Zucchini Marathon
Topic: In The Kitchen
Sometimes the neighbors are overly generous with their zucchini (OK, they ALWAYS are). This year I was given some real whoppers so I had a marathon baking session. I would like to share some of my favorite recipes and methods here.
First up is a new-to-me recipe for a pie - yep, a zucchini pie! It is mock-apple and it truly delicious. There is NO telling this is zucchini, either.
MOCK APPLE PIE WITH ZUCHINI
| 6 cups zucchini 1 ¼ cups sugar 1 ½ Tbsp flour 1 ½ tsp cream of tartar | 1 ½ tsp cinnamon dash of salt dash of nutmeg pastry for double crust 9 inch pan |
Peel very large zucchini, slice lengthwise, remove and discard seeds. Slice like apple. Add to ¼ cup lemon juice and ¼ cup water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer 10 minutes until just tender. Drain and cool. Add remaining ingredients and place in unbaked pie crust in a 9-inch pan. Cover with second crust and flute and seal the edges. Cut slits for steam. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes until top is browned.
-------------------------
Then I made up 22 full-size and 8 mini loaves of zucchini bread. I have three recipes that I use so that we have some variety and I always double the recipes. For a marathon session I get out some gallon ziplock bags. For each recipe I place all the wet ingredients, including the sugar and zucchini in one big bag. I measure out all of the bags at once (for this session I ended up with 6 bags of double recipes. The number of bags I have is entirely dependent on how much zucchini there is. I measure that into each bag FIRST and build the rest of the recipe around it. I label the bags with a marker as to which recipe they are.
Then I take another set of bags and measure out all the dry ingredients, including the nuts. These also get marked with the recipe name.
Now I just match up bags of wet and dry by recipe and set them aside.
Now I'm ready to mix up some zucchini bread. I massage a bag of wet ingredients to get them unstuck from the sides of the bag.
Pour that into the mixer bowl and start it up on low speed. Then I massage and roll around a bag of dry (in place of sifting).
With the mixer running I feed the dry ingredients into the bowl gradually.
I leave the mixer running while I spray the pans with non-stick spray. I read a great idea on another blog the other day and tried it out... place the pans on the door of your dishwasher. All the overspray goes on the door and is cleaned up when the dishwasher is run.
While the loaves are in the oven I wash the mixer bowl, paddle and spatula. That way I'm ready for the next batch to be mixed up. When the loaves come out of the oven I turn them out to cool on a wire rack. They stay here until the next batch comes out of the oven.
When the loaves are cooled to this point I slip them into vacuum seal bags but leave the ends open. I use a marker to write the product name on the bag. When they are completely cooled I will seal them with the vacuum sealer. Here is the layout partway through the marathon. At this point there are 4 more loaves in the oven and 4 still to mix up.
Here are the recipes I used today:
ZUCCHINI APPLESAUCE LOAF | 2 eggs 1 cup vegetable oil 2 cups white sugar 2 cups grated zucchini 1 cup applesauce 2 teaspoon vanilla extract 3 cups all-purpose flour | 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 1 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1 cup chopped nuts (walnut or pecan) |
Beat eggs, oil, and sugar in a large bowl. Stir in zucchini, pineapple, and vanilla.
In another bowl, measure and combine flour, soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and nuts. Pour all at once into batter. Stir to moisten. Pour into greased loaf pans.
Bake in 350 degree oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour until bread tests done. Cool for 10 minutes before turning loaf out to cool on rack.
ZUCCHINI PINEAPPLE LOAF
| 2 eggs 1 cup vegetable oil 2 cups white sugar 2 cups grated zucchini 1 cup crushed pineapple with juice 2 teaspoon vanilla extract 3 cups all-purpose flour | 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 1 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1 cup chopped nuts (walnut, pecan, unsalted cashew, or macadamia) |
Beat eggs, oil, and sugar in a large bowl. Stir in zucchini, pineapple, and vanilla.
In another bowl, measure and combine flour, soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and nuts. Pour all at once into batter. Stir to moisten. Pour into greased loaf pans.
Bake in 350 degree oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour until bread tests done. Cool for 10 minutes before turning loaf out to cool on rack.
ZUCCHINI BREAD our old standby
| Mix together: 3 eggs 1 c. oil 2 c. sugar 2 c. grated zucchini 3 t. vanilla | Sift together and stir in: 3 c. flour 1 t. salt ¼ t. baking powder 1 t. soda ¾ t. nutmeg 3 T cinnamon |
Add 1 c. chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans)
Bake at 325o for 1 hour in 2 greased and floured loaf pans (makes 4 mini-loaves)
-----------------------
I freeze up my loaves and we eat on them all year as well as passing them on to friends, taking them to dinners, and using them as thank-you gifts. I will do some Green Tomato bread to add to this stock when I get some off my vines. Here is that recipe:
Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net
at 12:01 AM PDT
