Chocolate and Zucchini

This is the time of year in our area where the zucchini plants are producing so many squash that we desperately search for recipes to help us use up this prolific vegetable. I have a great recipe for chocolate zucchini bread, but I wanted brownies this time. I found a great sounding recipe at Spend with Pennies blog and it also had a dynamite recipe for easy chocolate frosting. Turned out the the brownie was more like a cake, but it's a moist, delicious cake and the frosting takes it up a notch!

As usual I substituted soy creamer and non-dairy margarine for the milk and butter in the frosting. The cake called for veggie oil, so I used a very light olive oil. It worked well.

The zucchini was grated on a fairly fine grater, so it melted right into the cake. It's really important that you use the zucchini just as it is after grating...don't squeeze out any of the juices. They are needed to make the cake batter moist. The cake comes out with a deep, dark chocolate flavor and you can't tell that there is zucchini in it at all.

I love the frosting recipe, but found that adding all the chips at once meant that it took a ton of stirring to get smooth. I eventually used my stick blender to finish the job. I think that adding half the chips and melting them some before adding the rest might work better. The mixture will still be pretty warm when you put it on the cake. It hardens a bit as it cools and is really, really good.

Brought this dessert to a potluck and it went over quite well. Still finding that I need more rest and naps than usual, but otherwise doing well. Slept three hours after getting home from the lunch potluck! Doesn't this frosting look great?

Easy Zucchini Cake/Brownies with 1 Minute Fudge Frosting

from spendwithpennies.com blog

Makes about 28

Cake/Brownie

1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used a very light olive oil)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 1/2 cups grated zucchini (don't peel or squeeze our juice..just wash and grate after removing ends) 1-2 zucchini depending on size

Combine the oil, sugar and vanilla in a large bowl.

In another bowl combine the flour, salt, cocoa powder, and baking soda. Add to the sugar mixture and stir well to combine. Mixture will look sort of dry. Stir in the wet zucchini and stir very well to combine. Mixture now looks like a batter.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake in the preheated 350 degree F oven for 25-30 minutes. When done the cake/brownie will be springy to the touch and will have pulled slightly away from the sides. Cool completely on a wire rack in the pan, then frost.

1 Minute Fudge Frosting

1/3 cup milk (I used soy creamer)
1/3 cup butter (I used non-dairy margarine)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup chocolate chips

In a small saucepan combine the milk, butter and sugar. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring well. Once boiling, boil for 30 seconds, stirring all the time to prevent scorching, then remove from heat and immediately stir in half of the chips, stirring until melted, then add the rest of the chips and keep stirring until smooth. Immediately frost the cake/brownies, using an offset spatula to smooth it over the top. Add swirls if you like before it cools. Once frosting is cool you can cut the dessert and remove from the pan, or serve in the pan.

A Hot Zucchini Dish

Lately we have been enjoying foggy mornings and some foggy evenings. The day of the eclipse we had fog all day, so the eclipse was a no show. I happen to love the fog, so I'm OK with that. This coming weekend might get hotter, so I am enjoying the fog we are having even more knowing it might be gone soon.

Foggy evenings mean that we are fine with a hot side dish at dinner, so, in an attempt to use up some more of the burgeoning zucchini from my garden, I put together one that Sweetie really likes.

I probably spotted this recipe a while ago in some magazine, but don't remember where, so I apologize in advance for not giving credit where it is due. It is, however, a pretty simple dish, so it's probably been around a while.

I know this tastes great hot, but it would probably be fine cold, too, especially the next day when the onions have lent their flavor.

By the way, a great way to cut corn off the cob without making a huge mess is to set the cob in the hole in the middle of a bundt or similar cake pan. The cut corn goes into the cake pan, the sides catch the juices and kernels that like to fly off during the cutting, and the cob stays upright and fairly secure. Try it!

Zucchini with Corn and Peppers
serves 4

1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 medium red pepper, cored, seeded, and chopped
2-3 medium zucchini, ends removed, cut in half and sliced
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme or 1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme
pepper to taste
garlic salt to taste (optional - I don't use it)
2-3 ears fresh corn, cut from cob or about 1 cup to 2 cups frozen corn

In a large saute pan, saute the onion in the olive oil until translucent and lightly browner, about 5 minutes, stirring often.
Add the peppers and cook another 3-5 minutes until pepper is softened.
Add the zucchini, thyme, pepper (and garlic salt if using), stir and cook two more minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the corn, stir to combine well, and cook another 3-5 minutes until mixture is piping hot, stirring often.

Serve at once!

