiful zucchini… I figured it couldn’t be that different from banana bread at the end of the day. Step one: grate some zucchini! A box grater is ideal for this (do it on the thickest grating option). You could also use the grating disk of your Cuisinart, or a handheld cheese-grating-style microplane. Once it’s grated, you want to squeeze out as much liquid as possible. I put it in a sieve and pushed down over and over until all the liquid had drained out.
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Now you can work on the batter. Start with room temperature butter. Beat that with a standing or handheld mixer (or a wooden spoon) until it’s creamy and smooth. Then, add your sugars, a little at a time, all the while mixing until it’s light and fluffy. Add your eggs and beat until smooth.
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I’ve always been one to skip the whole “sift the flour” step because A) I am lazy and B) I hate cleaning sieves. But apparently this is important for good baking technique so, sift the flour with the salt and the baking soda (your secret is safe with me if you skip this step). You could also add ½ a teaspoon of cinnamon at this point if you like. Slowly add half of the sifted dry ingredients to the butter/sugar/egg mixture. Then, add some milk to loosen up the batter. Finally, add the rest of the flour and then stir in the zucchini.
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This all goes into a buttered loaf pan. Pop it into a preheated 325⁰ oven for an hour. Depending on the heat of your personal oven, it may need an extra ten minutes. You know it’s ready when a fork/knife goes in to the center and comes out smooth. If your bread crust is taking on too much color before the bread is cooked through, you can make a tent with a piece of aluminum foil to shield the top crust while the loaf continues to cook.
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When it’s done, allow it to cool in the loaf pan for at least ten minutes. Then you can take it out and slice away. It’s particularly good toasted with butter!
Recipe:
- 1 stick of room temperature salted butter
- ½ cup of sugar
- ⅓ cup of brown sugar or Sugar in the Raw
- 2 good room temperature eggs
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
- ¼ cup milk
- About 2 ½ cups of grated zucchini (2-3 zucchini should do it)
Makes one loaf