A little scrubbing, a little ripping out wallpaper, a little shopping, a little baking.  Pretty much sums up what’s happening at the Peppermill as of late.  And to keep my sanity or keep everyone else happy—we bake!  Especially when we have perfectly wonderful people offering us to take their garden abundance off their hands, this girl will be in the kitchen.  Zucchini, sweet corn, bell peppers, and the likes are in lots of gardens around town. Correction…not mine,unfortunately but hopefully in the near future.  In the meantime… a delicious zucchini loaf!!!

One for me, one for you, one for the little lady that lives down the lane!

This is my favorite zucchini loaf recipe & it’s easy, delicious and moist!  Just the way a good loaf of bread should be.  Especially when it’s right out of the oven, your house smells amazing, and you have time to sit a spell and enjoy a slice (or two)!  It even gets better the next day, if you happen to have some leftover. Lucky for us this recipe makes two large loaves! You can even bake a couple batches and freeze! Wanna know what’s fabulous about this recipe?  It’s the cardamom!

Does anyone else love cardamom as much as me???  There’s something exotically sweet about this spice and if I can put a dash here and a dash there in recipes—it just makes everything taste so much better.

Print Recipe

Delicious Zucchini Loaf

Ingredients

• 1 c white sugar
• 1 c brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 c vegetable oil
• 1/2 c applesauce *
• 3 t vanilla bean paste
• 3 c all-purpose flour
• 1 t nutmeg
• 1 t ground cinnamon
• 2 t cardamom
• 1 t baking powder
• 1 t salt
• 1 t baking soda
• 2 c grated zucchini
• 1 c chopped nuts pecans or walnuts

Instructions

• Grease 2 loaf pans or 5-6 mini loaf plans.
• Preheat oven to 325 º.
• Mix flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and spices together in a large bowl.
• Beat eggs, oil, applesauce, vanilla, and sugar together in a medium bowl.
• Add egg mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until combined.
• Stir zucchini into the mixture along with the nuts until well combined.
• Pour batter into prepared pans.
• Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Mini-loaf pans take about 35-40 minutes.
• Large sized loaves take about 55 minutes.
• Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes.
• Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.
• (*You can use 1 c. oil total if not using the applesauce)

Among the many things I enjoy, being in the kitchen and pretending to be a culinary chef is one of them!  Belle loves to cook!  And I love sharing what comes out of my kitchen with others.  So if friends, neighbors, bless me with garden goodies, you can bet I will be putting them to good use.  That brings me to the garden abundances like zucchini.  Highly versatile and the best thing is to wash, peel and grate it up and freeze.

I like to put it in 2 cup portions in freezer bags and store for the next time I’m ready to bake these loaves again.

Delicious Zucchini Loaf

Hope you get to try this one & give me a shout letting me know what you think!  I’d also love to hear your favorite way to eat it.