My Tastebuds Have Died and Gone to Heaven

Every year around zucchini season, I make an insane amount of zucchini bread. Ours are still in the flowering stage:

Lucky for us though, our local farmer's market had some for sale.

Today was the day that I started zucchini bread season. I found this recipe a while back and have edited and messed with it until you have what I made this morning.

Pull aside the necessary ingredients:

Starting from the top left, we have white sugar, white flour (though I'm sure you can substitute whole wheat if you tried), vegetable oil, walnuts, zucchini, baking soda, baking powder, ground cinnamon, salt, vanilla extract, eggs, and a mysteriously absent bottle of ground nutmeg.

Wash off three of your lovely, locally-grown zucchini. Slice off the nubs on both ends. This next part depends on your family. For super picky veggie haters, puree the zucchini into a fine mash in a food processor. For zucchini lovers (like ourselves) a rough grate is fine. I was lazy today, though, so we got pureed zucchini with the skin and some chunks left in it. Three zucchinis roughly makes three cups:

Into a KitchenAid bowl (or a LARGE bowl if mixing by hand), crack four eggs. Add 1/2 tablespoon of vanilla extract.


Then add 1 1/2 cups of vegetable oil.


Then add a WHOPPING 3 1/2 cups of sugar. You cannot skimp without getting soggy bread.


Throw the bowl in the stand mixer and mix until just combined. Do not over-beat. I learned that from Alton Brown the other night.


Into another bowl, sift 4 1/2 cups of flour, 1/2 tablespoon of baking soda, 1/2 tablespoon of baking powder, 1/2 tablespoon of salt, 1 1/2 tablespoon of ground cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg. I like to put 1 cup of flour into the sifter, but the other ingredients in with it, sift that, then sift the rest of the flour on top.


Pour the sifted mixture into the bowl with the wet ingredients. Again, just beat until combined and no more.


Then, add the zucchini and beat. Broken record - don't beat too much.

Finally, the part I can never omit (though you can if you want to), add as many walnuts as will make you happy. I probably put in a little over two cups.


Mmmm, nom. *B* and I both get healthy spoonfuls of this batter :o)

I grease as many pans as I can find. Here, I made an 8x8 cake pan full, and two bread pans not shown.

After 30-40 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees, they look like this:


Mmm, so tasty. *B* and I ate half this loaf. The other loaf and cake went into the freezer for less zucchini-filled days.

Enjoy!