Zucchini Bread

Zucchini is a vegetable that I have only just come to appreciate, particularly in bread form. This is a good mid-morning coffee break or tea-time kind of bread. This recipe makes 2 loaf pan or 5 mini-pan sized loaves. They freeze well.

3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground nutmeg

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

2 tsp. baking powder

3 cups sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs, beaten

1/3 cup water

2 cups grated zucchini

1 cup chopped walnuts/pecans

1/2 cup raisins

1. Mix the flour, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon and baking powder together in a small bowl.

2. In a large bowl, beat eggs and sugar until well mixed and light lemon in color. Add oil and water and beat well.

3. Fold zucchini into the egg mixture. Add flour and fold until just mixed. Fold in nuts and raisins, making sure that they are evenly distributed throughout the batter.

4. Pour mixture into two greased and floured loaf pans or five greased and floured mini-loaf pans.

5. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 - 45 minutes. Start checking mini-loaf pans at 30 minutes.

6. Rmeove from oven and cool on wire racks.

Note: I am not a big fan of cinnamon so I use Allspice instead. I have also used half granulated sugar and half brown sugar for this recipe and I love the taste. I also sprinkle maple sugar on the batter before baking and it gives it a really lovely top crust. I love maple sugar and I have some real Vermont maple sugar so I use it every opportunity I get.