Zucchini Bread

Poor Jason. Last week the guy had to suffer through eating the same everything bagel for breakfast every morning. How boring! But really, it's kind of my fault. I can never get up early enough to make a decent breakfast. The most I can muster up is two shots of espresso - one for him and the other for me. And breakfast is usually a bagel with cream cheese or cereal or yogurt and granola - anything that I don't actually have to prepare.

So I started searching for good breakfast ideas and making a list of things that could easily be made ahead and stored in the fridge, then warmed up for breakfast. And when I saw this recipe for zucchini bread over on the WhiteonRiceCouple blog, I immediately went out and bought some zucchinis. Mmmm, I'm eating a slice right now as I write this post.

I modified the ingredients a bit to fit what I already had laying around. I also left out the cream cheese frosting. I imagine it would make the zucchini bread even more delicious but we're trying to cut back on the calories a bit around here. This was pretty easy to make and it makes a good sized loaf. I sliced up the whole loaf, wrapped half in plastic wrap and aluminum foil and popped it in the freezer, and the other half is sitting in the fridge to be eaten throughout the rest of the week. To warm it up, just toast it in your regular ol' toaster.

Happy baking!

Zucchini Bread
(makes one 9.25 x 5.25 loaf)

2 cups grated zucchini
0.5 cup vegetable oil
0.5 cup (100 g) granulated sugar
0.5 cup (80 g) brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups (240 g) all purpose flour
1 tsp (5 g) baking powder
3/4 tsp (3 g) sea salt
1 tsp (5 g) cinnamon
0.5 cup dried cranberries & raisins (or whatever dried fruit you want)
3/4 cup chopped pecans
enough dark rum or kaluha to cover the dried fruit*

• Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9.25 x 5.25 loaf pan with cooking spray. Macerate dried fruit in rum/kaluha/vanilla and set aside.

• In a large bowl, combine grated zucchini, vegetable oil, both sugars and beaten egg. Mix until well combined (you don't want lumps of brown sugar).

• In separate bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. In three batches, add the flour mixture to the zucchini mixture, and stir until just combined before stirring in the next batch. Don't over mix!
• Drain dried fruit and add to the batter along with the pecans. Gently mix. (To prevent the ingredients from sinking to the bottom, toss them in some flour before adding to the batter).
• Pour into greased loaf pan. Bake 45-50 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. (If the top begins to brown too fast, cover with aluminum foil).
• Remove from oven and let cool in pan before turning out. Slice and enjoy with a cup of coffee!

*I didn't have any rum or kaluha so I marinated the cranberries & raisins in my homemade rum-based vanilla extract. You could also just use plain vanilla extract.