The Messy Cook: Zucchini Bread Revisited

When I was a junior in college, I moved into a house, and I started inviting people over for dinner immediately. As I started cooking that very first meal I realized that I did not, in fact, know how to cook. By Christmas someone had wised up enough to give me a cook book. And once I had a recipe to go from, things started to improve. Slowly. I would make one delicious thing from the cookbook, with no regard to how many people it served compared to how many people I had invited, and I only made one thing. Side dishes? What? It probably took about 10 years for me to start incorporating side dishes. But at the beginning, on 27 Mound Street, when I was making Cajun Lentil Stew, I was having a panic attack because the recipe said the lentils would be done after X amount of time and they weren't done. Dave was there, and I think he suggested that I add more water. Once the meal was served, I remember Eliot and Nellie saying that I should have a cooking show called The Nervous Cook. I would have a bunch of friends over, start cooking, totally freak out about something, get some advice from the friends/audience and then everything would turn out fine.

So, things have improved, but now my show would be called: The Messy Cook. And instead of a show, it would be a blog.

The accidental fat free zucchini bread and the peach cobbler blog posts are the ones that have generated more hits than everything else, so people are obviously very interesting in finding recipes on the internet. And I feel sorry for the ones that end up here with my bad photography and recipes gone wrong. (Although the peach cobbler is delish.)

So on my pretend cooking blog, I will now review 3 zucchini bread recipes.

1.) Blue Ribbon Zucchini Bread from my Simply Colorado cookbook.
3 eggs beaten
½ Cup sugar
1 C. brown sugar
½ C. oil
1 T maple flavoring (I leave this out)
2 C. zucchini shredded
2 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. baking powder
1 tps. Salt
½ C. wheat germ
2 ½ C flour
1/3 C. walnuts, chopped
Cooking spray
¼ c. sesame seeds
Preheat to 350
Coat two 9x5x3 pans coated with cooking spray and flour
Beat together eggs, sugars, oil and maple flavoring until foamy and thick
Stir in zucchini.
Mix dry ingredients, stir into above.
Add nuts
Spoon batter into pans
Sprinkle tops with sesame seeds
Bake 45 to 60 minutes until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
Cool 10 minutes before removing from pans.

This used to be my go to recipe for zucchini bread, and when I accidentally made it without any oil, it turned out fine, but it seems strangely short. This was a good one because it seems to be the healthiest, but at the same time, I haven't been inspired to make it again yet. Luke didn't like it because it had nuts, and no raisins. Or none raisins, as he would say. Of the three, this is probably the best one though, if you are looking for something that is on the lower end of the fat and sugar scale.

2.) From my fave food blog, the antithesis of The Messy Cook, Smitten Kitchen

I made this without nuts and with raisins. It was fine. Luke really liked it. I'm not really inspired to make it again though.

3.) Then Dave came home raving about his co-worker's wife's zucchini bread, and I can't be outdone, so I made that. I think maybe I didn't cook it long enough because it was kind of gooey and one half of one of the loaves stayed in the pan. But if you are looking for a dessert zucchini bread, served straight out of the pan with a spoon that you pass around the table, then this is the one for you. Or you could just cook it a little longer. Details:

It all started at some festival, where we saw the great zucchini races, and Luke wanted me to grow a gigantic zucchini. I had a zucchini in the garden that was about ready to be picked, so I just didn't pick it. Three weeks later, Dave noticed it while looking out the window. If I had waited any longer to pick it, it would have been visible from space. Weighing in at 5 pounds, the zucchini:

From Zucchini

Luke helped me shred it in the food processor.

From Zucchini

I had enough for 9 loaves of bread.

I made sort of a mess.

From Zucchini

It turned out gooey.

From Zucchini

The end.