Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Lemon-Zucchini Bread


I can't believe it's been 3 weeks since my last post!  We took a little vacation to the Colorado mountains with friends recently and enjoyed some beautiful, warm weather and lots of fun activities which I'll share at the end of this post.

It seems the warmth followed us home. Are you having the same heat-wave that we are?  The past week has brought unseasonably warm and dry weather to the Midwest.  It's been in the upper 80s to mid 90s Fahrenheit!  Needless to say, my zucchini and tomato plants are loving the heat.

Trying to make good use of my zucchini bounty, I made this recipe that I had seen online recently that combined zucchini with my other love - lemon.  The original recipe calls for glazing the zucchini bread with a drizzle of lemony frosting, but trying to keep it more calorie-friendly, I omitted that step. I will include the glaze in the recipe in case you'd rather it be a little sweeter.


I pulled out my late mom's old Ekco loaf pans which made some lovely golden loaves.


The bread turned great!  It was so moist I was happy I didn't glaze it. I loved seeing all the beautiful flecks of green zucchini and yellow lemon zest inside.  It was pretty hard to keep myself from eating slice after slice while taking these photos ;)


Here's a tip for those of you who do grow zucchini, or have a friend or neighbor that gifts you bags of it. Freeze fresh zucchini for your fall and winter baking projects or for the next time you're craving zucchini fritters!  Simply grate the zucchini on a box grater, or use the grating attachment on your food processor.  Remove as much excess moisture as possible by putting it in a clean tea towel and ringing it, or use a potato ricer, which is my preferred method.  After squeezing out the moisture, you can simply tap out the grated zucchini patty from the potato ricer and freeze it until firm, then place it in plastic zipper bags to use whenever you like.


Back to the little trip we took the second week of September!  We have good friends who have a home in Edwards, Colorado which is just west of Vail.  We had glorious sunny and warm days which were spent golfing, hiking and river rafting.  It was my first time river rafting and it was quite a scary an exhilarating experience! We used an outfit located on the Colorado River in Glenwood Springs, which was about an hour drive from Edwards. Driving through Glenwood Canyon is a spectacular ride which I highly recommend.  There are also lots of beautiful hiking trails if you're not into rafting.

Since you do get entirely soaked while going through the rapids I couldn't film the raft ride but if you want to get a little idea of what it was like, take a look at the Rock Garden's website here.  We had an experienced helmsman who was great.


One day, we walked through the Village of Vail and had lunch.  The village is so picturesque and was modeled after European ski towns.  If you look carefully, you can see someone tending the flowers outside the middle floor in the upper-right photo.  Every hotel and business prides itself on its floral displays.



I hope you enjoyed my short Colorado mountain tour and please also enjoy this lovely zucchini bread!

Lemon-Zucchini Bread

Printable Recipe 

Makes two 9×5″ breads

4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
4 eggs 1 cup neutral-flavored oil
1-1/4 cup sugar
1 cup buttermilk (or substitute sour cream or Greek Yogurt)
4 Tablespoons lemon juice
Grated zest of 1 lemon, preferably organic so you're not eating pesticides
 2 cups grated, unpeeled zucchini with excess moisture pressed out

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Grease and flour 2, 9×5″ loaf pans and set aside. Blend together flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl and set aside.

In a medium bowl, beat the eggs well and then blend in the canola oil and sugar. Mix in the buttermilk, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Add the zucchini and mix to distribute evenly. Add zucchini mixture to the dry ingredients and gently mix just until blended together. Don’t overmix.

Pour batter into prepared pans and bake at 350 degrees for about 35-45 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Start checking after 35 minutes as some ovens are hotter than others.

Cool in pan 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack and cool completely.

If desired, you can glaze the breads after they are cool:

1 cup powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons lemon juice, more or less to get desired thickness of glaze
1 teaspoon lemon zest

In small bowl, mix powdered sugar, lemon juice and zest until well blended. Spoon glaze over cooled loaf. Let glaze set, then serve.

Adapted from this recipe.

44 comments:

  1. Susan, I love lemon zucchini bread and make it every year. Love the green flecks in your photo :-) Our dry 90 degree weather ends tomorrow. It's time to think of snuggling!

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    1. Thanks, Debbie! Our heat ends tomorrow too but the rain seems to stay to our west. Hope we get some soon :)

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  2. I have both zucchini and lemons sitting on the kitchen counter "asking" for a recipe to shine in. I think this is it!! Ah, summer started here just in time to exit. We've had a week of 90 degree temperatures. Just when I wanted to start making stews!!

    Best,
    Bonnie

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    1. Glad you're already set, Bonnie! Can't wait for the cool down too. I'm ready for fall food :)

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  3. This zucchini bread is so beautiful - I love the lighter color and all that green! And you look fantastic, happy and healthy - glad you had a wonderful get-away. It's been years since I was in Vail - but I remember how lovely it is, especially when blanketed with snow :) One of my favorite all-time hikes is in Glenwood Springs - called Hanging Lake - you should do that sometime - absolutely gorgeous ... just like this bread!

