If you’ve read my Facebook posts, you’ve probably figured out that the only reason I have a garden is for the zucchini. For zucchini bread, that is. We had an incredible crop of tomatoes, kale, broccoli, peppers, squash, cucumbers and green beans; and those vegetables I can live without. But zucchini—I wait all winter for next summer’s slice of warm zucchini bread—soft on the inside and a sugary crust on the outside. Yummy!
Anyway, this summer I did some experiments with using old zucchini for baking. Seriously…I let these big guys sit on a bench in our garage for about 3 weeks! I discovered that as long as I removed the big seeds, zucchini the size of baseball bats were still totally usable for bread. The pulp of these old zucchinis is a little drier, so after shredding it, you don’t need to squeeze out any juice before throwing it into your mix.
I’ve also been trying to figure out was how to get your zucchini bread loaf to have a nice, curved top. I tried beating the eggs more, beating the eggs less, using room temperature eggs, buying new baking powder, trying mini-loaf pans, trying cast iron loaf pans, increasing the baking temperature from 325° to 350°…nothing has really worked. I’ve made probably 20 batches of zucchini bread (which also means we’ve eaten probably 20 batches of zucchini bread). And no solution to the problem
This week I was cleaning up the garden for the winter. What did I find? More zucchini! A couple of them were even “normal” size! What end-of-summer treasure! So, back to baking. I started with a batch of zucchini bread. I was in a hurry, so I just threw everything together and did a lousy job of measuring AND mixing. This time I greased and floured Pyrex glass loaf pans, and guess what…zucchini bread with a rounded top! So now I’m thinking it has something to do with baking the bread in a glass pan. Guess I will need to do some more experimenting! If you have a fool-proof way to make zucchini bread with nice, rounded tops, be sure to let me know!
Anyway, this morning I made zucchini muffins for breakfast. They turned out great—rose nice and had rounded tops. Since the recipe said they were “healthy” I decided it wouldn’t matter if I topped them with a little powdered sugar frosting! What a great way to start a beautiful fall day.
Bluebird Ridge Farm 