A Bread For Zucchini Madness

It happens every year...too many zucchini. It may be from your own plant, it may be the sneaky neighbor who deposited a big bag of them on your porch early in the morning, or maybe you got carried away at the farmer's market. Now you are looking for ways to use them up...look no further.

My great good friend NoHandle sent another wonderful guest post. You are going to want to make this zucchini bread my friend. If you really like it, maybe I can get some of my extra zucchini to you (just kidding). The best part about this bread is there is no chocolate. Although I love chocolate, it doesn't love me at present. Thanks NoHandle!

Zucchini Bread Again?

Perhaps the only thing more pervasive than the excessive production of the zucchini plant (it would be considered a weed if the fruits weren't edible) is the profusion of recipes you find about now to create uses for the aforementioned excessive production. Leaving bags of the stuff on neighbor's porches can go undetected for only so long, and then they force you to stop. And no fair setting the bag on fire; that is a different prank. 

At any rate, I noticed, in my hour of need, that  my favorite blog (this one) had almost all chocolate zucchini bread recipes, and so cried out for a non-chocolate rendition. (I'm a big fan of chocolate, but not everyone in the household is, and I don't want to be the only consumer of the bread; that would partially defeat the purpose. She really likes this one.) So, I cast about and found a decent looking one on the Food and Wine site. It had only one ingredient that I didn't currently have in the cupboard (and that was just a matter of timing) so I printed a copy and off I went.

To begin with, most recipes say a “medium” zucchini produces 1 cup of shredded (and squeezed out) flesh. I must have had a monster then. It produced a bit over three cups, so although the (doubled) recipe called for two cups, three cups it was to be. The remaining quarter of a cup or so went to compost.

The next issue was with the yogurt, for which the recipe the recipe called “non-fat” which in my mind meant “not really food” and the grocery store was apparently in the former camp. I ended up with a honey-flavored full-fat product, which meant there was a measure of sugar in it. The amount of sugar called for in the recipe seemed excessive, so I didn't feel bad about cutting it back in this case. I also ended up a bit short on the flour, so in included a half-cup or so (I didn't measure it) of whole wheat flour to round it out. With the extra zucchini, I wasn't too concerned with exact measurement, I just added a bit to just about everything (except sugar and oil; with full-fat yogurt, I slacked off on the oil too). And of course this was double the recipe (two loaves instead of one) which led to needing an extra large bowl to combine everything where the recipe called for only a large bowl. I think we've all been there when scaling up recipes. Mine was a glass salad bowl.

Oh, the recipe calls for coarse chopped walnuts, but we prefer smaller bits, so I used my trusty nut grinder, which produces bits about the size of half of a lentil, and smaller.

My other departure was to not consider sugar a “wet” ingredient, and including it with the dry. I mixed the eggs and oil first to create an emulsion, then added the yogurt, which preserved it. The dry (plus sugar) ingredients were already combined, so I added some shreds, and some of the liquid, to the dry, mixed that up, and added the rest. I don't have a stand mixer, but I recommend one for this application. Mix at slow speed, as the flour and batter tend to fly. My heavy-duty hand mixer was adequate to the task, but a lesser one might have started smoking, quite literally, from the strain, and that would have ruined the aroma from baking. It is a very, very dense batter. I also poured the batter alternately into the pans to keep the results consistent. I weighed them both to ensure they had about the same amounts. It was about 56 ounces each (including the weight of the pan, a bit over a pound) in case you were wondering. 

The baking time is a rather lengthy hour and ten minutes, and with two moist cakes in the same oven, a bit longer is better. I was satisfied at one hour and fifteen minutes, but another five or so wouldn't hurt. There is another long wait as the loaves cool, at least a half-hour. This is quick bread for the patient.

Note that even with surplus zucchini the pans were not quite full when baking was done. Freeze at least one to bring back memories of the closing days of summer (and the bounty of the zucchini plant) in the midst of winter, and enjoy the other while still warm (and for a few days thereafter). 

Your neighbors will appreciate this more than the raw fruit, so bake some more! (You have more zucchini, don't you?)

Here is the recipe as I did it. The measurements are approximate, but this is forgiving one.

Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:

1 ½ cup walnut halves

4 cups all-purpose flour (substituting about ½ cup whole wheat flour works too)

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 ½ cup sugar (scant)

4 large eggs

¾ cup vegetable oil (I used pure olive oil; not extra virgin nor even virgin. It has nearly no olive taste.)

