Back from Vacation!

We've been on vacation! We went up north for a holiday, and I'm just now catching up on my blogging. Before I did that, though, I spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen.

Pictured here is a batch of my favorite Chocolate Zucchini Bread. I froze one loaf, gave away another, and we've been enjoying the third loaf this week.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Here is the recipe I use for Chocolate Zucchini Bread. This is by far my favorite zucchini bread recipe. It came from a church cookbook.

3 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1-1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
4 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup applesauce
2 Tbsp butter, melted
1 Tbsp. vanilla
3 cups grated zucchini
1-1/4 cup chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts

Combine dry ingredients. Combine eggs, oil, applesauce, melted butter, and vanilla. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in zucchini, nuts, and chocolate chips. Pour into prepared (oiled and floured) loaf pans. Bake 55-60 minutes at 350 degrees.

Zucchini, Zucchini, Zucchini!

Now that I’m done making pickles, it’s time to move on to other blessings from the garden--like zucchini, the huge baseball bat variety from my sister’s garden in Iowa. She gave me four of them, but one was already spoiled when I cut into it on Sunday afternoon. So that left me “only” three of these giants to carve and shred for baking…When they get to be this big, they don’t work for anything but baking. The seeds inside were so large that I roasted them like pumpkin seeds!

I shredded five quarts of zucchini, used one right away and froze the remaining four. It was a tough job because of the thick rind, which had to be carved away before I could cut the flesh inside into chunks for my food processor. And it was messy with all that grated zucchini going into quart-sized freezer bags. But it’s done now, and we’re enjoying the fruit of the labor this week.

I used three cups to make chocolate chip zucchini bread—a recipe that I should add to this blog in case anyone else is interested in trying it. It’s lower in fat than most zucchini bread recipes I’ve had because half the fat is replaced with applesauce. And because of the chocolate base, it looks and tastes more like cake than anything containing a vegetable. In fact, when I bring it to potlucks my husband usually coaxes me not to tell anyone about the zucchini…just let them think it’s something decadent, he says.

The remaining cup I made into lemon zucchini muffins, a new recipe I found in a cookbook. To be honest, I wasn’t terribly impressed with the muffins when I tried them that first day. The lemon zest taste didn’t permeate enough and, though I’m usually in favor of reducing sugar, the muffins also lacked in sweetness. But this morning, two days later, I had one for breakfast and there was definite improvement. I think everything must have mellowed well because my muffin this morning tasted both sweeter and more lemony.

So I might make that muffin recipe again, though I will probably fiddle with it as I’m mixing the batter. It originally called for lemon zest or lemon oil, but I might try using both the next time. And I might also substitute honey for the sugar, and then decrease the oil just a bit. And possibly, I would use whole wheat flour for a fraction of the white, though I did like the light golden yellow color of the muffins so it might be best to leave that part alone and just accept that they’re going to be more like cupcakes.

Another recipe I’m going to alter a bit in the near future is one for chocolate zucchini muffins that I found on the Mama’s Fixins blog. I really enjoy the recipes she posts there, but I can’t resist trying out my applesauce for oil substitution to see if it works as well as it does with my chocolate zucchini bread. I’ll use a 50/50 split of oil and applesauce, and I think I might also substitute baking cocoa for the chocolate called for in the original recipe. That will necessitate adding a little more sugar and a little more oil/applesauce, but I think it might make a good substitution since I like the way the baking cocoa works in the chocolate zucchini bread.

One of these days soon, I need to write about something other than food. In addition to cooking, I like to embroider, crochet, knit, sew, and quilt. I love to read a good book. And for exercise, I’m into walking and swimming. But I guess this part of the summer tends to be dominated by garden produce. Hopefully, next Sunday I’ll be able to get away from the kitchen long enough to play in the sewing room.