Savory Sundays #4: Zucchini-Cheddar Bread

Like most families who plant zucchini in the summer garden, my family always had way too much of this particular vegetable. My mother did terrible things to it like freezing and boiling it that basically reduced this mild and versatile member of the squash family into a bowl of watery mush.  It was horrid, but for many years, I was unaware the zucchini did not have to be so… slimy.  I swore I’d never touch the stuff as an adult, but like most things kids say they’ll never do as adults, we’re now growing our own zucchini.  And yes, we have too much.

A couple of weeks ago, we went on vacation for five days and when we came back, we had a zucchini the size of a small boat lazily resting on the garden bed.  Of course, my first thought was “zucchini bread!” 

There are probably as many zucchini bread recipes out there are people who make zucchini bread.  Most seem to take the form of a quick batter bread, and many sweet and spiced.  Zucchini is a wonderful ingredient in bread because of the moisture and mild flavor it contributes and at about a cup of shredded zucchini per loaf, you can get a couple of loaves out of mid-sized zukes.  The behemoth we pulled out of our garden was big enough that I’ve made three loaves out of it, and have enough left for two or three more.  This baby was huge, and the bigger they are, the better they are for things like breads and pancakes (smaller, baby zukes are better for sautéing and salads because they have more flavor).

Anyway, my favorite zucchini bread recipe is savory, cheesy and almost biscuit-like.  The original recipe comes from The Joy of Cooking, but I’ve tinkered with it just a little.  Don’t have it?  You should.

Zucchini Cheddar Bread

Preheat oven to 375F and grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan.

Whisk together in a large bowl:

2 C all-purpose flour

½ C  Bob’s Red Mill 10 Grain Flour

½ C White whole wheat flour

4 Tsp Baking powder

½ Tsp Baking soda

Add and toss to separate and coat with flour:

1 C Zucchini, shredded

¾ C Sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

¼ C Leeks, chopped

1 ½ Tsp Thyme, dried

Whisk together in a smaller bowl:

2 Large eggs

1 C Buttermilk

4 Tbl Butter, melted

Add egg mixture to the flour mixture and mix with a few light strokes, just until the dry ingredients are moistened.  The batter should not be smooth.  Bake about 55-60 minutes.

This bread goes fabulously with a bowl of soup, as toast with a little butter on it for breakfast, or just plain by itself.  It’s flavorful, cheesy and moist and one of my absolute favorite summer breads.

Savory Sundays #1: Strawberry-Cinnamon Coffee Cake with Orange Zest

So, taking a cue from my wonderful girlfriend who inspires me in so many ways, I have decided that it is past time to get this mostly unused blog up and running. I have a need to write (even if I do find a million excuses every day not to sit my butt down and do it), and I also have a need to cook as this is what helps me retain what little sanity remains to me. In addition, every time I've blogged about food, I've gotten requests for recipes and even pics. So, in the fashion of Jami's Wily Wednesdays in which she posts a new art project to her blog every Wednesday, and Kyle Hepworth's Something a week, I will now institute Savory Sundays. Savory Sunday blogs will feature one new recipe either attempted or created by me and written about here where you will get a recipe to try and picture to oogle. It seems to hit three birds with one stone, so let's give it a shot.

Disclaimer: The name is actually a bit of a misnomer as our first Sunday savory is actually a Sunday sweet.

Strawberries have been abundant and inexpensive lately, so I've been buying them left and right. We can only get through them so quickly though, and one of my favorite ways to use up fruit that's slightly past it's prime is to bake it into something. Therefore, this week we have Strawberry-Cinnamon Coffee Cake with Orange Zest.

I've spent all weekend trying to think of a good recipe for my kick off, but nothing was coming to me. I think it was probably my mind trying to block me again, but after a while, I was finally able to come up with a short list of ingredients I wanted to play with. I didn't get too wild here: strawberries, cinnamon, oatmeal and orange.

I googled strawberry cake and strawberry bread, but all of the recipes I found seemed like the end product would taste like it came out of a box. We all know I'm no fan of food from boxes, so I set about making some modifications to the easiest and most basic recipe. Here is what followed:

Strawberry-Cinnamon Coffee Cake with Orange Zest

In a medium sized bowl, I combined the following:

1/2 C White whole wheat flour
1/2 C All-purpose unbleached flour
1/2 C Sugar
1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Cloves
1/8 tsp Ground mace
2 tsp baking powder

I use the two flours because I prefer whole wheat flour for the fact that it is less processed and more nutritious than all-purpose flours. White whole wheat is wonderful to bake with, and has a higher rise than regular whole wheat flours, but I find that the end product can still be somewhat dense. The compromise of 50/50 seems to work better (as compared to the 1:2 general rule when using traditional whole wheat flour). In places where the end result is not expected to rise (as in the topping recipe below), I generally use the white whole wheat exclusively.

In a larger bowl, I combined:

1 Egg
1/2 C Milk
2 tsp Butter, melted
The zest of half an orange

Once the egg was evenly distributed and these ingredients were well blended, I added the flour mixture and stirred until the batter was smooth.

After pouring the batter into a 9x9 pan and making sure it was evenly distributed, I topped it with about 1 1/2 cups sliced, fresh strawberries.

In the medium bowl that had held the flour mixture, I combined:

1/2 C White whole wheat flour
1/2 C Brown sugar
1/4 C Rolled oats
1/4 C Butter, softened
1/4 C Nuts, chopped

I combined these to a crumble using my hand in the bowl and evenly distributed it over the top of the strawberries, then baked it for approximately 30 minutes.

The end result:



And this is what it looked like on the plate. The combination of the crunchy, crumbly topping, the tart and sweet strawberries, and the orange zested spice cake underneath was delicious and flavorful, combining a variety of flavors and textures in each bite.



What I would do differently next time:

Thanks to my electric oven, some of the peaks of the topping blackened. Next time, I will probably cover the pan with aluminum foil for the first half of baking to prevent this.

Also, I would probably cut as much as half of the sugar next time. This cake is delicious as is, but the worst thing in it is the full cup of sugar (between the cake and the topping) in addition to the natural sugars in the strawberries. I think next time I'll use 1/4 cup each in the cake and topping.

The vote:

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.

I will definitely be making this again. One of my guinea pigs went back for more.... twice. It's a spicy, fruity, moist and soft cake with a wonderfully nutty and sweet crunchy topping that's basically impossible to refuse.