Reg's Zucchini Bread

This fresh baked zucchini bread is moist from the oil and zucchini, making a sweet, dense loaf. 

Fresh loaves of Banana and Zucchini Bread

This is one of those recipes that comes out of the family cook book, one that I remember eating a lot as a kid.   My dad is a pretty picky eater and flat out refuses to eat most vegetables.  I don't know what happened, his parents scarred him as a kid or something.  I hear stories about a vegetable garden grown out of control paired with the depression-era mindset of "eat everything on your plate" and I can imagine my father as a child, sitting at the table pushing a plate full of zucchini around with his fork.  Not a happy child.   Over the years my mom grew fairly adept at compensating for his fruit and vegetable aversion, making sure he got his daily servings by hiding them in food he would actually eat.  I remember once as a kid she made this zucchini bread, my dad got halfway through the loaf before he noticed the green flecks and realized OH GOD THIS HAS VEGETABLES IN IT.  My little brother and I made fun of him for years about that one.  

During the 1960's people got this idea that anything that had a vegetable in it was good for you, leading to the rise in popularity of quick breads like banana bread, zucchini bread and carrot cakes.  This recipe is straight out of that time period, from the kitchen of Regina Maynard, one of my grandmothers friends.   I've never met Regina Maynard, but man I am glad her recipe made it into Grandma's cookbook.   The sad thing is it is no longer the 60's and it's hard to pretend something with this much processed flour and sugar is good for you.  To attempt to make it a bit healthier I used 2/3rds of the recommended amount of sugar, and instead of white sugar I used whole cane sugar.   I also replaced the vegetable oil with coconut oil.    The recipe below is the original measurements. 


Some people say zucchini has a "delicate" flavor, but this is just a nice way of saying it is basically flavorless.  What it really adds to this recipe is moisture, and the pretty green flecks running through the bread.  When you shred your zucchini make sure to do it on the largest sized holes, and leave the skins on.  The pieces will cook down significantly and won't be chunky in the bread. 

Ingredients (makes 1 loaf):

• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups of sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups grated zucchini
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups sifted flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 cup walnuts (Optional ingredient, I only used about a half cup)

Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 350F and prepare a greased and floured loaf pan.
• Beat eggs and sugar together.
• Add oil, zucchini and vanilla to the egg and sugar mixture.  Mix well. 
• Mix in dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg).
• Stir in nuts and mix well.  
• Pour into the greased and floured loaf pan
• Bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until a skewer inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.   I needed to bake mine for 1.5 hours. 

MMMMM, now the challenge is to not eat it all in one day.  Some people enjoy this bread with a little butter, but because it is already so sweet and moist I normally skip the butter and just eat it plain.    Notice the pretty little green flecks?

Bev's Banana Bread

My grandma was a better baker than yours.  There, I said it.

Actually, I didn't know my grandmother that well.  I hear that she was a semi-professional baker and quite talented in the kitchen, but she died when I was pretty young.  Thankfully, I was blessed with a piece of family heritage, a cookbook that used to belong to my mother that includes many of my grandma's recipes.   I feel close to my grandmother while I'm baking, even though I didn't know her for very long.  

Banana bread is the most searched for baking recipe on the web.  I have never had to search for  a good recipe though, because I've always had the old family recipe from my childhood.  This is hands down one of my favorite recipes ever.  Part of it is nostalgia - everyone has those special childhood flavors - but a lot of it is the fact that this recipe is GOOD!  The boyfriend and I actually love this recipe so much that I made two batches - one to eat immediately, and one for you lovely people. 

 here's the original recipe, in my Grandma's handwriting 

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 2/4 tsp. salt
• 2 large eggs
• 2 or 3 ripe bananas (I normally use 2 big ones)
• 2/3 cups sugar
• 1/2 cups walnuts (optional but recommended)
• 1/3 cup shortening

Preparation: 

• In one bowl combine your dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt)
• In another bowl, cream together your shortening and sugar.  (See this post for info on creaming)
• Add your eggs to the creamed shortening and sugar and beat until smooth, then add the dry ingredients and mix. 
• Add chopped walnuts and mashed bananas and mix until smooth. 
• Pour the mixture into a greased and floured loaf pan. I highly recommend Pam's non-stick spray for baking.  It has a slightly sweet flavor that is not good for savory baked goods, but it works really well for cakes, cupcakes, muffins, cookies and sweet breads. 
• Bake at 350 degrees (F) until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (about 45-55 minutes, start with a shorter amount of time and monitor)