Olive Oil Zucchini Bread

Makes one 4”X8” Loaf

Recipe from New York Times Cooking Melissa Clark

Husband-Tested in Alice’s Kitchen

Now that summer’s almost over, I’ve had this urge to make haste about baking some zucchini breads to store up for the cold months to come. I’ve made Whole-Grain Zucchini Bread, Zucchini Parmesan Loaf, Dark Chocolate and Walnut ZucchiniBread and an old standby ZucchiniSpice Bread. Well, this one is quite good as well. I loved the idea of using olive oil and lemon. This loaf has a very nice color, moist texture and a lovely hint of lemon.  

Oil spray for the pan

1½ cups finely grated zucchini

⅔ cup light brown sugar or Sucanat

⅓ cup olive oil 

⅓ cup plain Greek yogurt

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1½ cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

½ cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8-inch loaf pan with oil spray or brush with melted butter.

In a large bowl, use a rubber spatula to mix together the grated zucchini, sugar, olive oil, yogurt, eggs and vanilla extract.

Whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, lemon zest and spices in a separate bowl. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Fold in the walnuts if using.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 40 to 55 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking. The bread will be done when a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove the bread from the pan and cool on a rack completely before cutting and serving.

Options:

• You can use the batter to make a dozen muffins.  Bake for 18 minutes.
• You can substitute yellow squash for the zucchini.
• Try using buttermilk instead of yogurt.
• Replace the nutmeg with ½ teaspoon each of cardamom and ginger.
• Add some raisins or dried cherries.
• Add ¼ cup small dark chocolate chips.