Category: Bread

Making Zucchini Bread With Zucchini Flour

6/8/2022

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You may remember reading about the giant zucchini I had growing in my garden when I came home from my recent trip to California. Here is a reminder:

Generally, zucchini that large aren't as good to eat as their smaller versions are. So, I decided to dehydrate this one and try my hand at making zucchini flour!
My friend Rhonda, who is my go to fountain of knowledge, told me about having read about zucchini flour and when I looked it up, I was intrigued, so I had to give it a try. Then, I found out that Anita, my other go to fountain of knowledge, had been making different types of vegetable flours for quite some time! Have you guys heard of it or tried it? Tell me about your experience in the comments!
It took me two dehydrator loads to get this giant thing totally dehydrated.

Of course, they started out as much bigger slices than this! Shrinkage happens in the dehydrator.

I also included a little yellow squash in my dehydrator loads.
After I had completed 2 loads, I decided to blend the squash into flour using my food processor. The idea of using zucchini squash flour is not to completely eliminate the regular all purpose flour, but to use less of the all purpose flour and add the zucchini flour as a replacement. So, when my blending of the squash yielded 1/2 cup of flour, I decided to go with that for my first try. Click on the pictures below to get more information.

I probably could have put the larger bits into the bread because it should rehydrate in liquid, but for this first time, I wanted the flour to be as fine as possible.

Now that I had this 1/2 cup of zucchini flour, I decided to adapt a zucchini recipe that I have to use the zucchini flour to make zucchini bread! This recipe makes two loaves and I have to say that this is the BEST zucchini bread that I have ever eaten! The texture is perfect, moist but not too moist. The flavor is amazing! I may have eaten half of the first loaf by myself. I don't know if it would have been this fantastic without the zucchini flour added to the recipe, but I'm going to start dehydrating more of my over abundance of zucchini to make it again! I also think that since the zucchini was fresh from my garden, the flavor of it was better to begin with. Finally, I believe the addition of the almond flavoring, though the almond flavor isn't that noticeable, really enhanced the flavor as well. All in all, this bread is terrific!
*Side Note: I made this recipe again, without the zucchini flour because I hadn't gotten any ready yet. The bread is still delicious. So, if you don't have zucchini flour, you can still make it!

Best Ever Zucchini Bread

If you have an over abundance of zucchini in your garden, this is a great way to use it and store it for future use! Just use a vacuum sealer or O2 packets to keep the moisture out. You can also make flour out of other vegetables in the same way. What a great way to sneak in veggies into your family's diet!

Other Zucchini Recipe Posts

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Make a gift for friends and neighbors

12/1/2021

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On my calendar of obscure holidays, I noticed that Friday is Make a Gift Day! Well, I've already been making gifts, but I took this as a challenge and decided to come up with something different to make. I perused Pinterest and as I looked through my own board of gift ideas, I saw this adorable treat basket that I had almost forgotten about! The directions for this basket made from 1 sheet of paper can be found on downhomeinspiration.com.

This basket is made so simply and inexpensively with 1 sheet of 12 x 12 decorative paper and some ribbon! You can use paper, or in my case I used decorative cardstock. And, because it is the holidays, I added a larger bow at the top! I love how these paper baskets turned out, and you can fill them with any treats that you would like! Kristen filled hers with mini-muffins. I thought that the 4 slots would be perfect for mini loaves of bread or different candies or cookies.

In the end, I ended up filling mine with fudge, a Pumpkin Gingerbread mini-loaf, Hot Cocoa Bombs and some Hershey's Kisses! (I feel like I copped out with the Kisses, but I didn't have time to bake the cookies that I had planned on.) But, who wouldn't love to receive a cute little basket filled with treats like this?

Here are a few tips that I found when making the basket:

As mentioned, I used cardstock. I bought a pad of Christmas Cardstock at Michael's, but you can also find really cute ones on Amazon. Here is a cute one, and here is an elegant one.
Use a ruler to help get good creases, as Kristen suggests!
When folding the diagonal creases, remember to fold them right sides together.
Have someone help you tie the ribbon to bring the inner tips together, it is much easier to get them tight. Luckily, I had Maddy here to help me.

And one more idea, these would make adorable Easter Baskets in the Spring with pastel papers!

Oh! I almost forgot! I wanted to share the Pumpkin Gingerbread Recipe with you! It is delicious!

I baked these in the 8 cavity mini loaf pan that I have. You can purchase it here.
Here is the recipe:

Pumpkin Gingerbread With Orange Glaze

We wrapped them in little cellophane bags that came with to-from tags that will be great to write the recipients name on, plus the name of the bread! (I still think that 4 different mini loaves would be adorable.) I picked up my bags and tags after Christmas last year. But here is a sweet set on Amazon.

I hope that you will try your hand at this cute little basket to fill with treats this year! What will you fill yours with? Here are some more ideas:

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homemade English Muffins (another stovetop bread)

7/11/2021

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It is rare for me to bake bread at the beginning of July. The summer here does not invite that type of activity. But, the other day I shared a recipe for Bannock, a stovetop bread. That got me to thinking about what other breads I could make on my griddle and I knew that English Muffins was one of them.

I had only made English Muffins once before, and that was YEARS ago! I had thought that I could only make them with sour dough starter, and I never end up keeping any around my kitchen. But, I decided to try to make them with regular yeast and see how they turned out. Guess what! They were a hit with everyone in my house! (There are currently quite a few of us here!)

My muffins came out light and fluffy. One big deal is that they cooked all of the way through! That seems like a giant feat for me because:

I may have rolled them out a little thicker than I needed to. Next time, I will roll them a bit thinner, unless I am going to use them as hamburger buns which they could totally work for!
You have to cook them over a lower heat so that they don't brown too quickly and leave the inside raw. It was an exercise in patience for me.

English Muffins are baked on a griddle that is sprayed with cooking spray and then sprinkled with corn meal or farina. The dough should be soft and smooth. Check out this gallery of photos:

The soft pillowy dough cut into a circle.

I may have overdone the corn meal!

It takes about 7-8 minutes per side.

Nice and toasty! This recipe made about 10 big muffins. You will get more if you cut them smaller.

Fluffy and cooked on the inside.

Okay, there aren't really any "nooks and crannies," and no sour dough flavor, but the fluffy, yeasty flavor is really, really good. I hope you give these a try.

English Muffins

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Bannock (A stovetop bread)

7/7/2021

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I woke up this morning and thought that biscuits would be really nice to have with eggs and bacon. But, then I thought, "No, that would require turning on my oven." That was when Bannock came into my mind.

I had made Bannock once before just for fun when we were cooking outside over the firepit. It is the way trappers of centuries ago may have eaten bread in the wilderness. It is said to have been brought here from Scotland and even adopted by some Native American tribes in Canada. I like Bannock because it is very much like biscuits, but can be cooked on the stovetop in a skillet. Bannock comes out moist and tasty and holds up very well to dipping in your egg or making a breakfast sandwich or just spreading it with jam!

This morning I ate mine with apricot jam that my son made with the apricots from his tree! So delicious!

Making the dough is so simple. Because this isn't a yeast dough, I like to just put my hands in it and pull it together into a soft ball of dough to mix it.
Next, I broke the dough into 8, roughly the same size, balls of dough.
I make the bannock in a cast iron skillet that is well seasoned and covered with a thin coating of vegetable oil. Then, flatten the balls of dough and lay them into the preheated skillet.
Don't over heat your pan, a medium heat is sufficient to keep it from burning on the outside and staying raw on the inside.