Zucchini Bread

It very likely has gone unnoticed, but I added a new page to the main bar of the blog called Life List. In an effort to feel excited about the future I started putting together a list of stuff I'd like to do at some point in my life. It's definitely not complete -- especially in the travel department -- but I think it was a good start.

I sort of knocked something off of the list the other night: making bread from scratch. Making zucchini bread isn't quite what I had in mind for this, but I did actually make bread from scratch, so there.

I can only eat so many zucchini noodles, so when I brought another giant zucchini home from the garden I wanted to get creative. I pretty much followed this recipe to the T: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/moms-zucchini-bread/ (nearly 5,000 reviews and 5 stars!). I've said it before, I'm not a baker and I really hate having to measure everything out, so some of my measurements were likely off.

Zucchini Bread:
Makes 2 loaves (8x4 inch pans)

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
3 tsp ground cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 1/4 cups white sugar
3 tsps vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:
1. Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325.
2. Grate 2 cups of zucchini (I used my julienne peeler and then chopped it since I didn't have a grater).
2. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon in a bowl.

3. Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl until creamy. Combine the cream with the dry ingredients and stir well. Add in walnuts and zucchini and mix until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.

The mixture looks like refried beans...LOL

4. Bake for about 60 minutes. The website said 40-60, but it took about 65 minutes until a toothpick came out clean for me. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan and completely cool before diving in.

I've never had zucchini bread and was afraid this was going to taste like crap. It is actually amazing and I'm super proud of myself for this. It tasted like something that I would buy from Flour.

Perhaps there is a baker in me after all? If there is, it's probably something like this: