I’ve got a lot of zucchini in my house these days, and zucchini bread is a great way to use it up! It’s my friend Val’s fault that all this lovely zucchini has found it’s way into my home, as she has become a little gardener this year. It’s not only zucchini either, she’s been bringing over onions, garlic, green beans and strawberries too! Her zucchini’s are HUMONGOUS! One yielded over the three cups I needed for this recipe, but I just tossed in the extra half a cup. This recipe is from a book I found at a second hand store (such a great place to find cheap books – of course I was able to find it on Amazon – they have everything!) called “Ideals Gourmet Treasury Cookbook“. It’s from 1979, so I made a few changes to make it a little healthier. Here is the recipe for 2 loaf pans:

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 1/4 cup wheat germ (sub. spelt flour, oat bran or whole wheat flour
• 3 cups flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg (I just grate a little into the bowl, no need to be too precise)
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar (or half sugar and half sugar alternative ie. Splenda)
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 tbs light oil
• 3 – 3 1/2 cups grated, UNPEELED zucchini/courgette (about 1 1/2 lbs)
• optional: 1 cup chopped, toasted nuts (walnuts are classic!)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350F (for convection cooking 325F). Lightly grease 2 loaf pans and dust with flour, then set aside – if you have silicone loaf pans, you can skip this step, lucky you! Mix together dry ingredients in a bowl, except the sugar and nuts (wheat germ, flour, baking powder, salt,  spices). In a separate bowl,  or in your stand mixer, beat the eggs until light and fluffy. Add the sugar, oil and vanilla to the eggs. Mix in the grated zucchini and then the dry ingredients, including the nuts. Combine everything until you have a lumpy, wet mass. Pour into your two prepared loaf pans and give them a tap on the counter top.  Check wit Allow to h a long bamboo skewer at 55 minutes. Cook until the skewer comes out clean. (Convection cooking will take 10-15 minutes less, so keep an eye on it! Allow to cool 5-10 minutes before turning out of the pans and onto a wire rack to cook.

As a side note, I drastically reduced the oil used in the original recipe so don’t feel guilty if you’d like to spread a little butter or margarine on a slice! Yum!

A little shout out to my new twitter friends @JaneCWoods , @coachingconnect and @louisebiz who happened to be tweeting about courgettes as I was writing this post!