Makes 2 loaves, at least
5 cups flour + more as needed
2 cups warm milk
2 eggs
1 large zucchini, grated
2 tbsp yeast
2-4 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
get the yeast going with the milk, eggs and sugar
mix the flour and salt together, then add the zucchini. A note about the zucchini, leave the skin on but I deseeded mine before grating it. I discovered that the seeds don't grate well and I didn't want whole seeds in the bread.
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| The grated zucchini |
Add in the yeast mixture when it's ready, pour some oil in and start kneading. You will need more flour. It varied the two times I made it, plus I was making lots of loaves. If you wanted less dough cut back on the milk. The first time I made it I used a mix of half whole wheat and half white, the second time I made it I used all white. I liked the whole wheat mix much better. It looks prettier with all white flour though, the green specks of the zucchini show up a lot better.
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| This is the dough with 1/2 whole wheat, 1/2 white |
Once it's all ready give the dough a nice coat of oil and cover with a damp towel, let sit for an hour or so. Then punch it down and knead some more for a few minutes or until the dough starts to get really sticky. Let rest for a few minutes while you grease up the bread pans. Once the pans are ready divide up your dough accordingly into the pans, score if you'd like then cover with a damp towel again. Let sit for another hour.
Sometime during this hour preheat your oven to 425. When it's doubled in size put in the oven and bake at 425 for ten minutes. After ten minutes turn the oven down to 350, bake for another 25 minutes. At this point it may be done, it may need another 5-10 minutes. Once you think it's done pull out of the oven and let it sit in the pan for a few minutes. Gently tip them out of the pan and tap the bottom of the loaf. If the bottom is firm and sounds hollow when tapped on it's done. If the bottom has too much give put it back in the oven for a few minutes (I don't bother putting it back in the pan).
A note:
This is not your traditional zucchini bread, as is likely apparent from the lack of cinnamon and spices and massive amounts of sugar in my recipe. Also it's yeasted, not a quick bread. It makes incredible sandwiches and I think it's very good but I did have a fair amount of disappointed people when they tried it because they couldn't get over zucchini bread needing to be a sweet, quick bread. The people who could try it with an open mind really enjoyed it though.
After baking the bread I made myself a breakfast with zucchini and scrambled eggs with some of my zucchini hot sauce and the zucchini bread on the side, quite easily one of the best meals I've made for myself in a long time.
