Once upon a moon ago, I was an e-commerce Marketing Manager at Van Bourgondien’s, a flower bulb company. I was blessed with a wonderful staff and whenever we got into work a few minutes early, we used to trade recipes. Perhaps this sounds a little old-fashioned to some, but that was always my most favorite part of the day.

One day, my assistant, Marie, came in with some delicious-smelling bread. I eagerly pounced upon her cubicle and asked what she had whipped up the night before. She proudly told me it was zucchini bread – made with fresh zucchini pulled right out of her garden. Would I like a slice?

I immediately started backing away…zucchini? Yuck! I hated zucchini – it was something my mother forced me to eat as a kid and there was no way it was going to taste good baked in a loaf of bread. Thankfully, the phone in my office rang and I made a mad dash for it.

When Marie came into my office a few moments later, I was horrified to see that she came with a slice of her vegetable bread. I was trapped, and I knew I would have to try it because she was just so gosh-darn nice, that I couldn’t say no.

So I mustered up my courage and slowly took a bite…

What?! It was sweet? And, tasted delicious too? This bread couldn’t have a vegetable in it: especially, if it was the mom-forced-upon-me zucchini from my childhood past!

Yet, when I inspected the bread, I saw the trademark green flecks scattered throughout the slice. At that point, I forgot all about my bad zucchini past, and promptly shoved the rest of the piece in my mouth. While chewing, and spitting crumbs everywhere, I begged Marie for the recipe.

Unfortunately, I lost the recipe. I know that I put it in one of my “safe spots”, but I have a horrible habit of forgetting where my safe spots really are. So when I went to make Marie’s recipe the other day, I couldn’t find it anywhere.

Sadly, Marie wasn’t online, but I knew she found her recipe on AllRecipes.com, so I poked around on the site and reviewed several recipes until I pieced one together that most closely resembled Marie’s original. I’m happy to report that it turned out well: so well, that the kids gobbled it down!

So, if you’ve got a bumper crop of zucchini in your yard and want to sneak some veggies into your kids’ diets, give this recipe a whirl…

GARDEN FRESH ZUCCHINI BREAD

Ingredients:
* 3 eggs
* ½ cup applesauce
* ½ cup vegetable oil
* 1 cup white sugar
* 1 ¼ cup brown sugar
* 2 tsp vanilla extract
* 3 cups flour
* 1 tsp salt
* 1 tsp baking soda
* 1 tsp baking powder
* 2 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
* ½ tsp nutmeg
* 2 ½ – 3 cups freshly grated, unpeeled zucchini
* 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Topping:
* 3/4 cup flour
* 6 tablespoons white sugar
* 6 tablespoons brown sugar, packed
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 cup old-fashioned oatmeal
* 1/4 cup walnuts, chopped
* 2 tbs cold butter
* 2 tsp ground cinnamon
* 1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold & diced

Directions:

Step 1: Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).

Step 2: Wash zucchini and slice in half. Scoop out seeds. Using a hand grater, finely grate the washed zucchinis with their skins on, onto paper towels. Set aside.

 

Step 3: In a large bowl, whisk eggs until just blended. Add applesauce, oil, both sugars and vanilla to the eggs; stir well.

Step 4: In a separate bowl, whisk flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Step 5: Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients; mix until all ingredients are blended. Fold in grated zucchini. [*If you want nuts in the batter, fold them in as well.] Set batter aside.

 
Step 6: In a clean, dry bowl, mix topping ingredients together, set aside.

Step 7: Pour batter into prepared pans. Top batter with struesel topping. Bake for 40-60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

Step 8: Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.

Thanks for reading,

Denine

{The recipe I adapted can be found here.}

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