Rosie Makes Mama Hawthorne's Zucchini Bread.

You know how it is when you go out to the garden everyday, picking and weeding your way through, and then you find the baseball-bat sized zucchini lying there? How could you have missed it? Well, obviously, it happens a lot to me. I have no problem with finding bright yellow squash, but the camo zucchini elude me. When a zucchini gets this big, it's time to make zucchini bread.

Zucchini bread is a favorite amongst the Hawthornelets. I remember when Middle Hawthorne was little, he'd always ask me for Bikini Bread.

Dogwood has decided to come investigate.

A few soccer plays with a pistachio. and Dogwood's off to look for something else to occupy his wee brain. When Dogwood stays with Nana he tends to get overstimulated.

I'm thinking about taking up juggling.

My mise en place for Mama Hawthorne's Zucchini Bread:
2 cups zucchini, grated and drained
 2 cups sugar
1 cup oil (I used vegetable.)
 3 eggs, beaten
 3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
 1/2 tsp baking powder
 1 tsp salt
 1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp vanilla
 1/2 cup pecans (optional) I used black walnuts.
 Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
 Grease and flour 2 9-inch bread pans.
 Shred zucchini and set in a colander to drain.
Mix eggs, sugar, and oil.
Sift flour and spices and add to above.
Add vanilla, pecans, or in my case, Black Walnuts,
and the squeezed and drained zucchini.

I always start out with my eggs.
 Beat until a light lemon color.

Gradually beat in the sugar.

Slowly beat in the oil.

Dry ingredients ready for sifting into the wet.

Sift gently into batter.

I like lots of vanilla. I'm using a tablespoon,
although Mama Hawthorne called for 2 teaspoons.

I'm squeezing as much juice as I can out of my zucchini slices
 which have been draining while I prepared everything else.

That's a good 1/4 cup.

Lastly, fold in the nuts. Pour batter into greased and floured pans. Bake at 325 degrees for about 1 hour 15 minutes. Remember, if you have smaller loaf pans to reduce the cooking time. We happened to have on hand some shelled Black Walnuts we'd picked up at a farmers market. Black Walnuts do the trick in this zucchini bread. Instead of the safe, omnipresent pecan ... WHOOT! there's something in there different - something you entirely didn't expect and ... and ... YES, indeedy, you do like it.

Here's my finished batter - rather heavy.

1 large loaf pan and 3 small loaf pans which I had buttered.

The three small loves were done in 45 minutes.
 Test with a skewer. It should come out fairly clean.
 A little crumb on a skewer is fine.
 You want a moist cake or bread.
You don't want it totally clean since it's probably dried out by then.

Remove and let cool on racks.

This recipe makes enough to fill 2 9-inch loaf pans.
 I only had 1 loaf pan and substituted 3 smaller pans.
 And one of the smaller loaves
 has already been whisked away to a neighbor
who does a favor for me.
He brings me the grass clippings from his yard.

Nice texture. Fairly tight crumb.
Studded with black walnuts.
 I like to slice these, spread some sourwood honey and butter on them
and toast them for breakfast. Except there's a problem.

Dixie and I went to the pool,
leaving the loaves cooling on the counter.
When we came back in, this is all that's left.

I don't think this will make it to breakfast. : (
 Apparently, the Young Twenty-Somethings
 that were here must have liked my zucchini bread.