How can we have so many recipes, and yet not have a family zucchini bread recipe? Part of the reason may be that it’s a fairly modern phenomenon–I can’t find a recipe for it in any of our older cookbooks. Another possibility is that the version in The Melting Pot is made entirely with whole wheat flour and honey instead of sugar–yuck! Another reason is that Aunt Etties recipe was ~90% nuts, which is also yuck in my book. Whatever the reason we don’t have one yet, here’s a good recipe that is unapologetically full of refined carbohydrates:
Preheat oven to 350
1 1/2 c. flour
~2-3 c. grated zucchini (one 12″ zuke)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. garam masala
2 eggs
3/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. buttermilk
1/4 c. oil
1 tsp. vanilla
Sprinkle the zucchini with the salt and place it in a colander in the sink. Sift together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Blend the wet ingredients together in a quart measuring cup. Squeeze the zucchini out very thoroughly. Mix the zucchini into the dry ingredients, tossing it so that it is well distributed and coated with flour. Pour in the wet ingredients and mix together so the batter is just blended.
Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake for 45 minutes, until the top is golden brown and a knife comes out mostly clean. Allow to rest as long as possible. Ideally, let the loaf cool and then wrap in plastic wrap overnight before cutting.
You may notice I haven’t included nuts. That’s because they are gross. You can get crazy and add nuts, reduce the sugar, use hippie flour, but I am not responsible for the results.