Zucchini-Ginger Bread: The Living End
Aug 21st, 2008 by Marilyn
Once upon a time my daughter was not a big-shot junior high kid in the know. She was just a toddling moppet – keen on alphabet games, wild for all things A to Z, and this was handy in grocery lines and waiting rooms and 600-mile drives. We played color alphabet (azure), color-animal-alphabet (azure aardvark), color-animal-place-alphabet (azure aardvark in Alabama) and of course, color-animal-place-oh-my-god-please-kill-me alphabet.
But before it came to that we played eating alphabet. All you had to do was name foods from A to Z – simple, but with three people in rotation, some letters could get tough. There are very few “I” foods, for instance, and a notoriously scarce supply of “U’s.” And then there is “Z.” If you had first crack at Z, you were golden – “zucchini” was yours. If you didn’t, there were twenty miles of silence and praying she’d fall asleep.
We never used “zucchini bread,” and – smack! – even now I don’t know why. It’s not my favorite quick bread – easily, banana nut – but it shines as a home-baked savior come the summer garden’s end. Today – true-life, I swear on a stack of candied walnuts – I overheard this conversation at the coffee shop:
(During the busy morning rush, a customer leans on the counter, waiting for her triple soy half-caf, perusing baked goods. There is a line behind her.)
Latte Lady: I don’t know…
Barista Girl: (pulling shots) would you like something else?
LL: I don’t know…I don’t want a scone. (holds up baked good) What’s this?
BG: zucchini bread. Like some?
LL: no….no…I don’t like zucchini. Bread, I don’t like zucchini bread.
BG: really? It’s so good, it’s like the American mom thing, everybody loves it.
LL: um…I don’t know. I’ve never had zucchini bread.
BG: you’ve never had it?
LL: no…
BG: so…how do you know you don’t like it?
LL: um…I just. I just can’t get past it. Zucchini.
(the line is mounting; people are checking watches, shifting feet)
BG: do you like banana bread?
LL: yes.
BG: carrot cake?
LL: oh, yes.
BG: then you’ll like zucchini bread.
(Customers shoot laser glances at her head. I am not even in line – I already have my coffee, but I still want to kill her)
LL: you know, I think it’s Z.
BG: what?
LL: I just don’t like foods that begin with Z.
BG: okay.
(plunks latte on counter)
Then I guess you won’t like zebra bread.
LL: zebra bread?
BG. oh, yeah – it’s a little chunky, and all that black and white fur. It’s totally an acquired taste.
LL: oh my god.
BG: can I get you a scone?
LL: peach is fine.
Zucchini-Ginger Bread
This fine-textured zucchini bread has a gentle ginger bite. I’d planned to top this with a little lemon icing, but one bite told me it didn’t need it. Cold milk – or a triple soy half-caf whatever – will do just fine.
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 tablespoon powdered ginger
1 ounce fresh ginger, peeled and grated fine (about 1 – 1 1/2 tablespoons)*
2 cups finely shredded, unpeeled zucchini, packed*
optional: 1 cup finely chopped nuts
1 tablespoon vanilla
* I use a fine-holed grater to both shred the zucchini and grate the ginger, for the smallest bits possible. When grating the ginger, be sure to use only the “puree” you’ve scraped from under the grater, and discard the fibrous parts left in your hand.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Use baking spray (and parchment paper, if desired) to prepare at 9 x 5 loaf pan or a 10-inch tube pan. If you make the 9 x 5 loaf, you will have a small amount of batter left over: make a mini-loaf or a few zucchini muffins.
Using an electric mixer, beat the sugar, oil and eggs together for a few minutes, until thick and a slight yellow ribbon falls from beaters.
In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and powdered ginger together.
Fold the zucchini, fresh ginger and optional nuts into the sugar-egg mixture. Fold in the flour mixture and vanilla until thoroughly combined.
Pour batter into prepared pan (or pans), filling large loaf pan 2/3 full.
Bake on a center oven rack for about 1 hour (check smaller items sooner), or until tester comes out sticky but mostly dry. Store, wrapped in plastic, for several days at room temperature.
Tasty. Funny. Witty. What’s not to love about your blog? Nothing, that’s what (he answered his own rhetorical question). Anyway, you found me, and then I found you back, via SU.
P.S. I added you to my WP foodies blogroll.
Cracks me up, maybe because I’ve never warmed to zucchini bread, either. But with the ginger added, I think I might just love this. With regular old coffee, please.
Oh, lordy, I’m pretty sure I know exactly which barista said that.
ahahahaha…zebra bread! nice.
cute game, i may have to steal that one for later.
Zebra bread’s too gamey for me. Ya gotta chew and chew and chew and frankly, my jaw gets tired.
I love zucchini bread! I like zucchini and almonds on pizza!
Hmmmmm Zebra……..
How about zebra domes? (at The Boma, Animal Kingdom Lodge, Disney World.) Too much sugar for me but I am told, by my sister in law, that they are better than sex……. (can I say that on here?)
Oh, Marilyn…ginger in zucchini bread? You’re brilliant!
A working kitchen with a REAL oven may be reality for me in just over a month, but I’m not sure I can make it. I can bake this in my toaster oven, right? right?!!! le sigh.
that’s hilarious–i think that barista and i would be good friends. to discriminate against the deliciousness that is zucchini bread just because it’s made from a food beginning with z is ridiculous. what a dimwit, that woman.
zebra bread…snort
Seriously, please stop posting mouth-watering pics that I can’t eat RIGHT NOW, it’s too cruel
Zebra *cake*. Not the Little Debbie kind, the one making the blog rounds.
I want to add some orange food coloring and make a tiger cake next time I have an excuse to bake for my son’s school (whose mascot is, I kid you not, the Esso Tiger. Only I don’t think anybody but me has actually recognized him).
WHAT! Zebra bread is my favorite!
WPoFD: welcome and thanks! I answer most of my own questions, too.
Lydia: I’ve never been my favorite, either, but I feel compelled to make it with all the zucchini around! Next time I’ll add crystallized ginger to pump it up even more. I’m sure I had your Ginger Week buzzing in the back of my head.
Joel: oh yes, you know. Yes indeed.
Susan: I thought those ‘games’ years would never end! Enjoy it now.
Jean: I feel like one of us should break into “Circle of Life”
Pam: yes, I believe you can say that here. You just did!
Kim: I’m sure you’ve developed some genius yourself in that toaster oven, out of necessity!
Grace: you and the barista would be very good friends indeed!
Modernemama: I’m working on that smell-o-vision
Karen: don’t mention Zebra Cakes, April will get hungry!
Rechelle: you raising zebras out there now?
I love zucchini bread, but I’ve never thought of adding ginger to it! It sounds delicious.
i loooooooove zucchini bread!
I have made Z. Bread at least 15 times this summer, but never with ginger……..I have one Zuke left. I will try it with ginger..
We called zucchini bread zebra bread – and now just z bread. One of my favorites, and my son’s too.
You guys played that food-alphabet game in the car with us! I distinctly remember being taken aback that 3-year-old Josie used “brioche” for b. Baker’s daughter . . .
I’m saving this one, thanks!