1 cup honey-flavored Greek yogurt

3 cups coarsely grated zucchini, squeezed in a ta towel to remove as much liquid as you can

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Butter (or cooking spray) and flour two 9-by-4 ½ inch metal loaf pans. Spread the walnut halves on a small (cookie) sheet pan, and toast them for about 10 minutes, until they are fragrant. Cool them in the freezer for 5 minutes while you make the batter, then chop in fine pieces.

In a very large bowl, whisk the flower with baking powder, baking soda, and salt. If you combine the sugar at this point the dish still works. In a medium (medium is still big enough) bowl, beat the eggs and vegetable oil together until well combined, and then beat in the yogurt. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, along with the grated zucchini and toasted, chopped walnuts. I found adding about 1/3 first of both, beating, and then the remaining made the process easier and the result smoother. Beat until the batter is evenly moistened.

Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 1 hour 15 minutes, until the loaf is risen and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (about 195 degrees in an instant read thermometer).

Let the loaf cool on a rack for 30 minutes before un-molding and serving. A few additional minutes cooling of the released loaf will make slicing easier, as the center is still fairly moist.

Enjoy, NoHandle.

GF Pasta With 'Too Many Zucchinis' Sauce

It's that time of the harvest season again when the zucchinis are producing like crazy and challenging cooks to find ways to use them up. Although I enjoy zucchini cookies and quick breads/tea cakes, my favorite way to eat them is just grilled with a spritz of olive oil to keep them from sticking to the grill grates.

My second favorite way is to use them in this pasta sauce. This recipe is almost 40 years old and comes from the food section of the Oakland, CA newspaper the Oakland Tribune. It was originally a vegetarian recipe but since the men I marry are meat and potato kinds of guys, I soon figured out a way to add some ground meat. First I went with ground beef, but for about 30 years I've used ground turkey instead and I like it better that way. You can also just skip the meat, add more squash and tomato sauce and a little extra olive oil to the pan, and it makes a wonderful vegan sauce. The great thing about zucchini is that it soaks up whatever flavors you put with it. Make this sauce a half hour before you eat and it almost tastes like you have been simmering it for hours, especially with the no meat version.

You can also make a lot of this without the meat and freeze it for future meals. If you are really handy you can take fresh tomatoes and peel, core and seed them, chop the tomato that is left and use it instead of the canned diced tomatoes. That's what I did this time and it gave it an intense, end of summer tomato flavor and color.

Now that I am eating gluten free I took some time and found a wonderful rice based pasta to serve the sauce with. It is not vegan since it has eggs, but if that isn't a concern for you it might be worth finding out if it is sold in a store near you, or check out the online link HERE. The brand is jovial and I used their tagliatelle traditional whole grain egg pasta. It seemed to take a little longer to cook than I had expected, but you would never know it was gluten free...the taste and texture were just like the best wheat based pasta.

Too Much Squash Pasta Sauce

1/2 lb ground meat (beef or turkey - I use turkey)
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium squash, cut into chunks (any summer squash, but zucchini works best)
1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
1 15 oz can diced tomatoes in juice
2 teaspoons oregano
1 teaspoon dry basil
1/4 teaspoon dry rosemary
note - fresh oregano, basil and rosemary can be used - use twice as much, or more, to taste
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper


In large skillet heat oil over medium high heat. Brown ground meat. Set aside.

Using same pan, cook onion and garlic until translucent and barely brown, about 5 minutes, stirring now and then.

While meat and then onions/garlic cook, put half of squash in a blender. Add 1/2 of the can of tomato sauce and 1 tablespoon of water. Pulse blender, removing top and stirring every couple of pulses, until mixture is broken down but still chunky. Once onions have finished, pour this mixture into the pan. Lower heat to simmer and deglaze the pan with the tomato mixture, scraping up the browned bits.

Return browned meat to the pan and stir. Put the rest of the squash into the blender, add rest of tomato sauce, pulse the same way the first batch was done. Add this batch to the pan of meat mixture and stir.

Add diced tomatoes, herbs, salt and pepper to pan, stir.

Return to boil, cover, turn down heat and simmer at least 2 minutes, stirring about every 10 minutes to avoid scorching. (The longer the sauce simmers, the better it will taste. Cooking it the day before it is served, chilling overnight and reheating right before serving, is even better.)

While sauce is simmering, bring large pot of water to a boil. Add pasta and cook according to directions on package, until al dente. Drain pasta well.

Put generous serving of pasta on plate. Top with pasta sauce and garnish with fresh basil and/or good Parmesan cheese shards.

note - this sauce tastes even better if allowed to cool and left in the refrigerator overnight to blend the flavors. Reheat over low heat until simmering.