Ann and Jane Make Zucchini Bread

Looks so yummy I just HAD to try it!

Labor Day Zucchini Bread
makes 1 loaf or 12 muffins or 12 donuts

2 cups whole grain flour (Jane uses 1 cup oat flour, 1 cup whole wheat)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 3/4 cups shredded zucchini, pressed dry between paper towels
2/3 cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Line a loaf pan with parchment paper.
In a bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon.
In a large bowl, combine zucchini, maple syrup, and vanilla and stir to mix.
Mix the wet and dry ingredients together.
Pour the batter into the lined loaf pan (or non-stick muffin or donut pan) and bake for 30 minutes (or 15 to 18 minutes) until golden brown on top. Serve warm.

Engine 2 Cookbook
page 255

Since I'm forced to stay gluten-free or else my fingers swell up in the joints and get hot and inflamed (Don't ask how I know, especially this past week), I'm using the Bob's Red Mill 1:1 flour mix that Mary McDougall had advised in one of her bread recipes along with the oat flour. Maybe next time I'll use all oat flour, but I'm afraid it'll be a bit too gummy (or as Ann says, "wetter").

Zucchini - Because I saw this after we did our weekly order, I asked my husband to pick up some zucchini when he went out for the Sunday papers, specifying that I ONLY need enough to make 1 3/4 cups of zucchini, so maybe 2 small ones or one medium size. He brings home 3 zukes that, while not as big as a baseball bat as Jane jokes, but could pass for toddler sized t-ball bats. YIKES!! Each one might make enough for 3 or more cups of shredded zucchini! I guess I'll be tossing zucchini in my meals for the rest of the week.

Checked the dates on the baking powder and baking soda, since I haven't used either for a while. OK, still good. The vanilla? Well, the standard brand, with alcohol, was outdated by a few years, but the alcohol-free one is fine. Whew! In this heat I didn't think my husband would want to walk back to the store again.

Maple syrup - Well, we try to follow Dr. Esselstyn's Prevent and Reverse protocols, but I do use maple syrup now and then, like in the 3-2-1 Dressing (aka Jane's Dancing dressing) or mixed with mustard as a dip for Brussels sprouts. But to use 2/3 of a cup for 8 slices of zucchini bread would be overkill. Luckily, one of the commentators on YouTube wrote she used only 1/3 cup and it tasted great.

Oops. I better go dig out a loaf pan. Now where did I put them all? There's one corner cabinet in the kitchen that's so inconvenient to find things in because it goes back about 3 feet - These cabinets were NOT professionally designed or installed decades ago when the house's last owner changed the attic into an apartment for his daughter and her kids, the apartment we now reside in - so it took me quite a while to empty things out one by one until I got far enough back in the archaeological dig to find the pans. Aha! I found the one silicone pan I own and one of the 3 non-stick metal ones! But - Ew! - they both need a good scrubbing after being down there for so long. I filled them with soapy water and will let them soak for a few hours. My husband will scrub them both up later. He's an expert at getting all the stuff off silicone bakeware, even if it takes 2 or 3 tries, because as soon as water touches the flour crud it disappears from view until it dries again. After we have cornbread we now soak the silicone pan for a while before even attempting to wash it.

Anyway, if this comes out good I'll go back into the cabinet and search for the donut pan that I bought and used maybe twice. I already found my silicone muffin pan (regular size), non-stick Texas-sized muffins pan, and my non-stick mini-muffin pans. I have enough zucchini right now to make a batch for each pan! 

So, these loaf pans aren't getting washed until after lunch. By then the temps will be hovering near 90 again, so no lighting of the oven. This zucchini bread will have to wait until tomorrow morning after I do the laundry, or the day after if it gets too hot early. There are definite disadvantages to living in a third floor walk-up with a flat roof overhead and no air conditioning in the kitchen. At least in summer it's a disadvantage - In winter we keep the radiator in most of our rooms turned off because it gets way too hot, while the landlord's apartment on the first floor is freezing.

So, to be continued!

(Monday)

Alright. Only 72 outside this morning so the oven is lit, the batter is in the pan, the pan is in the oven.

To update the above:
Zucchini - one of those large zucchinis made a full 2 cups of shredded. I figured I would save myself the hassle of finding the shredder disc and the washing of the food processor so I grabbed my box shredder. Big mistake! Zucchini bits flying everywhere! How the heck did that one get in my hair, of all places?? Next time, the Cuisinart, for sure!

Maple syrup - I did use only 1/3 cup, but as I started mixing the wet and dry together realized it was now a bit too dry, so added a bit less than a third cup of water to the mix. Now it looks okay and mixed up beautifully.

Loaf pan - Well, after an overnight soak I see what was in the non-stick pan wasn't food crud that wasn't properly washed but about a quarter of the coating had been worn away and those were bits of rust. I used this pan, anyway, because the parchment paper prevents the food from touching the area. To be safe, I put a piece of foil on the bottom to cover up that spot. I wanted to use the metal pan like in the video for the first time making this. I'll be sure to use the silicone pan next time. With 2 more big zucchini in the refrigerator (I used the smallest of the 3 today) I'm hoping it tastes good and I'll make more as zuke season goes on.

Here it is in the pan, ready for the oven.

and here it is, fresh out of the oven and out of the pan onto the cooling rack. The toothpick test works on this bread, BTW.

My husband is about to take his lunch break, and it'll be cool enough to cut by the time he finishes. Let's see if it passes the taste test.

(An hour later)

Uh, oh! I'm in trouble! This stuff is delicious!!

First off, ignore what I said about the toothpick test - it may have come out clean, but the bread is still a bit on the gummy side. You can even see it in the photo. Is it because of the oat flour, the added water, or is it slightly undercooked? I'm leaning toward the oats, because the crust on the outside is firm and dry, top a bit crackly, like all good quickbreads should be. 

I cut it into 8 decent sized slices, and my husband immediately grabbed for a second slice after his first. He cut a piece off for me to taste, and all those little pleasure circuits in my brain started firing off. I know they did for him, too, because for the first time in forever he told me to wrap it up, get it out of his sight, or he'll eat the whole thing in one sitting. He said he'll have another slice after dinner, then limit himself to only one slice a night until it's gone. I reminded him that he bought three of those zucchini, to expect 2 more of these loaves in the near future. He said he won't mind. Yeah, but *I* will, having this delicious off-plan food hanging around the house where I can see it each time I go into the freezer!

So, I'll probably be making the second and possibly third loaf before the week is out. I'll cut them up and wrap each slice individually and stick them all in the freezer, so after dinner each night he can take one out, and by the time Jeopardy is over it'll be defrosted. All three loaves will be gone before the end of his vacation in 2 weeks, so we can return to our normal eating patterns after that.

But man, that's a tasty loaf of zucchini bread!