Zucchini Bread

I was recently at a farmer's market in Boulder. I always love going to a farmer's market, but I admit that I am usually a little disappointed in Colorado farmer's markets. They are always a little too heavy on bread and meat, and too light in actual produce. Often there is produce from out of state...a vendor may shout enthusiastically, "fresh from California!" Not exactly the point. This particular one had a fair amount of local produce, including lettuces, green garlic, and zucchini.

I bought an obscene piece of zucchini. It was about a foot and a half long and about three inches in diameter. You could probably cause some serious damage with it if you wanted a weapon. In any case, it was not suitable for small children to see. It was the biggest one in the basket, and the moment I spotted it, I knew it would make at least a double batch of zucchini bread.

I do not like zucchini much on its own. Occasionally in a ratatouille or veggie lasagna, and of course, fried, but that doesn't really count. I once had a fantastic pasta dish made by a friend who had recently gone to Italy. I have no idea what was in it, but it seemed to be only zucchini, olive oil and parmesan cheese. I have tried to replicate it to no avail.

But I make a pretty mean zucchini bread. Some recipes I've found are more like zucchini cake. Cake is nice, but if it's going to feature a vegetable, I'd prefer it to be more healthy than not. I don't feel this way about, say, chocolate cake. You will not find me substituting sweet potatoes into a chocolate cake to up the fiber, or adding wheat germ, or any other "tricks" my health magazines try to see me on. But with zucchini bread, I've felt the need to doctor recipes so that this can be a somewhat healthy snack, especially if I'm going to make 4-6 loaves at a time, which I'm prone to do.

Zucchini is pretty easy to come by during the summer, when it's in season. If you grow it in your garden, you will inevitably have more than you know what to do with. If you have a small garden and don't have space for it, such as I do, then you will probably have a friend or coworker that's looking to get rid of some of theirs.

This recipe is adapted from James Beard's Beard on Bread, which has a lot of delicious, basic bread recipes that you should learn how to make.

Zucchini Bread

3 eggs (egg substitute works well if you're a cholesterol-watcher like me)
2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup applesauce
2 cups grated, peeled zucchini
3 tsp. vanilla (I forgot to put it in today, which resulted in a more savory bread)
1 cup white flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
3 tsp cinnamon
1 cup walnuts

Beat the eggs. Add the sugar, oil, applesauce, zucchini, and vanilla and mix. Combine flour, salt, soda, baking powder and cinnamon; add to zucchini mixture. Stir until blended, add nuts, pour into two 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pans. Bake in 350 degree oven for one hour; cool on rack. I spray the pans with nonstick cooking spray and put a rectangle of waxed paper into the bottom, as I've found these loaves prone to sticking. You can also make 2 dozen muffins in lieu of two loaves, or one dozen muffins and one loaf.

This bread freezes exceptionally well. The recipe makes two loaves, so if you double or triple it, you will have a nice supply. I have played with the ratio of oil to applesauce and the flours. Using all whole wheat flour made the loaves heavy and a little dry. My next experiment may be to use equal parts whole wheat and whole wheat pastry flour. I also considered adding a bit of ginger in place of some of the cinnamon, but shied away for today. Next time.

High-Altitude Baking Conundrums

I've relocated from San Francisco to Denver. From a cooking standpoint, I am in a different world. The foggy, cool San Francisco air was not conducive to making caramels (they came out like taffy, which led me to think maybe this is how taffy was invented--just another failure to create chewy caramel candy). Bread was difficult. The air was damp literally 365 days a year, as I lived near the ocean.

Enter the Denver kitchen. They have a regular summer here. The air is incredibly dry, save for a few thunderstorms at night. There are, and here is where it gets scary...different instructions for baking at high altitude. Altitude? Ah, yes, I am now living precisely 5,280 feet higher than I've ever lived. On second thought, I was nearly 900 feet in the air when I lived on Twin Peaks in SF.

My first indication that I should use the high-altitude instructions actually occurred in Mammoth Lakes, before we left California. I bought one of those fool-proof brownie mixes that comes in a zipped plastic bag. Wanting to make a moist brownie that was a little lower in fat, I got clever and used applesauce instead of oil. I ignored all mentions of high-altitude in the instructions; not out of defiance, but rather, ignorance. Mammoth is between 7000-8000 feet above sea level. Those of you who live in altitude are probably chuckling to yourselves right now. For other neophytes such as myself, let's just say that the "brownies" were about one half-inch thick and soaking wet. They had to be eaten right out of the pan. In fact, we stored them in the fridge. They were more like really wimpy fudge.

But now I have learned! Or am learning, I guess. I bought a boxed brownie mix here and actually followed the instructions. It wasn't that complicated. Turn the oven down 25 degrees and add 3 tablespoons of flour. If I had to figure it out on my own, I'd say that's because the air is thinner up here, and adding flour incorporates more air into the batter...right?

I also attempted a loaf of bread during my first week here. It was whole-wheat bread, which is always a little dicey for me. It tasted fine, but the texture was off. I didn't see any special instructions on the package. According to the friendly Whole Foods website, I have the following to look forward to if I don't learn quickly: Collapsing cakes, overflowing batters, brittle cookies. Mmm.

An investigation: the following can occur at high altitudes: liquids evaporate more quickly, baked goods rise more easily (hmm, didn't seem to happen with the brownies), batters more likely to stick to the pan. Decreased air pressure seems to be the main culprit, and will also result in leavening agents (baking powder, for example) to be overactive. Once cooking, all the gases have already escaped, which accounts for the brownies. I also found out that foods with high chocolate content tend to burn more easily. Oh, the joy! Nothing will make me depressed more quickly than ruined chocolate.

Now I also saw that temperatures should be raised 20 degrees for cakes and cookies. Are brownies a separate category? Something tells me that navigating this new cooking territory is going to be every bit as difficult as climbing a fourteener (mountains over 14,000 feet tall. Colorado has more of them than any other state. This excites people here. I'm still struggling to play tennis down here at a mere mile high).

Basically, no conclusive answers yet. I'll continue experimenting. Luckily, my oven here cooks at a spot-on temperature, which is more than I can say for most SF ovens I experienced--such as attempting quick breads in my boyfriend's oven there, which cooked at least 50 degrees too hot.

Here's to new culinary adventures!