Zucchini Treats

I know you all know what it's like to have too much zucchini on your hands. Granted, there are people who will actually eat it outside of a baked good (I'm one of them, if it's not overcooked). But it's pretty common to find yourself at the end of summer with a gigantic zucchini on your kitchen counter and a houseful of people who want nothing to do with it. SO, I give you two options. Both delicious.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake. Found the recipe here. And then tried to get fancy by baking it in a bundt pan (for 60 minutes). However, I had run out of my usual cooking spray, so I used generic cooking spray...and whether it was because of that or other factors, some of the cake stayed in the pan.


Which, honestly, has never happened to me with a bundt cake. I tried valiantly to salvage it by cutting off more of the top to make it sort of a short, flat-topped tube cake.


Then poured this over it:

Ganache

Stir together 6 ounces semisweet chocolate, 3/8 c. whipping cream, 3 T unsalted butter in a heavy small saucepan over low heat until chocolate and butter melt and mixture is smooth.

Thing is, with the top (crust) of the cake removed, the ganache sort of soaked into the cake.


Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It made it really fudgy and moist and delicious.


I think the cake would be perfectly delicious had it worked out as expected, with the ganache poured over it, but I don't really know. Chances are we'll see a lot more zucchini in our kitchen over the next few months, so I'll have more opportunities to experiment.


Different Zucchini Bread. I don't know where this recipe comes from. My sister gave it to me a few years ago, but I don't think she made it up (Quilter, correct me if I'm wrong). Anyway, regular zucchini bread is fine, but this goes one step further. The ginger and lime give it a fresh and bright taste that I really love.



Different Zucchini Bread *click here for printable version*

¾ c. all-purpose flour
½ c. whole wheat flour
1 c. sugar
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground ginger
zest and juice from one lime
¼ c. canola oil
2 eggs
1 c. grated zucchini


Preheat oven to 350 F.

Grease a 9x5 loaf pan and coat with plain bread crumbs.


Combine both flours, sugar, baking powder, ginger, salt, and lime zest in a large bowl. Mix thoroughly. Whisk together lime juice, oil and eggs and stir into dry ingredients. Fold in zucchini and stir until combined, but do not overmix. Pour into loaf pan and bake for 50-60 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.


It's a short (ish) loaf, but so much more interesting than any zucchini bread you've had (or made) before. In both recipes I used the grate, then process technique that I used in the carrot cake. I like NOT discovering long strings of veggies in my baked goods.


And P.S. Toasted zucchini bread with butter or cream cheese is delightful.


TGIP Rating--Chocolate Zucchini Cake--KEEPER
Different Zucchini Bread--also a KEEPER

Next up: This Saturday is National Eggs Benedict Day. I'm going to try my hand at homemade English Muffins.