Gingery Zucchini Bread

Monday morning and I felt like that Fall was finally approaching. The sky was grey and my feet walking barefoot around the house were a bit nippy and I wanted to bake. I looked around the house and saw the huge zucchini we got from our neighbor's garden. A couple of weeks ago we received 3 of these foot long summer squashes. My mom had already made a zucchini meal of grilled zucchini, roasted zucchini and korean zucchini pancakes a week before and froze the second one.

I was fascinated by 101 cookbook's zucchini bread - the additions of crystallized ginger and walnuts seemed like a wonderful addition so thought I'd give it a try. Then I found out that there was only 2T of butter... But I was set on making THIS zucchini bread... So I substituted 6T with Smart Balance butter spread.... more on this decision later.

I cut down the amount of walnuts to 1/4C because my mom hates it when I steal all the nuts, 1/3 C of crystallized ginger because I was unsure if I'd like it, and 1t of curry powder because I am a conventionalist at heart and 1T curry powder seemed too much! I also did not have poppy seeds or lemon zest.

Zucchini Bread 
Recipe from 101 Cookbooks

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/3 cup crystallized ginger, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
• 3 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups grated zucchini with skin, squeeze out the moisture and fluff up
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon curry powder

2 loaf pans (5x9 inches)

Directions 

1. Preheat oven to 350F

2. Butter and dust loaf pans (or Pam cooking spray with flour)

3. In a small bowl combine walnuts and ginger

4. Beat butter until fluffy using a stand mixer (or hand mixer in a separate bowl). Add sugars and beat until no longer crumbly. Add eggs one at a time. Stir in vanilla. Add zucchini lowering the speed.

5. In another bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and curry powder.

6. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients in two batches.

7. Fold in walnuts and ginger by hand. (If you like save some to sprinkle on top of the loves.)

8. Divide batter between the two loaf pans.

9. Bake for 45-50 minutes on the middle rack. 

10. Remove and cool for about 15 minutes. Take them out of the pan to cool completely.

The result: a soft moist zucchini bread with the subtle surprise of the crystalized ginger and crunch of the walnuts, however a bit on the salty side. Perhaps it was the Smart Balance butter spread or 1 teaspoon is a bit much. I believe that the Smart Balance butter spread also affected the crumb making it a bit loose and crumbly. So lesson: USE REAL BUTTER.

-Eunice