Zucchini bread - A must have

Tweet

Pin It

This time of year I devote several hours a day to baking savory loaves of bread.  I particularly like zucchini and pumpkin bread.  In prior years I would grow my own zucchini, but only was able to plant tomatoes, eggplant, radishes, green beans, and strawberries.  Therefore, this year I was saved from buying zucchini as my wonderful brother gave me some fresh from his garden.  Three beautiful green elongated veggies for my cooking and baking delight.
Back in 2010 I had another blog: Small Town Cook, where I had posted the below, I felt it was time to unearth it.  Today however I had the help of my son, who is now five.  He loves watching me and helping me.  I let him stir as I added the ingredients....typically I would use the mixer, but he was just so excited to help.  I still feel the mixer incorporates the ingredients better, however nothing beats the smile on his little face, and the fact that I get veggies into his little tummy. 

I had seen a recipe I wanted to try in a small recipe book, you know the kind you pick up for a few bucks up at the registers next to the celebrity newspapers. This one was put together by Betty Crocker and Gold Medal and is called, "Fall Baking - Cookies, Breads and Desserts", put out back in 2003. The recipe is called Raisin Nut Zucchini Bread and makes 2 scrumptious loaves in just an hour.
Recipe
Makes 2 Loaves (16 slices each)
3 medium zucchini, shredded (3 cups)
1 2/3 cups sugar
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup coarsely chopped nuts
1/2 cup golden raisins, if desired
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottoms only of 2 loaf pans, with shortening. Mix zucchini, sugar, oil, vanilla, and eggs in large bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients. Pour into pans.
2. Bake 50 to 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool ten minutes. Loosen sides of loaves from pans; remove from pans to wire rack. Cool completely, about 2 hours, before slicing. Wrap tightly and store at room temperature up to 4 days, or refrigerate up to 1 week.  This can also be wrapped and frozen for up to 4 months, so I like to make extra loaves now for later.

Now to tell you what I do differently. I do omit the raisins. I don't care for them in this bread and I used walnuts. I buy them in a big bag when on sale and put the desired amount into a sandwich bag and take a rolling pin to them to crush them up. This helps take out any frustrations from the day. I also found though trial and error that baking spray on the bottom of the pans allows the bread to release from the pan much easier than shortening and is less messy. ALWAYS remember to spray or grease the pan before pouring in the mixture if you do not plan on keeping the bread for yourself. In the past I have made this bread for family and friends as gifts, and had to make extra loaves because several came out mangle because I did not spray the pan at all.

I've also found that actually using an electric mixture to combine the wet and dry ingredients incorporates the mixture better. Stirring is doesn't cut it I discovered as I bit into a slice from one of those torn loaves and got a mouth full of dry, overcooked flour. Yuck...the rest of the bread tasted amazing. It also rose better when mixed like this verses stirring.
What else can I say but try it. Whether it's vegetables from your own garden or you go buy it from a stand or market, making something like this for my family is a gift of it's own....the couple glasses of rum I had while cooking made it all that much better. My husband likes to cut himself a slice, heat it up in the microwave for a few seconds and then smother on butter....yummy.

**Italicized portions from original post

Brownie's, Cookies, Peanut Butter... Oh My!

Tweet

Pin It

About time for my first post since creating this site.  My daily routine involves scrolling though my FaceBook catching up on the tales of my friends.  Today my son joined me and exclaimed, "can we make that!" as I scrolled past an image which even caught my eye.  I "liked" Reeses fanpage and today they showed a pan full of cookie dough topped with a Reeses Cup and then topped with a brownie....can we say "YUM"!  The idea I believe is found in the Pampered Chef Cookbook, but here is the link Reeses posted from Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/pin/76631631129669364/

Not my photo but it does do the process justice

Before the store could close and once the summer heat was back below 100 I went an bought the following:
1 bag of peanut butter cups (about 14 per bag)
1 boxed brownie mix 
1 rolled of refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough

Pick your favorite brand and go for it...really fool proof and very easy to do with your kids.

Preheat oven to 350.  Spray bottom of pan of choice with cooking spray.  

If you have a brownie pan break it out, but you could also use a cupcake pan or even a small cake pan.  If using one of the first two, cut the rolled cookie dough into 1/4 inch circles (just slice through the wrapper) and put into the pan.  If using a cake pan just cut the ends off the roll and remove the wrapper and put into the pan.  With washed hands, have your kids moosh the dough flat and into the corners of the pan so none of the bottom shows.  Surprisingly neither of my kids tried to eat the dough while doing this.  Next unwrap all the peanut butter cups and have the kids place one each of the cups of the pans or wherever they want if using the cake pan.  Final step.  Mix up your brownie mix according to the directions and spoon into each of the cups, leaving a 1/4 gap if possible for the brownies to rise.  I found I had leftover cookie dough and brownie mix so I pulled out a very small round cake pan and mooshed the extra dough into the bottom and covered in brownie mix. 

Bake for 22 minutes.  Let cool completely before turning pan out onto a cookie sheet.  They won't last long so make sure you hide some for yourself.

 I over filled my brownie pan... if you are like me and love the hard brownie edges, go ahead and fill the pan to the top with mix.  You may have to separate them.

 My husband said I should cut one open and show the results but....

 I think this result shows it better.... It was very delicious!