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    1. Thank you, Tricia! We wanted to hike Hanging Lake but it was closed for some reason :( If we ever get invited back, I'll request that hike!

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  4. So beautiful Susan and yes I missed your posts. yesterday I was here looking if you make other new ♡♡♡♡
    hugs !

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    1. Thanks so much, Gloria! It's been a very busy three weeks for us and I am happy that things will settle down a bit now. xoxo

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  5. I wondered where you'd gone! A vacation to Colorado sounds fabulous and from your picture, you do look happy. 🙂 (Yes, heat wave here, too. School kids miserable with no AC...cooler weather coming tomorrow, I hope.) I do love zucchini bread and what a great tip for freezing it.

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    1. We were so lucky with the weather that we could enjoy so many outdoor activities. I can't imagine doing the rafting when it's chilly. BRRR. Glad to see you, I've tried to get on your blog a few times and it looks like you've made it private now?

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  6. I noticed the great shape of your zucchini bread right away! Love the pans:@)

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  7. I’ll definitely be making this again, and again, and again ! Have a nice week my dear, a warm hug from Trieste

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    1. I could eat this any time of day too :) Thank you, Chiara! xoxo

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  8. Susan, you look so FIT! I love the flavour paring of this beautiful zucchini bread.

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  9. I did not know you could freeze zucchini. I am liking your cake. One for me and one for my sister.

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    1. I thought the lemon might appeal (no pun intended) to you, Madonna :)

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  10. This bread looks wonderful Susan as does your fun trip! Love seeing all you pictures of Colorado!

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  11. This bread looks so moist and it has a gorgeous color to it, Susan! Your trip to Colorado sounds like a terrific adventure. I'd really love to experience rafting in Colorado someday ...and all that exhilaration...I'm sure I'll be screaming the whole way down stream!:)

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    1. Thank you, Marcelle! We were mainly laughing as one side of the boat or other got drenched in water ;) I'm so glad we did it.

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  12. Baking, gardening AND river rafting. Where is your cape Wonder Woman?!

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    1. Ha-ha! I keep it in the closet most days :) Thanks for the laugh, Sol ♥

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  13. Thanks so much for a great sounding recipe...I'm going to pick up some buttermilk and give it a shot. We had the heatwave here in Chicago, too, and today is a nice, 'normal' fall day!

    Your pictures from your trip are fantastic-perfect time to get away. The village reminds me of Whistler, Canada. We went about a year and 1/2 ago and it was fabulous!

    Have a good rest of the week!

    Jane

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    1. I'm so happy for the cool down but we need RAIN! Never been to Whistler but I'm sure it's beautiful. We've retired our skis but love the mountains in the summer! Hope you enjoy the sweet bread, Jane and Thank You!

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  14. I've been eyeing zucchini bread and muffin recipes for a while but have yet to give them a try. I think this is the one that will finally send me to the kitchen, it looks amazing and very moist indeed :-)
    Amalia
    xo

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  15. Look at you super girl!
    You look amazing sweetie!
    What a pretty place!
    And the pans:)❤️And breads!
    Same weather here..leaves are really just starting on our lot..I emptied my pots today..debating about mandevilla..maybe keep?
    And geraniums..going to read up..the rest was dust😕

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    1. Beautiful places bring out the best in people, don't you think :) Thank you, Dear! We are still having some very nice weather and getting some needed rain this week. I have emptied many pots and packed my begonias into smaller pots for overwintering. Wish I could grow mandevilla - the Japanese Beetles love to eat them :( I still have three big containers I can't bear to empty yet. I'll wait and enjoy them another week perhaps. Welcome home♥

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  16. What a delicious way to welcome you home! Your trip sounds fantastic!

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  17. Hi Susan, zucchini and lemon are made for each other, love, love this bread. Great tips for freezing will have to try that next year. Your Colorado trip sounds like a wonderful time. River rafting, good for you, I've always wanted to do that, it's on the list:)

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    1. I hope you get to try river rafting some time, Cheri! Going in the fall is not as scary as going in the spring as there isn't as much snow melt coming down the river. Not sure if I'd be brave enough to do it in spring!

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  18. You should have called me. Vail is so nice in the summertime! And this zucchini bread? I have so much zucchini, I think I might be trying this! Like tomorrow!

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    1. Our group of 4 couples were so busy, Abbe, we wouldn't not have had the time. There were group activities packed into every day. One day, perhaps!

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  19. I've never been to Colorado but I know it must be a wonderful place to visit. When we get back from our vacation, I must give your lemon zucchini bread a try...I love everything lemon.

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    1. The mountains in summer are absolutely gorgeous, Karen. Hope you give it a try one day!

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  20. This looks wonderful - will have to try! Love those bread pans!

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  21. Oh how I wish I had some zucchini to make this. I had a miserable crop in my garden, but there's always the supermarket. This looks delicious.

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    1. What a shame about your garden. Don't forget the farmers' markets too :) Thanks, Linda!

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  22. Got my new hard drive so I am printing out now!

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    1. I hate computer issues ;) Hope you enjoy the zucchini bread as much as we did, Bernideen!

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