Zucchini Bread

I want to post this recipe before I do another vacation post.  I've made a few different quick bread recipes that are GF and my favorite remains this pumpkin bread.  However, it didn't seem like a summery treat to serve at my sister's bridal shower so I made the zucchini bread pictured above.  It was good - passed as a "normal" bread and the texture was pretty moist.  The original recipe called for chocolate chips (tossed first in a little cornstarch so they don't sink to the bottom) but I left them out.  If you have lots of zucchini in your garden and have someone in your life who is gluten free, make this for them!

Gluten Free Zucchini Bread (makes 2 loaves)
adapted from Gluten Free on a Shoestring

3 cups high-quality all purpose gluten free flour mix
1 tsp. xanthan gum (if your mix doesn't already have it)
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 c. granulated sugar
1 c. packed light brown sugar
2.5 cups grated zucchini
3 eggs
1 ripe banana, peeled and mashed
1/2 c. vegetable oil
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.  Grease 2 standard loaf pans.

In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients (including the sugars) and whisk to combine.  Whisk until there aren't any lumps from the brown sugar.

In a separate bowl, place the zucchini, eggs, banana, oil, and vanilla and mix to combine well.  Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients.  Mix to combine.  Divide the batter between two loaf pans and smooth the top with a wet spatula.

Bake for 40-60 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.  Remove from the oven and cool for about 30 minutes before removing from the pans and transferring to wire racks to cool completely before slicing.

Gluten Free Pumpkin Bread

Before I get to today's recipe, an update on the baby.

Around Easter, she weighed as much as a 5 lb bag of flour 

Now, she's about this big (my hand for reference) and weighs close to 7 lbs

Her feet are still tiny but big proportionately to her body

She looks like a doll when Little plays with her.  I think Little thinks that the baby 

is her own personal doll . . . and she's nicknamed her "Bay-buh" 

And, she smiles!  The smiles are rare and much sought after by everyone in our family but totally worth the effort it takes to coax one out of her.  So far, Daddy gets the most smiles!

Last weekend we were invited to a friend's house for brunch and I brought some baked goods.  Since two of my friends don't eat gluten, I tried a new GF pumpkin bread.  Neither of them told me what they thought of it, but as a gluten-eater, I thought it was good - moist, flavorful, good texture - and my kids gave it two thumbs up.  I'll probably be making this again soon for my family and I might play with the ingredients some . . . it seems a little weird to have 2 cups of sugar and then all that lemon juice.  Maybe with a less tart liquid, you could decrease the sugar content?  Or does the acid in the lemon juice play some other part in the recipe?  I'll post an update if I have good luck with those adjustments.  One other plus about this recipe is that you use one bowl and just dump everything in the stand mixer - super easy and not many dishes to wash afterwards.  That means more time for smiles with the baby!

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Bread
Recipe from One Good Thing by Jillee

2.5 cups brown rice flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
5 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 (15oz) can pumpkin puree

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the flour, cornstarch, cinnamon, baking soda, and xanthan gum on low speed until combined.  Add the rest of the ingredients one at a time, on low speed, mixing well between each ingredient.  When everything has been added, increase speed to medium and beat for 2-3 minutes.  Pour into two greased 9x5 loaf pans.  Bake for 60-85 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Pumpkin Zucchini Bread

Fall baking is in full swing!  I made this for a visit with an old friend last week and it was yummy.  Big didn't like it that she could see the flecks of zucchini in the bread (picky!) but Little ate it up.  I think if I had put in some mini chocolate chips, she could have been persuaded, but oh well - more for the rest of us!  It made a little more than 4 small loaf pans but you could do two large or even make muffins (not sure how many . . . probably 18?).

Pumpkin Zucchini Bread (2 large loaves or 4 small loaves)
Adapted - original recipe here

3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup oil
1 T vanilla extract
3 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. cloves
1 cup shredded zucchini

In a bowl, combine eggs and sugar.  Add pumpkin, vanilla, oil and applesauce and stir well.  In another bowl, combine dry ingredients.  Gradually add to pumpkin mixture and mix well.  Stir in zucchini.  Pour into two greased and floured 9x5 in. loaf pans (or 4 small ones or muffin tins).  Bake at 350 degrees until bread tests done (my small loaves took about 20 minutes.  Original recipe says 45-55 for big loaf pans).  Cool in pans 10 minutes.  Remove to a wire rack.

Chai Banana Bread

Awhile back, I got sick of having to toss magazines in the recycling bin and decided to stop receiving magazines that I didn't read.  Pretty much the only one I kept was "Cooking Light."  I make recipes from almost every issue and it has the kinds of stuff we like to eat.  In the most recent issue, there was a recipe for Chai Banana Bread.  I had just received a delicious loaf of banana bread from a friend and it disappeared from our house quickly so I decided to make this version.  The icing with the chai spices is fantastic and the banana bread was moist and had a great crumb.  I used white whole wheat flour (I know, it sounds weird and it is unbleached) which worked well.  I also halved the recipe to make two small loaf pans.

