Blueberry Zucchini Bread
It’s been a long time since I made any type of quick bread, but with an abundance of blueberries on hand, I hit the internet and scoured sites for recipes for muffins and sweet loaves. Over and over I found the same recipe for blueberry zucchini bread, a nifty way to get a little veggie into desserts. I tweaked the recipe a bit, and probably will work on it a little more. I added lime zest to spark up the flavors a little, but you could use lemon. I only had one small lime rolling around in the fridge, but I wish I’d had double the zest. I changed the amount of sugar and the type, as well as subbing unsweetened organic applesauce for half the oil called for in the recipe. Next time I’ll add chopped pecans, too, or possibly macadamia nuts. Mmmm!
I have a truly picky 4 year old, who avoids all vegetables except carrots. And by “avoid” I mean he reacts as if I’ve asked him to eat roadkill. I decided to peel the zucchini, to better disguise it in the bread, and the trick worked. Normally his sharp little eagle eyes will zoom in on the speck of vegetable in whatever I’m trying to entice him to eat and he’ll pinch his lips together, shaking his head “no, no, no!” Hah! Not this time. He gobbled up his slice and asked for seconds. However, this is still dessert, so no, sorry, no seconds.
I would link back to the original post for this recipe, but honestly I saw it on probably 20 different websites/blogs. Here is my version, and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
Blueberry Zucchini Bread
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup organic, unsweetened applesauce
3 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar
2 cups peeled, shredded zucchini
Zest of 1 lime
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 Tb. ground cinnamon
Two dashes nutmeg
1 pint fresh blueberries
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two loaf pans ( or four mini-loaf pans). In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, applesauce, vanilla and sugars. Fold in the zucchini and lime zest, then beat in the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg. Sprinkle the blueberries with flour so they won’t sink to the bottom of your pans, and then gently fold them into batter, reserving some to put on top of the loaves. Fill your pans 2/3 full, and top with remaining berries. Bake 50 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center of a loaf comes out clean. Cool at least 20 minutes in pans, then you can turn them out onto a wire rack (or just leave them in the pans).
We enjoyed a slice as soon as the bread had cooled enough to handle. I had a small slice with my coffee this morning. I’d love to make this really decadent, and serve it warm, with vanilla whipped cream on top. Note to self: good thing you sent the second loaf to work with the husband.
