Zucchini Bread

My sister-in-law brought me 13 zucchinis from her sister's garden the other day. So I've been going through all of my recipes, pulling out all of them that have zucchini in the ingredients. I think I had six or seven really BIG zucchinis and the best way to use those are peeled, seeds removed, and shredded to go in zucchini bread!

Since I'm not going to be making about 20 batches, I like to freeze any remaining zucchini. All you have to do is put 2 cups of shredded zucchini in a labeled freezer bag, squeeze as much air out as possible, zip it shut, and put it in the freezer. Then you'll have zucchini ready throughout the year to make more bread! YUM!!!

I love my mother-in-law's zucchini bread, but out of curiosity, I was looking around to see if I could find a zucchini bread recipe that I might like better. I eventually came across a recipe from allrecipes.com that was the highest rated zucchini bread and it was almost identical to my mother-in-law's. I thought I'd give it a try to see how the taste and the texture differed. When I tasted my first bite, I knew I hit the jackpot!

Here's what you'll need:

3 eggs
1 C. oil
2 C. sugar
2 C. zucchini, peeled, seeds removed, & shredded
2 t. vanilla
3 C. flour
3 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. nutmeg
1 t. baking soda
1/4 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
Crumb Topping (below)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour 2 8"x4" loaf pans. Whenever I grease and flour things, this is what I use or the Pam version:

I consider it one of the greatest inventions since sliced bread! If you've never tried it, DO! No more floury crusts with the less-than-desirable flavor. Everything will come out of the pan so easily and you won't even be able to tell that any flour was used while greasing. It's great! I love it!!

Anyway, back to the instructions...
In a large bowl, beat eggs until light and frothy (5 minutes, that's right, 5 minutes; doing so will make your bread so much lighter and more tender - do this with anything you want lighter and more tender like cookies, pancakes, cakes, etc.).

Beat in oil, sugar, and vanilla.

Stir in zucchini. Combine dry ingredients and stir into egg mixture.

Divide batter into 2 pans. Sprinkle crumb topping over both loaves and lightly press into batter.

Bake for 75-85 minutes or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean or with a few crumbs.

Crumb Topping:
1/4 C. brown sugar
1/4 C. flour
1/2 T. butter or margarine, melted
1/2 t. cinnamon
2 T. chopped nuts (opt.)

Mix all together really well and sprinkle on top of batter, pressing in lightly, before baking.

If you like to add chocolate chips, like we do, ommit the nutmeg and half the cinnamon. The original recipe would also be good by replacing the zucchini with shredded apple! So if you have a plethora of zucchini (or even if you don't), give this recipe a try!!