Chocolate Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cake

With one large zucchini I had quite the baking day.

all of this from one zucchini---2 chocolate zucchini cakes,
 3 loaves of bread, a dozen muffins

The Chocolate Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cake recipe comes from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking Cookbook, always a great source for baking recipes.

Cake

Ingredients:

2 1/2 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 c brown sugar
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c canola oil
1/2 c buttermilk
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 c shredded zucchini
1 c chocolate chips

Glaze

1/2 c cream
3/4 c chocolate chips
2 tsp corn syrup  (I make a similar glaze for another recipe without the corn syrup so I omitted this)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°, grease and dust tube pan with cocoa.
Whisk flour, cocoa, baking soda & powder, salt in medium bowl.
In mixing bowl blend sugar and oil together, then add eggs, buttermilk & vanilla mix well.
Add flour mixture alternately with zucchini till blended.  Stir in chocolate chips.
Pour batter into prepared tube pan.  Bake about 45-50 minutes.  Let cool about 15-20 minutes then remove from tube pan, slide knife around edges to ease the cake out of the pan.

When completely cooled mix glaze mixture in top of double boiler stir till smooth then drizzle over cooled cake.

options:  this would be great with walnuts stirred in batter, add a couple tsp of cinnamon, dried cherries

when making something chocolate I dust the pan
with cocoa instead of flour

you could use a bundt pan or a 9 x 13 pan

a special treat this day I had duck eggs from a friend who owns
a duck farm.......the give baked goods a richer flavor

I made it to this stage then froze it, when defrosted it gets
a chocolate glaze or you could dust it with confectioner sugar

Summer Squash Saute

Zucchini season!
This recipe comes from June Bon Appetit Magazine and I have already made it twice.  Always looking for new ideas for Zucchini this one is easy, quick and delicious!  I just cut the Zucchini into matchstick size pieces, it is so easy to cut it isn't worth cleaning a mandoline to me.





Summer Squash Saute

Ingredients:

2lbs zucchini cut into matchstick size pieces or julienned

1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 c sliced almonds
2 T olive oil
2 garlic cloves minced (I grate it on a micro plane)
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper (adjust if you like more or less spice)
1/4 c finely grated fresh Parmesan
black pepper to taste

Directions:

Place squash in colander, sprinkle with salt and allow to sit about 10 min to remove liquid.  Squeeze out squash with paper towel till dry.

Meanwhile toast almonds in dry frying pan tossing a few times just till browned.  Transfer to plate and set aside.

Heat oil in same skillet over medium heat add garlic & red pepper cook till fragrant about 2 min.  toss in zucchini and saute till crisp don't overcook you want them to have a bit of texture...about 5 min. (I increased the heat to get a quick sear like a stir fry dish)  Fold in Parmesan, salt & pepper to taste, add almonds and serve.

Zucchini in colander with salt to remove liquid, then
squeeze dry in paper towel.

toasted sliced almonds adds a nice crunch

Zucchini Bread

 This is a combination of two recipes.  I was searching for a general Zucchini Bread recipe when I came across two that had great reviews so I took what I liked from each and came up with this.  It was so good I immediately made another batch and went for more zucchini to make even more.  Next summer when zucchini is at the peak I will be making and freezing lots of loaves!  I have some people that don't like nuts so I usually make a loaf of with & without either way it is  so good.  I originally made it with all white flour but have since added one of the cups as whole wheat slightly different texture of course but still good.  It also mixes up so quick.  After a day of cookie baking I put it in the oven to bake while I cleaned up.




Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:

3 c all purpose flour   (I have mixed 1 c whole wheat 2 c white)
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3 tsp cinnamon
3 eggs
1 c canola oil
3/4 c white sugar
3/4 c brown sugar
3 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp almond extract
2 c zucchini grated
1 c walnuts (optional)

Directions:

preheat 325°  grease and flour 2 loaf pans

Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, almond extract,  and sugars together.

Mix dry ingredients and add to wet ingredients, mix well.

Stir in Zucchini & nuts.

Divide between two prepared pans.

Bake 40-60 min or till tester comes out clean.

Cool for 20 min before removing from pans.

Freezes well.

Light, moist recipe.

Wrap tightly in aluminum foil then
plastic ziploc bag to freeze.

Great for gift giving.

Added a special candy bar & bow.

Chocolate Zucchini Oatmeal Muffins

This is as easy as it gets, just mix up your ingredients and throw it in the oven.  This recipe makes a very dense chocolate treat, somewhat healthy considering you are only using 3/4 c sugar for the whole recipe which makes about 24 muffins. The zucchini and oatmeal really make a moist texture muffin.  I'll be making these again.





Chocolate Zucchini Oatmeal Muffins

Preheat oven to 350°

Ingredients:

1/2 c boiling water
2 c grated zucchini
3/4 c oatmeal
1/2 c canola oil
3 eggs
1 T brewed coffee
3/4 c sugar
1 1/2 c flour (I used one cup reg flour and half cup whole wheat)
1/2 c cocoa (Hershey it is our local brand!)
1 T cinnamon
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp kosher salt
chocolate chips

Mix together zucchini, oatmeal and boiling water.  Then mix in rest of ingredients down to chocolate chips, when well mixed stir in chips.  Scoop into prepared muffin tins makes about 24, you can fill to the top they don't really rise to much.  Bake at 350° for 12-15 min.

***After revisiting the site where I found the recipe that led to this I see in the directions she added cinnamon it wasn't listed in the ingredients but 1 T of cinnamon would be a good addition I added it to my ingredient list but it didn't go into this batch.

Recipe originally found at:

Kellys Cozy Kitchen     Thanks to her for posting it!

Zucchini Ricotta Fritters

Zucchini is produced in such volume the recipes are endless, it works in many different formats & can be incorporated into a lot of recipes.  We are winding down the season production of a lot of vegetables so try to work them into as many meals as you can.  I shred, chop, puree, slice, roast, broil, grill adding vegetables anyway I can.  I have made Zucchini Pancakes for years and don't really use a recipe just sort of eye it, so this recipe for Zucchini Ricotta Fritters caught my eye.  They have more body then the pancake version, the ricotta adds a nice texture but they definitely need a sprinkle of a good coarse salt.  This recipe is adapted from Food & Wine's Mario Batali recipe.  I used what I had on hand so substituted onion for the scallion, used a dash of garlic powder to lighten the garlic flavor (I love garlic but not everyone here does), I used regular ricotta, and whole grain white flour.  They were actually easier to fry since they held together better than my usual method.  I might add some grated cheese next time to up the cheese flavor.


Zucchini-Ricotta Fritters


Ingredients:


2 med zucchini shredded
dash of garlic
1/2 of large onion finely chopped
1/2 c ricotta cheese
2 eggs
2 t lemon zest
kosher salt and pepper
3/4 c whole grain white flour
canola oil for frying

                        Directions:

Mix all ingredients except oil in bowl it will be a thick mixture.  Heat pan with oil about 1/2 inch deep to shallow fry fritters.  Drop batter by spoonfuls into oil, the faster they cook the less oil they'll absorb.  Remove from oil when both sides have browned and drain on paper towels. I like to tilt my dish they are draining on to help draw the oil away from them, just rest one side of the plate on a spoon or counter edge to tilt plate up.  They can be made earlier and then reheated to crisp them up in the oven.