Go green for St. Patrick’s Day
I’m not fond of artificial colorings so celebrating St. Patty’s Day is more about eating foods that are naturally green than dropping food coloring into my recipes. Luckily I’ve got a freezer full of zucchini to make some delicious chocolate chip zucchini bread. This bread is moist and rich, more cake than bread. It can be made into mini loaves, muffins, or even cupcakes if you want to whip up a batch of cream cheese frosting (colored green, if you must.)
Zucchini Chocolate Chip Bread
* 3 eggs
* 2 cups white sugar (I always cut the sugar to one cup white and 1/2 cup packed brown sugar)
* 1 cup vegetable oil (I use half oil and half applesauce)
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 2 cups grated, well drained zucchini
* 1 cup toasted, chopped walnuts
* 1 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
* 3 cups all-purpose flour (I use half whole wheat)
* 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
DIRECTIONS
1. Sift together flour, baking powder, soda, salt, and spices.
2. In a large bowl, beat eggs until light and fluffy. Add sugar, and continue beating until well blended. Stir in oil, vanilla, zucchini, nuts, and chocolate chips. Blend in sifted ingredients. Turn batter into two greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pans.
3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 50 minutes, or until bread tests done. Remove loaves from pans, and cool. Chill before slicing.
Check after 25 minutes if you’re baking muffins (use liners- the tops break off easily if you just grease muffin pans) and 40 minutes if you use mini loaf pans. Depending on how well you drain the zucchini the bread could take longer to bake so don’t be alarmed if it takes an hour or more. If your kids don’t like nuts, finely chop them for a few pulses in the food processor. You’ll get the nutty flavor without the tell-tale chunks.
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