Zucchini Bread

I've been making zucchini bread lately, so I thought I'd share my recipe. It's the same recipe I've used for about 35 years. I think I originally got it from a college friend. It uses a couple of good sized zucchini. The cinnamon and cloves reminds me of Christmas.

I found a recipe for chocolate zucchini bread which I think I'll try next. I'm also on the lookout for a good recipe that uses yellow squash to make a cake.

Ingredients:
2/3 cup shortening
2-2/3 cups sugar
4 eggs
3 cups shredded zucchini
2/3 cup water
3-1/3 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1-1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground cloves
2 tsp. vanilla
Optional:
2/3 cup chopped nuts
2/3 cup raisins

Cream the shortening and the sugar first in a large bowl. Add eggs, water and vanilla. Mix all the dry ingredients together, then add to bowl.  Lastly, add the zucchini and mix lightly until incorporated. Pour into greased loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 60-70 minutes until wooden pick comes clean. Cool on racks slightly before removing from pans. When wrapped and refrigerated, bread will last at least a week. It gets better after a few days.

Here's my handwritten recipe. I have changed up the method over the years.

I put 1/3 cup water in the measuring cup first which makes it easier to measure the shortening.

It takes quite a lot of sugar to counteract the bitterness of the zucchini.

I used farm eggs.

I used the same cup to measure the water.

This time I used a mixture of white and whole wheat flour.

Add all the dry ingredients together.

I used a hand grater and one very large zucchini. I don't peel the zucchini.

I cut off the end and discard it.

The zucchini is very watery.

I discard the other end, too.

I only roughly measure the grated zucchini.

This is what the batter looks like before the zucchini.

I add the zucchini last.

This is what the batter looks like after the zucchini is added.

I used two glass loaf pans this time.

I divided the batter into the two pans.

Bake for about an hour, then cool on racks before turning out.