Back Pages: Zucchini-Ginger Bread, The Living End

Sep 7th, 2009 by Marilyn

The blogger’s lament: O technology, why must you taunt me?

The blog bugs, they still plague us here at Simmer, determined to keep me from bringing you new nonsense. On the plus side, it’s inspiring a rerun you’ll love, Zucchini-Ginger Bread. As baked goods go it’s simple, addictive and, if your counter currently sports heaps of rolling garden green, right on time. From August 21, 2008, please enjoy the recipe and its little coffee shop tale; I’ll be making some myself this week, and setting aside one small loaf as burnt offering to the Internet gods. I mean, whatever it takes.

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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, and 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.

Tags: back pages, Josie, quick breads, recipes, zucchini

Posted in Lawrence, recipes

12 Responses to “Back Pages: Zucchini-Ginger Bread, The Living End”

on 08 Sep 2009 at 7:27 am1Cheryl of crankycakes.com

As a new reader, I’m glad for this repost. Extremely funny! Give that barista a raise (or a writing job).
on 08 Sep 2009 at 12:06 pm2Janet Majure

Good luck with the tech difficulties; I feel your pain! I also may feel the need to make some gingery zucchini bread. Great idea!
on 08 Sep 2009 at 7:54 pm3joey

I have never had zucchini bread but I’m sure I would love it! Love banana bread, apple bread, and carrot cake Can’t comment on zebra bread though…hehehe
on 08 Sep 2009 at 10:35 pm4Paige Orloff

Hysterical. And delicious. Is there a better combination? No. No there is not. Since I didn’t plant zucchini this year (fearing oversupply) I better get my butt to the farmstand and buy some, because I want to make this, asap.
on 09 Sep 2009 at 4:03 pm5Elyse Tager

OK, I really laughed out loud. I love all quick breads. All the time, any time. There should be a YouTube channel.
on 09 Sep 2009 at 4:31 pm6becky nielsen

I love zucchini breads – my mom makes a good chocolate one. But ginger is one of my favorite flavors, and this looks great. Can’t wait to try it. It’s finally getting cool enough to turn the oven on again.
on 09 Sep 2009 at 8:05 pm7Karen@Mignardise

I’ve never seen a zucchini bread recipe that uses ginger – love it! Sounds delish.
on 10 Sep 2009 at 10:10 am8Rachel [a Pecan and a Matzah]

Sounds wonderful. The woman in line sounds horrible, and sadly narrow-minded. Her loss.

Also, I have had zebra bread, and it’s really not half bad. The key is to blanche the zebras first, gets rid of all of those furry bits.
on 11 Sep 2009 at 7:44 am9Louise

Funny story Marilyn. I never tried Zucchini Bread with ginger either. Sounds enticing. Thanks for sharing…
on 12 Sep 2009 at 6:58 am10Marion

You had me at “ginger.” I would never have thought to add ginger. I usually don’t like anyone’s zucchini bread — too eggy tasting, usually. But ginger. Oh yeah. Thanks. This is perfect, especially since I can barely slip into my own kitchen for all the zucchini lying around in wait for me. Perfect.
on 14 Sep 2009 at 12:33 am11Faith

Funny that you should post about this slice of ginger deliciousness. I just made zucchini bread last week and on a whim, threw in some nutmeg and ginger along with the ol’ cinnamon. I made 4 loaves, freezing 3 of them for later this fall. It’s a week later and we’re on the last loaf. So much for freezing it! I think we be fans of the ginger.

Thanks for being your super self as always!
on 14 Sep 2009 at 6:38 am12TexasDeb

I fixed this recently. so good it barely lasted 3-4 days. The bar has been raised certainly. I don’t think any of us will be satisfied with zucchini bread fixed any other way.

True confession: Vine borers got all our plants before we had any squash this year. I bought some at the store just to make this bread. Was it worth the trip? Ohhhh yeahhhhh. Make this. Immediately if not sooner.