What’s Cookin’ – Kim V.’s Zucchini Bread

If you’re like me, you have several zucchini bread recipes in your recipe box.  The older recipes include a lot of oil, and many of the newer ones substitute some applesauce or other ingredients to reduce the fat content.  But most of them are basically similar, and all of them are good.

One of my friends from high school, Kim V., recently shared her recipe for Zucchini Bread with me.  I loved that it included a streusel topping – I LOVE streusel toppings! – so I decided to share it.

My taste testers included a few teenage boys and one of my kids’ high school language arts teachers.  They raved about it.  That is a good measure of success.  I love feeding teenage boys and teachers.

Zucchini Bread ingredients.  Preheat your oven to 350° F.  Prepare two loaf pans by either greasing and flouring or coating well with cooking spray.

I used the zucchini from my garden for this bread.  I had exactly the amount of zucchini that I needed to make the 3 cups required by this recipe.  If you run short, however, you can always use grated carrots to get to the quantity necessary.  So, if you’re short a part of a cup, you don’t have to go buy another zucchini, just use what you have in the frig.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Set aside.

I dump the dry ingredients into a bowl and “sift” using a whisk.

In the large bowl of your mixer, blend the eggs, vanilla, oil, applesauce, and sugar until frothy.

Make sure that you scrape down the sides of the bowl if necessary, and that all of the wet ingredients are well combined before adding the dry ingredients.  When making muffins and quick breads, you do not want to over beat when adding the dry ingredients so it’s essential to make sure that the wet ingredients are well blended prior to adding the dry ingredients.

Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, and stir gently just until combined.

Gently stir in the grated zucchini.

Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared loaf pans.

Streusel topping ingredients.

Combine the streusel ingredients in a small bowl.

Divide the streusel topping evenly over the batter in the two loaf pans.

Bake for 60 to 75 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center of the loaves comes out clean.  Allow the bread to cool, and remove carefully from the loaf pans.

Slice and serve to family and friends, random teenagers, and teachers, too.

This zucchini bread is dense, moist, and not overly sweet.  The topping adds a nice texture and crunch.  It’s a little different twist on your average zucchini bread recipe.  You should add this recipe to your collection today!  Yummy.