My boss grew a bunch of zucchinis in his garden a couple weeks ago and managed to foist them upon the staff. I ended up with one that sat in our refrigerator for quite awhile. Sadly due to our poor eating habits many vegetables sit in our freezer until bad things happen to them (other foods sit there for a long time too but happen to have a higher endurance).

Fortunately a recent visit to our relatives (just before the too-brief NJ stop) netted us several of grandma dragon’s recipees including a bread that actually involves zucchini. Attempts on my part to prepare a sustaining loaf of the same returned various results.

Recipees and commentary on the attempt follow:

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Zucchini Bread

Grandma’s Dragon’s recipee

Ingredients:

• 3 – eggs
• 1 cup – oil
• 2 cups – sugar
• 1 teaspoon – vanilla extract
• 3 teaspoons – cinamon
• 1 teaspoons – baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon – baking powder
• 1 teaspoon – salt
• ½ cup – chopped nuts (optional)
• 3 cups – flour
• 2 cups – grated zucchini

Instructions:

1. Beat eggs until foamy.
2. Add oil, sugar, and vanilla. Mix well.
3. Add cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and mix.
4. Add zucchini and flour. Mix well again.
5. Pour into a bread pan and bake for 60-75 minutes at 325 degrees Fahrenheit (or until a butter knife stabbed in comes back without batter on it).

I tried the recipee above using regular white sugar along with half white and half whole wheat flour. Also didn’t add the nuts. Looking back it might be a good idea to grease the pan.

Generally it turned out ok, but I still had about half a gigantic zucchini left. Also it just seemed to me that it could have been hardier somehow. The addition of a vegetable to bread gave it the hint of wholesomness, but I felt there must be a way to really take that wholesome aspect and just push it way over the top. From that urge came the following recipee:

Wholesome-esque Dual-Vegi Bread

Dragon variant

Ingredients:

• 3 – eggs
• 1 cup – oil
• 1 cup – brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon – vanilla extract
• 3 teaspoons – cinamon
• 1 teaspoons – baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon – baking powder
• 1 teaspoon – salt
• ½ cup – chopped nuts (optional)
• 3 cups – unbleached whole wheat flour (I used organic flour, but not sure it matters)
• 1 cup (maybe a bit more) – grated zucchini
• 2 – carrots, grated

Instructions:

1. Beat eggs until foamy.
2. Add oil, sugar, and vanilla. Mix well.
3. Add cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and mix briefly.
4. Add zucchini and carrots and mix briefly.
5. Add flour. Mix well.
6. Bake for 60-75 minutes at 325 degrees Fahrenheit (or until a butter knife stabbed in comes back without batter on it).

In spite of the reduction in volume of sugar this variation was sweeter, if anything, than the previous. I don’t know if this is because brown sugar is more dense or what. Maybe it wasn’t actually sweeter, but just had a richer taste and seemed sweeter because of other flavors.

We’d been pretty zucchini-breaded out by that point so She and I just had a slice and the rest went to work. Folks there seemed to like it well enough, but the coup-de-grace was when one mother suggested this might be a good way to get her daughter to eat vegetables and nuts.

I don’t know if I can vouch for this bread’s healthy ratio of vegetable-to-sugar food groups. But it sure tastes the way you’d think bread of wholesome goodness should taste. Like something dwarves would eat before going to toil at the forges or treck miles through the mountains. That semblance of wholesomeness.

In a more playful, tropical twist the next variation of this recipee to try is a tangerine/zucchini combination:

Tankini Bread.