Got no idea what's going on at work, whether we have five days or five weeks left in this project -- or some other number. I only know I'm working a lot of hours, so make hay while the sun shines. Guess that mean's the sun is shining.
And it's a summer sun, so I should probably put up some summery food porn, right? Right. So here it is - zucchini bread, with zucchini from The Farm. We had an OK crop -- not stellar, for a lot of reasons, but not awful. Unlike the cucumbers. But we won't speak of that. Ever.
There's a real good chance I've put this recipe up before, but I didn't feel like checking, so pretend this recipe is like "Die Hard" and you watch it every damn time you happen to see it on, no matter how many times you've seen it before. It's summer. You expect reruns, don't you?
Anyway, to get started, you will need 3 cups of flour, 2-1/4 cups of sugar, 1 teaspoon each of salt, baking soda and baking powder, 3 teaspoons of ground cinnamon, 3 eggs, 1 cup of vegetable oil, 3 teaspoons of vanilla extract, 2 cups of grated zucchini, 1 cup of chopped walnuts (optional) and soem raisins (also optional, as is the amount you choose to include, if any):
Having assembled your ingredaments, you should mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a bowl:
In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, add the oil, then add the sugar and vanilla:
Mix it up right. Now, add the raisins and walnuts to the egg-mixture bowl (or don't -- see if I care):
Again, mix it up right. Because we are all about mixing stuff together, now you pour the flour mixture into the egg mixture:
I'm sure you know what to do at this point, but I say again, mix it up right:
Once it is mixed up right, it the batter is probably pretty stiff. No worries, because here is your secret weapon to add moisture and make the batter more batter-like:
Dump that grated zucchini into the batter and, you guess it, mix it up right:
With a little luck, you have pre-heated your oven to 325 degrees. If not, please do so now. I'll wait. Once your oven is preheated, pour the batter into two greased and floured 8 x 4 pans. Or whatever size you have. I don't give a damn what your bread looks like, shapewise.
In said 8 x 4 pans, however, my recipe says it should take 40-60 minutes for the bread to be done (you ought to know how to test, but if you insert a knife into the bread, it will come out clean when the bread is done). In my experience, the bread is fucking
never done at 40 minutes. I don't even bother testing until 60 minutes. When the bread is finally done, though, it looks like this:
More or less, anyway. The recipe says cool the bread in the pan, on a rack, for 20 minutes, then pop it out and cool some more. I usually de-pan after 5 minutes or so, but you do what you want. And enjoy, y'all.
