Friday, July 30, 2010

Road Trip

My dear friend, Rachel, is about to embark on an epic trip to Oregon.  After packing up her apartment in Tallahassee she and her boyfriend, Benjamin, will be driving the distance in three days. They're going to need something to eat. So, I decided to make zucchini bread and zucchini muffins courtesy of smitten kitchen's recipe.

The verdict? The bread is about a million times better than the muffins. The bread has a great almost burnt sugar crust with a moist vanilla-cinnamon interior. Delicious! I doubled the recipe so I could have some myself :-)

Ingredients:

3 eggs
1 cup olive or vegetable oil
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 cups grated zucchini
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
1 cup dried cranberries, raisins or chocolate chips or a combination thereof (optional)


Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F.

Grease and flour two 8×4 inch loaf pans, liberally.  Alternately, line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk. Mix in oil and sugar, then zucchini and vanilla.

Combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder and salt, as well as nuts, chocolate chips and/or dried fruit, if using.

Stir this into the egg mixture. Divide the batter into prepared pans.
Bake loaves for 60 minutes, plus or minus ten, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Muffins will bake far more quickly, approximately 20 to 25 minutes.




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