Zucchini Bread

Getting ready.

Greased pans. This time I used shortening. Sometimes I use the spray stuff, sometimes I use oil, sometimes I use butter.

Pans ready to go. After the greasing, I sprinkle cinnamon and sugar in the pans. The recipe says to grease the bottoms only but I never have been good at following the directions exactly. Besides, this tastes better.

Zucchini towers.

Let the grating begin! (But watch out to keep the fingers out--it doesn't feel good!)

See what I mean? Does NOT feel good! (This happened when I was grating carrots or potatoes.)

Ooooopps! Forgot to cut the seeds out of the large end.

Zucchini all shredded. This is a three quart bowl. (Recognize it, Becky?)

2 2/3 cups sugar. Getting low on the regular granulated so it's mostly turbinado.

Olive oil (I felt like I was making soap except I'm not usually that messy). The recipe calls for shortening but I really don't like to use it much (except for pie crust) because it's so much better suited for making soap than for human consumption. I don't usually use olive oil, either, but that's what was on  hand. I did spend a few seconds hoping the taste wouldn't be too strong.

Add 2/3 cup oil to the sugar.

Mix (or beat) oil and sugar. I love baking in that it's perfectly legal to beat things.

What's left of the zucchini. Be watching for it later.

Add 3 cups shredded zucchini (don't forget to shred it, either).

Eggs. Don't we have pretty eggs? We buy them down the street. Well, sort of. We buy them down the street, around the corner, and down the highway. In Hubbardston.

Add 4 eggs (remember, I doubled it).

2/3 cup water added. Can you tell the difference?

Stir (or beat) until it's all mixed up.

3 1/3 cups flour added. I used all whole wheat (white) so I used less. I doubled the recipe and used 6 cups.

2 teaspoons baking soda added.



1 1/2 teaspoons salt added. I figured since I was using whole wheat flour and olive oil, I'd go all out and make really healthy bread so I used my Redmond salt. And I never measure salt so I don't know how much I actually put in.



1 teaspoon ground cinnamon added.

4 teaspoons ginger added. Paul likes ginger so I left out the cloves and added ginger. The recipe calls for one teaspoon of cloves. I used four heaping of ginger.

2 teaspoons vanilla added.

1/2 teaspoon baking powder added.

Mix (or beat) until all mixed up. Again.

Pour into pans. I also sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and now it's ready to go.

All done after baking for 60 to 70 minutes (until wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean) at 350 degrees. Cool five minutes (or in this case five hours) and remove from pans.

And again.

Told you to be watching for the leftover zucchini. Each bunch is about two cups.

And it folds over nicely to take up a little spot in the freezer.

And that's that. In case you'd rather have it all in one place, here it is without my little changes and additions:

Zucchini Bread

2 2/3 cups sugar
2/3 cup shortening
3 cups shredded zucchini (about 2 medium--are you kidding? I used one large and it was more than enough to double--good grief!)
2/3 cup water (do you notice the theme here with 3's and 2/3's and 1/3's?)
4 eggs (that ruined it!)
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
2 teaspoons vanilla (personally, it makes more sense to put this in with the liquid stuff)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2/3 cup coarsely chopped nuts (in spite of being nuts, my family mostly doesn't like to eat them--maybe it would be considered cannibalism?)
2/3 cup raisins (shhhhh, don't tell their supposed be there or I'll never hear the end of it!)

Heat oven to 350 degrees (unless you have one like ours that heats up in less than two minutes). Grease bottoms only of 2 loaf pans, 9x5x3 inches, or 3 loaf pans, 8 1/2x4 1/2x2 1/2 inches (I don't even know what size mine are). Mix sugar and shortening in 2 1/2-quart bowl (do people really have to be told this stuff?) Stir in zucchini, water, and eggs. Mix in flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, vanilla and baking powder; stir in nuts and raisins. Pour into pans. Bake until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 60 to 70 minutes; cool 5 minutes. Loosen sides of loaves from pans; remove from pans. Cool completely before slicing.

Sorry, I can't help myself when I'm copying a recipe. The original came from Betty Crocker, bless her heart. Now, go make some and then sit down with a slice or two and a nice tall cup of cold goat milk and enjoy!