zucchini, two ways.

I was formally introduced to chocolate zucchini loaf a couple of years ago. It was a total sneak attack; it looked like chocolate cake and tasted like Nom nom nom but was filled with squash! When I asked what kind of cake it was and the secret ingredient was revealed my life was forever changed.

Wendy brought me a fresh zucchini from her garden, it was huge! She told me that it only takes about a week to grow that big in her garden. I told her I'd bake something and bring it to work. La la la, two weeks it'd been sitting in my fridge before I finally got up the courage to deal with it. I cut and grate it up, resulting in about 4 cups of zukey goodness- which is enough for two recipes of deliciousness. Yes indeed, that makes it a twofer!

While it was hanging out in my fridge it of course was haunting me. I scoured the internet for recipes and came up with about fifty I wanted to try. Earlier this week I quit messing around and decided on zucchini brownies.

Recipe one- Zucchini Brownies. I decided not to stray too far from chocolate zucchini cake as it's such a winning recipe, so this recipe was a perfect fit. Super simple AND they are vegan! The moisture in the zuke makes eggs unnecessary and the fat comes from vegetable oil! As I am a glutton, I sampled an edge piece for breakfast and it was delicious- a little cakier than I like though- perhaps I sifted the flour too much. For an afternoon snack I had a piece cut from the middle of the pan and it was undercooked, fudgey deliciousness. I didn't even bother frosting the brownies and they are still amazing. My taste testing panel all made yummy noises.

Recipe two- Zucchini Banana Loaf. I had a whole bunch of ripe bananas that I'd been procrastinating on baking. I was thinking of doing a basic Zuke loaf but got nervous that it would taste healthy (aka gross), so i found a highly rated recipe with both banana and zucchini! I decided to healthy up the recipe (I had a guilty conscience from eating all those brownies), so I added in extra zucchini and banana, substituted part of the flour for whole wheat and part of the oil for flax oil, and I added in a few table spoons of: ground flax, wheat germ and oat bran, and a cup of chopped walnuts for crunch and protein. Usually making this many substitutions is how i end up with a baking disaster but sometimes i just can't stop myself.

I put the timer on for an hour and had a bath. I got out with plenty of time to spare so i plopped my butt on the floor in front of the stove. My fireplace is still shut off for the summer and apparently I can't be bothered to spend the three minutes it takes to re light the pilot, so my place is a freezing cold ice box. My laziness appalls me but still I make no move to fix it.

While parked on the floor in front of the stove me I was catching up with Smy on bbm and told her what i was baking...

michelle.: My loaves are looking so high!

Smy: Ya. Ohh let's see

michelle.: will opening the oven wreck them?

Smy: No

Smy: Be quick

michelle.: IMG01416-20110929-2017.jpg

Smy: Ooooh

Smy: They r beautiful

michelle.: :d

michelle.: I am sitting in front of the oven watching them grow
michelle.: They are my children
Smy: Hahahahhaha

Smy: Ur deranged :O

michelle.: Hahahahah I am indeed
michelle.: Freshly baked children, hot out of the oven. Yummmo

Smy: Hahahhaa

Smy: Lil chubby babies
Smy: Good for the pokin
michelle.: Sliced up with some butter
michelle.: Nothin like a slice of baby to start the morning right
Smy: Ahaha
Smy: SICKO
michelle.: :)

I took the first loaf out at about 58 min and the second loaf out at 65 minutes as its a much bigger loaf pan. I was being a bit impatient so the loaves are slightly undercooked at the very center, but that's just extra texture, right? I feel pretty happy to have made two good sized, good looking loaves, with not even one disaster during the process. On the way to work this morning I dropped off a few slices to my Great Uncle Ron and brought the rest to work. I'm essentially a mix between Martha Stewart and Santa Clause, minus the magic reindeer and insider trading.
xo.shelly. over and out.