Breakfast Zucchini Bread

Zucchini Bread Zucchini bread has become something very special to me in the past couple of years. I’ve experimented quite a bit to come up with a recipe of very light-tasting zucchini bread that is good -- at least for me –- for breakfast. Unlike many Japanese people, I love having sweets for breakfast once in a while, such as pancakes with loads of maple syrup, sweet muffins, cinnamon rolls and so on. But when I thought about having zucchini bread for breakfast, I definitely wanted it to have a light taste so that it would go well with my favorite breakfast foods like sunny-side up, sausages, tomato soup, yogurt, juice and coffee. Somehow I saw zucchini bread as something along the line of cornbread... something to eat with meals. My Brunch. Sometimes I toast zucchini bread slices and spread butter on them. I love eating this with cold soy milk. Recipe to follow. Read More BREAKFAST ZUCCHINI BREAD (formerly called OLE MISS SPECIAL) ** revised June 2009 * for 8 or 6 inch loaf pan Ingredients 1 Tbsp. salt (to rub zucchini with)** A) 1/2 to 2/3 cup sugar 1/4 cup vegetable oil 1 cup grated zucchini 1+1/2 eggs vanilla extract (a pinch salt)** B) 1(+1/8 to 1/4) cup all-purpose flour* 1/8 tsp. baking soda 1/2 tsp. baking powder a few dashes cinnamon nutmeg (optional) 1/2 cup (or more, if desired) chopped walnuts Sift B (except walnuts) together.　Rub zucchini with salt (I use apx. 1 Tbsp) by rolling it on a cutting board until the skin becomes tender. Leave for a little while to let moisture beads form on the skin. Rinse well with water. Grate the zucchini to make one cupful, drain and squeeze gently to get excess juice out (but not too much). Mix A in a bowl. Add B to A and mix. Add walnuts. Pour in a greased or buttered loaf pan (8x4 or 6x3 inch) and bake at 375F (190C) for apx. 30 min. * Adjust the amount of flour depending on how moist the grated zucchini is. Actually, this is the recipe that I gave chika about a year ago before I started my own blogs. (A few minor additions were made in the recipe posted above.) At that time I was using a nickname, “ole miss” on some online message boards so I named my recipe “ole miss special.” ;P I thought my recipe deserved that name because I had worked so hard to come up with it. Chika tried out my recipe, kindly said she liked it and posted about it on her blog. As many of us know well, she is such a nice person who is very fair and considerate of copyright. When she asked for my permission before posting the recipe on her site, I instantly okayed it (and sent her the recipe in Japanese). Oh, how thrilled I was to see my recipe on her site --- a foodblog from Hawaii written in English to be read by readers all over the world! :D And her directions are much better than mine. (See the comment section of her post.) Because of its mild taste, this breakfast version of courgette bread seems to have inspired some people to creatively give some twists and make their own versions. This year I’m going to experiment some more for a recipe of a sweeter & moister version which should be closer to the 1st zucchini bread I tasted in the U.S. long time ago. There’s a lot I want to write about me and zucchini bread, including the reason why I rub zucchini with salt, but it’d be too long for a single entry. Since I’m going to make zucchini bread a few more times in this zucchini season, I’ll post just the “part 1” of the story here. The rest will be added to my forthcoming zucchini bread entries. ---- My zucchini bread story -- part 1 -- * My first encounter with zucchini bread was at an Easter dinner at my friend’s house in Pennsylvania, USA, back in 1984. There I tasted a slice of something that looked like pound cake, except it was green. And it was so sweet and moist and… something I had never tasted before. I asked my friend what it was, and she said, “Zucchini bread,” but I had no idea what zucchini was then. She also told me that it was her grandmother who made it. According to my friend, her grandmother had lost her eyesight (because of a disease?) but she was an excellent baker, and no one in her family and extended families could make zucchini bread like her grandmother did. I was so touched to witness how much everyone loved the grandmother. The moment I told her how great her zucchini bread was, her face brightened up with a smile. That was an unforgettable scene. If I were as shameless as I am now, I would have asked her to give me the recipe. Unfortunately I wasn’t. Also I assumed that such an elaborate dessert would be too difficult for me to make and just chickend out. So that was all for my encounter with zucchini bread. I had no chance to eat or even see one for quite a while after that. To be cont’d.