Zucchini Quick Breads

Giant zucchinis the size of my 9"x15" cutting board
Copyright 2011 LtDan'sKitchen blogs

Zucchini is one of those unheard of vegetables when I was still living in the Philippines. I learned of it from one of the baking cookbooks I bought and one of the entries is a zucchini cake. The zucchini looked like a cucumber to me but I had really no clue what it was. It was only when I was living here in the US did I come across it again. I've had it several times in kebab form or in stir fry dishes but I just totally forgot about zucchini as an ingredient in a cake. 

Copyright 2011 LtDan'sKitchen blogs

Enter, my co-worker Jesse who gave me two giant-sized zucchini from their community garden. With this bounty, I had to come up with inspired recipes since I can only eat so much zucchini breads. Thus, this first post about zucchini will start with quick breads that feature zucchini as the main ingredient. The recipes are based on the website Joy of Baking which I'm sure you all know is one of my favorite baking blog. The first recipe is regular Zucchini bread. This quick bread is very simple with the addition of chopped nuts and coconuts which add an extra crunch. I followed the recipe quite religiously and my choice of oil was canola and for the nuts, pecans. I made a big batch and brought two loaves to work and they were really good. Very moist and not overly sweet, it was a good snack especially when paired with hot coffee or tea. 

Copyright 2011 LtDan'sKitchen blogs

The second quick bread I made was Chocolate Zucchini bread. Again, using the recipe from the Joy of Baking blog and following the recipe without making any changes as well, I made three loaves since I'm gifting two of them to friends who I know will love them. They better! This bread is almost like a chocolate cake in bread form and the zucchini adds to the moistness and texture making this bread really rich and amazing. The zucchini actually disappears in the cake you can barely detect its presence. It was definitely worth making. I might just make this for the Church garage sale as my donation. I made pumpkin breads last year and zucchini breads might be the way to go this year.