Midwest to Southwest: Good Eats: Zucchini Bread

Some folks lately have expressed surprise that I am the co-author of a food blog and that I like exploring new recipes. Truth be told, I don't think ordinary cooking requires any special skill or experience. The best asset to someone in the kitchen is the ability to read. I believe that if you can read, you can cook just about anything. It's all about having or finding recipes and going for it.

That being said, baking is a whole other story. There is no forgiveness in baking. When you cook something, you can switch things up here and there. A little short on an ingredient? You'll probably be just fine. In baking however, those measurements mean the difference between a nice, fluffy cake, and a flour brick.

As a result, I rarely bake. I try to avoid it in most instances. This week, however, I had a craving for zucchini bread. Not just any zucchini bread, mind you. This recipe comes to us from the kind folks over at A Cage of Words. The author there, Andy, has been making this recipe for years and I had to have it. I used to think zucchini had no earthly business being in bread but man, was I wrong. Andy kindly shared it with me recently and I didn't waste much time getting in the kitchen and trying it out.

Ingredients

1 cup finely shredded zucchini (1 large zucchini)
1 egg
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup cooking oil
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 cup chopped walnuts - the original recipe calls for this, I prefer to substitute half the chopped walnuts with chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees
In a bowl, beat together the shredded zucchini, sugar and egg
Add oil and mix well
In a separate bowl, mix together all remaining dry ingredients except the walnuts and chocolate chips
Slowly stir the dry ingredient mixture into the zucchini mixture
Fold in the walnuts and chocolate chips
Pour batter into greased loaf pan