Zucchini Bread

We have a curious and sudden abundance of summer squash around the house. Last night I made some zucchini bread. The initial batter was a little moist and I made the mistake of adding some oats and flour – this made it more dense. Here’s the functional recipe:

Zucchini bread, www.wt8p.com, adapted from Jane Brody’s Good Food Book
1 1/2 C whole wheat flour
1/2 C brown sugar
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
2 t cinnamon
1/2 t ground cloves
1/2 t nutmeg
1 whole egg plus one egg white
6 T vegetable oil
1 medium, unpeeled zucchini, finely grated
1 t vanilla
1/2 C chopped walnuts (optional)
1/2 C raisins (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a bread loaf pan (9″x5″x3″)
2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, nuts, and raisins. Mix well
3. In another bowl, mix the egg, egg white, oil, zucchini, and vanilla.
4. Cross the streams, er, I mean add the second mixture to the first, hand-stirring just enough to combine. Do not overmix.
5. Bake the bread for 50-60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean.

Notes:

• The bread is rather on the heavy side, but it is moist and tasty.
• The combination of baking powder and baking soda is used to let some of the tanginess stick out. As you recall from earlier in the month, double-acting baking powder is baking soda (alkaline) plus cream of tartar (acid). Baking powder also has a half-life. Once opened, it will deteriorate over time.
• I have one of the ubiquitous box graters, where there’s a different size hole on each side. When I used the smallest grate, the zucchini was a pulpy goo, certainly fine for the bread, but lacking any kind of texture. I personally liked using the next notch up so there were little strings of zucchini. (I also like using chunky pumpkin when making pumpkin pie. It’s a personal preference.)
• If you want a really good general-purpose, first cookbook, I heartily recommend the
  Fannie Farmer Cookbook — this is a classic, great general cookbook because it has helpful advice on preparing almost everything from arugula to zucchini. My copy, from 1986, is falling apart from use.  I also like The Best Recipe — it’s chock full of interesting asides and science about food, by the folks at Cooks’ Illustrated. Rose Elliot’s Vegetarian Cooking is one of the few beautifully illustrated cookbooks I’ve seen where the recipes are actually good.  Diana Shaw’s Essential Vegetarian should not be confused with the Whitecap Books title of the same name.  Do not buy this awful book (it has beautiful photographs, but the recipes are untested and mix metric and imperial units.)