Ingredients:
2 small zucchini
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
6 tablespoon unsalted butter - melted and cooled
2 large eggs
1/4 cup plain whole-milk or low-fat yogurt
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 cup pecans or walnuts, toasted and chopped
Instructions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Wash and shred 2 small zucchini - use smaller zucchinis as these have smaller and drier seeds. If using larger zucchini, cut in half and scoop the seeds out, then shred. Shred zucchinis using the large holes of a box grater.
3. Squeeze shredded zucchini between several pieces of paper towels to get rid of extra moisture.
4. In large bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, ground cinnamon, allspice, and salt.
5. In medium bowl, whisk sugar, melted butter, eggs, yogurt, and lemon juice together until smooth.
6. Gently fold shredded zucchini and yogurt mixture into the flour mixture with a rubber spatula until just combined - do not over mix. Repeat - do not over mix.
7. Gently fold in pecans.
8. Grease loaf pan.
9. Pour batter into loaf pan.
10. Bake until golden brown - about 1 hour - rotating half way through.
11. Let loaf cool for 10 minutes, then let cool on wire rack for 1 hour.
Mark's Notes -
1. Before I even started this recipe, I researched on ehow.com on how to shred a zucchini. I didn't know anything about zucchinis such as do you need to peel the skin off like a banana, can you eat the seeds, etc. Apparently, both are okay to eat, just cooking the seeds in the bread makes it quite bitter. The skin is where all the healthy nutrients are.
2. I did not have any allspice in the house and so I just substituted 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg because I like nutmeg and didn't feel like researching the super exact substitute for allspice.
3. I used the yogurt rather than the whole milk.
4. My first attempt and the bread collapsed. I did a little research on this and quick breads will collapse due to over stirring. That's why I put in the instructions the emphasis on not over stirring.
5. I forgot to let the butter cool before mixing that in, and that probably contributed to the bread collapsing as well.
6. My wife, Trish, said it still turned out nummy. So, that's always good.
7. I have a couple more zucchinis in the kitchen so I can try another batch fairly soon, and hopefully, it won't collapse.
8. I honestly believe that Banana Bread is just a little easier in that with bananas all you have to do is mash those up. Peeling the zucchinis requires a little more effort but still worthwhile.
8. I honestly believe that Banana Bread is just a little easier in that with bananas all you have to do is mash those up. Peeling the zucchinis requires a little more effort but still worthwhile.