Chai Banana Bread (makes a 9x5 loaf pan)
from Cooking Light, May '12

1.5 c. mashed ripe banana (about 3)
1/3 c. plain nonfat yogurt
5 T butter, melted
2 large eggs
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
2 1/4 c. flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. ground cardamom
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground allspice
1 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract, divided
1/3 c. powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp. milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a loaf pan (or coat with cooking spray).

Combine the banana, yogurt, melted butter and eggs in a bowl.  Beat with a mixer at medium speed just until blended.  Add sugars; beat at medium until just blended.  Combine flour, soda, salt.  Add form mixture to banana mixture and beat until just blended.  Combine cardamom, cinnamon, ginger and allspice in a small bowl.  Measure 1.5 teaspoons of the spice mixture and add to the batter.  Add 1 teaspoon of the vanilla.  Pour batter into the loaf pan.

Bake for 65 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.  Cool 10 minutes in the pan on a wire rack.  Remove from pan; cool.

Combine remaining spice mixture, 1/4 tsp. vanilla, powdered sugar and milk.  Drizzle over bread.

Pumpkin Banana Bread

After that birthday interlude, we return to our regularly scheduled programming of pumpkin recipes:

I know pumpkin banana bread sounds weird . . . I was conflicted about making banana bread with my 2 ripe bananas or making pumpkin bread because, well, it sounded good.  I googled "pumpkin banana bread" and got tons of hits.  I guess it's a thing and I didn't know it really existed.  It turned out really good.  I think it needs something mixed in (a half cup of nuts or cranberries or chocolate chips?) but I'm sure I'll be making it again soon.  Try it.  It's weird but you'll like it.

Pumpkin Banana Bread (1 large loaf or 3 small loaves)
Original recipe here

2 ripe bananas
1 c. pumpkin puree
1/4 c. canola oil
2 eggs
2/3 c. sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Put the bananas, pumpkin, oil, eggs, and sugar in a bowl and beat with a mixer until well combined.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the rest of the ingredients.  Stir into the pumpkin banana mixture until just combined.  Pour into greased loaf pans.  Bake 25-30 minutes for small loaf pans or about a hour for a large loaf pan.

Pumpkin Zucchini Carrot Bread

It felt a little fall-ish last week and I wanted to do some baking. I thought of making some pumpkin bread in my new mini loaf pans and then I decided to buy zucchini and make zucchini bread. I really could't make up my mind, so I got the idea of trying pumpkin zucchini bread. Well, I didn't have enough zucchini so I pulled some carrots out of the refrigerator and used some grated carrot too.

My mini-loaf experiment turned out pretty good. Big sister and I ate a whole mini loaf that afternoon but it tasted better the next day.

An added bonus of using carrots is that carrots are naturally pretty sweet so I decided to decrease the amount of sugar I would have used. If you don't want to use the agave or whole wheat flour, increase the sugar to 1 cup and use 2 cups of all purpose flour.

Pumpkin Zucchini Carrot Bread (4 mini loaves or 1 regular loaf)

1/2 c. vegetable oil
1/2 c. sugar
1/3 c. agave
3 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. grated zucchini
1 c. grated carrot
1 c. canned pumpkin puree
1 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. all purpose flour
1 T cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

Beat oil, sugar, agave, eggs and vanilla with a mixer until smooth, creamy and yellow. Then add the zucchini, carrot, and pumpkin and mix until well incorporated. In a separate bowl, mix the rest of the ingredients together with a whisk. Add to the wet ingredients until just combined, being careful not to overmix. Divide evenly among four greased mini loaf pans (or one regular sized loaf pan) and bake at 350 degrees for 25-35 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.

Banana Bread

Now, I'm not a huge banana fan. As in, if I never ate a banana again, I probably wouldn't miss it. But, I occasionally slice one over my cereal or eat one when there's nothing else in the fruit bowl and will eat them happily in baked goods. I've made Steph's banana oatmeal cookies so many times that I had to come up with a new use for the brown ones on the counter.

I won't tell you how many banana bread recipes I read before I settled on this one but it was a lot. I only had 2 bananas, wanted to make one loaf pan, and didn't want to use a whole stick of butter. This recipe turned out just as I had hoped. I thought the method was a little strange for quick bread (mixer, beating the eggs and sugar together, etc.) but it was easy and even my little sous chef liked the "cake." Next time I'd add the nuts for sure but I was serving little kids and didn't want to risk it.

In case you can't tell, this is her holding up the clean toothpick and declaring the cake "ready."


Banana Bread (1 loaf pan)
from Allrecipes

2 eggs
2/3 cup sugar
2 very ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 cup applesauce
1/3 cup nonfat milk
1 T vegetable oil
1 T vanilla
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour (or can do all white flour - same proportions)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 c. chopped walnuts or pecans

Preheat the oven to 325 and spray a bread pan with cooking spray. In a large bowl (I used my stand mixer), beat eggs and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in the bananas, applesauce, milk, oil, and vanilla.

In a a separate bowl, whisk together the flours, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Stir the flour mixture into the banana mixture (I used my lowest speed) until just blended - don't overmix. Fold in the nuts (if using). Pour into the prepared pan and bake until the top is golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean, about 1 hour.

* I let mine cool in the pan and the bottom was soggy - next time I'll cool it out of the pan on a wire rack.