The "Science" of Zucchini Bread

(#10) Master 25 New Recipes

1. Stuffed Peppers
2. Risotto
3. Polenta
4. Beef Brisket
5. French Onion Soup
6. Chocolate Chip Cookies
7. Lentil Soup
8. Macaroni & Cheese
9. Zucchini Bread

This recipe was a big hit at home and at work. The beauty of zucchini bread is that it has all the deliciousness of a baked good with the conscience-easing addition of vegetables to make it "healthy."

As with my chocolate chip cookie recipe I will make no pretenses that I thought of this recipe myself or modified it in anyway. It is someone's mom's recipe that I found here.

But assuming you are as intimidated by baking as I am, I will break down the steps for you. The recipe is also posted below.

1. Sift together your dry ingredients. 

Sifting means running in through a very fine metal sieve to get all the lumps out. I used to skip this step, mainly because I didn't have the right equipment to do it. I have no idea whether it makes any difference in the quality of your final product. But it is kind of fun to do- the flour kind of looks like cinnamon snow when you're done. 

2. Mix together your wet ingredients.

This recipe, like many recipes, calls for an electric mixer. I used to mix everything by hand because I didn't have an electric mixer, so it can be done. It is just a lot of work and you can never get the mix quite as smooth by hand. Especially this mix which gets a little thick once you

3. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients.

At this point I didn't have time to take a picture because I was sort of panicking. I realized the only moisture I had added was the three eggs and some oil, and the mix was extremely dry. I called out to Ronnie "Do you think bread batters are different than cake batters?" I checked and double checked the recipe and thought, oh well. Let's see how it turns out.

4. Add zucchini and walnuts to the batter.

This is where the science comes in. Once I added the grated zucchini to the batter, it was instantly wet and smooth. In hindsight I realize it was because zucchini is so full of water and I should not have been surprised. But I hadn't added any literal moisture- the zucchini hadn't leaked any of it out or anything- and at the time I was the world's most excited chemistry nerd. I believe I literally used the phrase "Science is awesome!" while carrying around my bowl of batter to show Ronnie.

5. Pour the (extremely moist) batter into the pan.

This recipe actually made two 8 x 4 inch pans worth of batter, a fact I didn't realize until I had already started making the recipe. Which is totally fine, except that I only own once such pan. So I had to make the bread in two rounds. The first one got a little burnt so it wound up being helpful to have a second try. Also the first batch stuck to the bottom (even though the pan was greased) so I put a small piece of parchment paper in the bottom the second time.

6. Bake. 

I have found that recipes almost always over or under-estimate the time needed to bake. Mainly because ovens are different, pans are different, and baking is extremely intimidating and finicky.

So one of my main flaws as an amateur baker has been not checking on my product constantly. As I mentioned above my first batch baked for about 45 minutes and came out a little burnt on the bottom. My second batch I pulled out just shy of baked all the way through- the heat from the pan will continue cooking it a little so that is something to factor in.

Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 teaspoons cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 1/4 cups white sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

1. Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.

2. With an electric mixer, beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. 

3. Add dry ingredients to the wet mixture, and mix well. 

4. Stir in zucchini and nuts until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.

5. Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.