Have Zucchini, Need Zucchini Bread 74

Damsel in dis Dress

Large zucchinis are made for bread! Since you have to cut them up to grate, I would remove the seeds since they can be pretty tough.

Carl Goh's Zucchini Bread from James Beard's Bread Cookbook (modified to be low-fat) Makes two loaves

3 eggs (or Egg Beaters) 1 1/2 c. granulated sugar (this has already been reduced--don't reduce much further!) 1 c. vegetable oil (I use 1/3 cup oil plus 2/3 c. applesauce) 2 c. coarsely grated raw zucchini 3 tsp. vanilla extract 3 c. all purpose flour 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. baking soda 1/4 tsp. baking powder 3 tsp. ground cinnamon 1/2 tsp. nutmeg, pinch of cloves and allspice 1 c. coarsely chopped pecans (or walnuts) raisins, optional (we don't like 'em)

Grease well and flour two 9 inch loaf pans. Sift together flour, leavenings, and spices, set aside. Beat eggs till light and foamy, stir in sugar, vanilla, and oil, mixing well. Add dry ingredients gradually while still stirring to combine Add zucchini, mix well, then nuts. Pour into pans.

Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for ~60 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Cool on rack about 15 minutes, then remove from pan and continue to cool until room temperature. Wrap securely. Serve sliced, spread with cream cheese.

This bread freezes very well. It's great for breakfast. ------------

This recipe is from another online friend. I haven't made it, but her stuff is always good. The comments are hers, posted to another group.

Zucchini Carrot Muffins

2 c shredded carrots 1 c shredded zucchini 1 c chopped peeled apple 1/2 c chopped almonds 2 tsp grated orange peel 2 c flour 1 1/4 c sugar 1 Tbls cinnamon 2 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 3 eggs, lightly beaten 3/4 c vegetable oil 1 tsp vanilla extract

Gently toss together the first 5 ingredients and set aside. In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients. Combine egg, oil and vanilla; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened (batter wil be thick). Fold in vegetable mixture. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake at 375' F for 20-22 minutes or until they test done. Cool in pan 10 minutes before removing to rack. Makes 18 standard size muffins.

OK, so, what I did this time was - I again doubled the recipe and left out the almonds, and orange peel. While I still used a total of 6 cups of shredded veggies, I changed the proportions so it was half zucchini and half carrot. I diced my apples up more finely than I did last time so I think that I actually ended up using a little more apple this time but the difference in that isn't huge. Then, instead of using 1 1/2 cups of vegetable oil, I replaced about 1/2 the oil with butternut squash puree - I found some I'd frozen last year and figured what the heck In addition to the cinnamon, I added probably about a teaspoon or so of cardamom and of ginger - honestly I didn't measure those though, so...I just sprinkled on cardamom rather generously, and ginger less so. Oh, and I used one less egg than the recipe called for - five instead of six - only because when I was all done, I noticed the sixth egg was still sitting on the counter behind the mixing bowl and the batter seemed fine so I didn't put it in. Anyway, they came out even better good sized muffins out of this.

---- OK, so, my point is (I'm back again, not quoting myself anymore) that you can replace the oil with any moist pureed fruit - applesauce works, obviously butternut squash works, I've also redone these and used a mixture of banana and applesauce, which worked. I sometimes use mostly fruit and hardly any oil, sometimes half and half. I've also had good luck making a lowfat chocolate cake by replacing most of the oil with pureed banana, btw.