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Love Your Zucchini

One zucchini can provide an entire day of fun for you and a friend. Harvest is a time for trying new recipes and sharing old ones. Recently, my daughter and I chose to spend a day adapting already well-loved zucchini recipes. She prefers oat flour in all her baking. I often use spelt flour mixed with wheat flour. One awesome zucchini provided us with two 9” by 13” chocolate cakes, four spice loaves, and enough fritters for supper.

First, the vintage zucchini loaf recipe, that I am sharing today, should be credited to Irene Paquette. My original recipe had her name scribbled on the top in my handwriting. I make it, often, and freeze it. For a quick lunch, serve it with a piece of cheddar cheese. For a yummy dessert, drizzle a slice with cream cheese glaze. My daughter made hers with oat flour, extra raisins, and no nuts. Her loaves are pictured on the right. 

Zucchini Loaf

Moist Ingredients:

2 ½ cups of shredded zucchini

3 eggs

1 cup of salad oil

1 ½ cups white sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla

Dry Ingredients:

3 cups of flour (It is fine to use whole grain spelt)

½ teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1 tablespoon of cinnamon

Additions:

½ cup of nuts (optional) Double the raisins if you are omitting nuts.

½ cup of raisins (rinse in boiling water to puff)

Method:

In a large bowl mix sugar, eggs, oil, and vanilla. Add the grated zucchini.

In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

Add the dry ingredients to the sugar and egg mixture, stirring only until moistened.

Fold in the nuts and/or raisins.

Pour batter into 2 greased loaf pans, or one 9” by 13” cake pan. If you lightly grease the pans and use parchment paper, you will find the loaves lift out easily for slicing.

Bake the loaves at 350°F for 50 to 60 minutes. Lift cooled cakes from pan and slice for freezing.

For the chocolate zucchini cakes, my daughter, again, used oat flour and topped her cake with assorted sizes and textures of chocolate chips. I topped mine with dark, medium-sized, chocolate chips by Enjoy, because I am allergic to soy. Again, both were delicious.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Preheat oven to 350° F

Moist Ingredients:

¼ cup of soft margarine or butter

½ cup of vegetable oil

1¾ cups of white sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon of vanilla

2 cups of shredded raw zucchini

½ cup of sour milk or plain yogurt

Dry Ingredients:

2½ cups of flour

4 tablespoons of cocoa powder

½ teaspoon of baking powder

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

½ teaspoon of cloves

Topping:

¾ of a cup of chocolate chips

Method:

In a large bowl, cream the butter, oil, and sugar. Add slightly beaten eggs and vanilla. Beat this mixture until smooth. Stir in the grated zucchini and yogurt.

In a medium sized bowl, thoroughly mix the dry ingredients together, using a whisk.

Add the dry ingredients to the moist ingredients and mix well. 

Pour into a greased 9” by 13” baking pan. Sprinkle the top of the batter with ¾ of a cup of chocolate chips.

Bake the cake, for 40 minutes, in a preheated 350°F oven.

By the end of the afternoon, we were tired, hungry, and had three cups of zucchini left. We were in need of something savoury, so decided to make quick and easy fritters. We used my regular fritter recipe and spiced the zucchini up with a little Frank’s Red Hot Original.

Vegetable Fritters

3 cups of finely grated vegetables

1 tablespoon of finely minced onion (or more)

2 eggs

Olive oil

Salt

Select vegetables such as turnip, carrot, squash, zucchini, and sweet potato. My personal favourite mixture includes equal parts carrot, zucchini, and white turnip.

Mix grated vegetables with onion and eggs. The batter will be quite wet. In a large, heavy skillet, heat 3 tablespoons of oil over medium heat. Lightly shape a handful of the batter for each fritter and gently drop it into the oil. I like to use my large ice cream scoop to drop batter onto the pan. Flatten the fritters with a spatula.

Let the fritters brown over medium heat until bottoms begin to change colour. Turn fritters over and fry for several more minutes. This takes about 5 minutes a side. Drain on paper towel. Season fritters with salt if desired.  Keep cooked fritters warm in a 250°F oven, while the rest are cooking.

When making our zucchini-only fritters, we used 3 cups of grated zucchini, 2 tablespoons of finely minced onion, ¼ teaspoon of black pepper, sprinkle of sea salt, and one or two teaspoons of Frank’s Red Hot Original.   

NOTE: We thank my daughter’s mother-in-law for giving us a zucchini worth loving.