Baby It's Cold Outside

 Ok so It's 79 degrees instead of 85 but MAN does that make a difference in my kitchen. Suddenly cooking isn't just something to be done as quickly as possible with as few steps over heat as possible. I can actually breathe, relax, and enjoy it. The added benefit of the decrease in heat is I am no longer shy about turning on my oven, which of course means I'm baking again. It's not quite cold enough to go full-on yeast-based bread factory, like I did in the days after Sandy when we had no power, no heat, and nothing to do but watch bread rise. But it is cold enough  to activate those "go into hibernation" fat cells enough to crave the warm yummy goodness of a bread-y, dough-y dessert.

And so, when the box gave me what had to be the worlds biggest Zucchini, my stomach told me exactly what to do with it...

Zucchini bread. Duh!

So with The Husband standing hungrily over my shoulder I began to bake my first Zucchini Loaf ever (I know right... what was I waiting for?) As in the previous post, Zucchini bread is a quick bread which calls for the Muffin Method. So the first step is to combine wet and dry ingredients separately.

For the wet ingredients beat together Eggs, Yogurt, Buttermilk and the Brown Sugar. I used my wrist to compact down the Brown Sugar, I would not recommend this unless you like looking like you have some terrible skin disease.

Finally stir in some Vanilla for that extra kick. To me, Vanilla is like Salt when it comes to baking. It's in everything and when it's missing, you can tell something is off.

Also added to the wet ingredients is the Zucchini. The Zucchini is prepped by cutting it into quarters, and using a spoon to scoop out the seeds and mushy wet part surrounding the seeds. (the mushy wet part probably has a culinary name but I don't know it). The Husband had a hard time getting a picture without my face reflecting in the spoon. It looked weird.

The leftover Zucchini then got shredded in Tyler because that's what he is there for

And then tightly squeezed in cheese cloth to get out the excess moisture. The Husband pointed out that this was the 3rd time I've done this step on this blog. The truth is when you are dealing with vegetables they innately have a lot of moisture in them. In some dishes, this moisture really works against the end result by either denying it the opportunity to brown (like in Latkahs) or requiring a much longer cooking time to cook off (like in the Relish). In this case the Zucchini is an ingredient that is supposed to add moisture to the end result. To much of this moisture, however, will increase baking time significantly. So for the sake of sanity, squeeze out as much as you can.

Measure off two cups of the drained Zucchini and mix it into the wet ingredients, along with the chocolate chips. Some people use nuts. Those people are nuts when chocolate chips are available.

Now for the dry ingredients. The Recipe we used required equal parts Whole Wheat and All Purpose Flour. Because of my tendency to bake bread in the fall/winter time I had both on hand. If you don't, use what you've got. Either way, be sure to send everything through a sifter. The Husband inherited an old fashioned spring loaded sifter from somewhere that does the job nicely. A fine mesh strainer banging against the palm of your hand can also be effective, although it does take longer.

To this we also sifted in the Baking Soda, Baking Powder, Salt, Cinnamon and Nutmeg (both fresh ground, because we are fancy like that, but you can use the bottled stuff in a pinch, I won't tell).

Give everything a quick stir to combine and then dump it on into the wet ingredients.

Combine with as few stirs as possible. I fold the dry into the wet. This means I run the spatula along the bottom side of the bowl and turn the wet ingredients over on top of the dry. The result should be that there are no more dry patches, but it is obviously not smooth.

I then poured the batter into a prepped bread pan, and, since the recipe I was using said I could and since we were seeing friends for brunch the next day AND since we've been using the Muffin Method all week. I put the remainder of the batter into muffin tins. Yum.

Ready to go in the oven at 350 degrees (universal baking temperature for those who wanted to know). Bake until an inserted toothpick comes out clean, maybe with a few moist crumbs.

The End Result:

THE VERDICT:

The Husband enjoyed this recipe, and in fact, with the exception of a few slices, ate the entire loaf by himself. I myself was a little under-impressed. I don't know what I was expecting. I guess after the Berry Bread from last week I was expecting a lot more flavor. The loaf was sweet, I could taste the spices, but I was missing that PUNCH. The muffins came out OK. They actually seemed to have a lot more flavor in them, oddly enough. Unfortunately they were a little dry. The recipe did not suggest pulling them out earlier then the loaf. But I certainly would recommend it to you. I would start checking the muffins about 10 minutes before the loaf is supposed to be done. Our muffins were overdone by about 5 minutes, and the loaf took about 10 extra minutes in the oven. Ah well. I am positive there will be no shortage of Zucchinis in The Box. I will just have to try again. I'm sure that will make The Husband very happy.

The Recipe:
Recipe Credit goes to Amiee at Simplebites.net and can be found HERE.

• 1 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons freshly ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs, room temperature (or not if you forgot… that’s fine)
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 3/4 cup Greek yogurt
• 1/3 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups finely grated zucchini
• 4 oz chocolate chips or chunks

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Oil a 9×4 inch loaf pan and line with parchment paper. Line a 6-cup muffin tin with papers.
2. In a bowl, sift together dry ingredients and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, beat eggs until foamy; beat in yogurt, buttermilk, oil, sugar, and vanilla. Combine well. Stir in grated zucchini and chopped chocolate.
4. Fold flour mixture into the wet ingredients and stir until combined.
5. Spoon batter into 6 muffin cups and pour the rest into the 9×4 loaf pan. Bake for approximately 50 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Start checking on your muffins @ the 40 minute mark.
6. Remove from oven and cool 10 minutes in the pan. Loosen the sides and remove from pan. Cool loaf completely before cutting.