Come Hell or High Water, I'm Makin' Zucchini Bread!

... is the declaration I made to my husband last night. Seems everyone and their brother has been growing zucchini this summer and deciding that my family is a suitable recipient for it en masse. Now don't get me wrong, I will never look a gift zucchini in the mouth, I just run out of things to do with it! I've been throwing it in salad, pasta sauce, grilling it and plain old steaming it non stop for weeks!

This latest batch is from my mom- 6 giant pieces! It was showing signs of needing to be used up quick and for the past 3 nights I'd tried to bake but been intercepted by children, work and lack of flour so after I'd greased my pans and taken out the mixing bowl last night only to discover the flour issue, I declared that today would be zucchini bread day come hell or high water! So bright and early this morning I ran to the store, remedied the ingredients situation and zipped back home to make two delicious loaves of bread.



Here's the recipe- taken from the good ol' Betty Crocker cookbook with a couple of very minor alterations:

3 cups shredded zucchini (I shred onto a plate so the water will run out and seperate, this bread is plenty moist without all the additional liquid)
1 2/3 cups sugar
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup liquid egg product (this is my sub. for 4 large eggs)
3 cups whole wheat flour (a sub. for all-purpose flour)
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (my sub. for ground cloves)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (any nut will do, or omit if desired)
1/2 cup golden raisins (optional but they add great moisture and flavor!)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottoms only of 2 loaf pans (9x5x3). Mix zucchini, sugar, oil, vanilla and eggs in large bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients. Pour into pans. Bake 50-60 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Loosen sides of loaves; remove from pans. Cool completely before slicing. Wrap tightly and store at room temperature for up to 4 days, or refrigerate up to 10 days.*

*ha, one loaf barely makes it through the night at my house, my family are fiends for fresh baked bread of any kind, lol! I do slice up the second loaf though and put it into a zip top freezer bag and freeze it- this way you can pull out just a slice or two and warm it in the toaster or microwave in a couple of seconds. Perfect for when unexpected guests arrive!