Chocolate Zucchini Bread

 I love Farmer's Markets. I love people watching and seeing what is available to buy. Some days I come home with nothing but other days I come home loaded with tomatoes, potatoes, berries, peppers, herbs, and zucchini. I get home and wonder what I'm going to do with it all, but I figure that out later. I do have a couple quick fixes for zucchini. This recipe is one of them.

Growing up my mom often made zucchini brownies. That sounds odd, but they are really just chocolate brownies with tiny flecks of green. You don't really taste the zucchini..just chocolate. They are pretty good. So last year when I was looking for alternative baked goods involving zucchini, I cam across this recipe from Adam and Joanne at Inspired Taste. This bread is delicious! You don't taste the zucchini one bit and the texture is barely tampered with. It's moist, chocolatey, and sweet enough for dessert, but not too sweet for breakfast. It has a delightful cake texture and is just all around amazing. If you have extra zucchini lying around, grate it up and get ready for something amazing.

Time: 70 minutes
Makes 1 loaf or 18 muffins
Ingredients
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp instant coffee granules
1 cup flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup grated zucchini
3/4 cup chocolate chips, opt

Preheat the oven to 350. Lightly spray a 9x5 loaf pan and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream the oil and both sugars. Beat in the eggs, vanilla, and coffee granules.

Pre-beating...

Post-beating

 In a medium bowl, combine all the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt).

I thought it was kind of pretty...so I snapped a picture.

Mix it up well

 Dump your shredded zucchini into the bowl with the dry ingredients. I had a 1/2 cup measure handy so I loaded it up and dumped it in.

Mix it up until all the zucchini is coated with the powders.

 Add the dry ingredients and zucchini into the wet ingredients in batches. Mix it until everything is moistened and combined. If you want to add chocolate chips, do that now.

Pour the batter into your pan and pop it in the oven. I didn't have a 9x5 pan so I used my slightly smaller pan and one mini-loaf pan.

Please ignore the cast iron pizza pan...it's been treated pretty roughly.

 Bake the cake...I mean bread...for about an hour. You should be able to stick a toothpick in it and have it come out clean. Set the loaf on a cooling rack and dump it out whenever you feel up to it. If you make muffins instead of a loaf, they only take about 20 minutes.

I forgot to take a picture of it sliced because I just wanted to eat it. So yummy! Next time I'm going to make it in muffin wrappers just for something different. If you do that though, remember it won't bake as long. Slice a chunk off and enjoy with a cold glass of milk!

Original recipe at http://www.inspiredtaste.net/2108/chocolate-zucchini-bread/

The Best Pumpkin Nutella Bread

I went through a pumpkin phase in the fall where I loved baking with fresh pumpkin. In my quest for various recipes, I came across this one from Two Peas & Their Pod. This bread has the right amount of pumpkin taste swirled with the decadent flavor of Nutella. If you know me, you know I love Nutella. I love it in baked good, I love it on pancakes, crepes, etc, I love dipping things in it (graham crackers, animal crackers). If you don't know what Nutella is, it is a delicious combination of hazelnut and chocolate and can now be found in most grocery stores. I would recommend trying it if you like nuts and chocolate. It doesn't matter how you try it, just do it!

The first time I made this bread I took one loaf to school (I teach Spanish kindergarten at a public school) and LSH took a loaf to his study group. Both loaves disappeared quickly and received raving reviews. LSH even liked it and he is not a pumpkin fan! If you love pumpkin and Nutella, you must try this bread! Again, there are no pictures yet because my camera is still on the fritz. Hopefully that will be resolved soon.

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 Tbsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil (could try substituting apple sauce, I haven't done it yet but plan to.)
1/3 cup water
1 cup pumpkin (fresh or canned, just not pumpkin pie filling)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
8 Tbsp Nutella (2 Tbsp for each mini loaf)

Preheat the oven to 350 F and grease 4 mini loaf pans.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, oil, water, pumpkin, eggs, and vanilla. Whisk ingredients until smooth. When smooth, slowly stir in the flour combination and mix until all ingredients are combined.

 Evenly divide the batter among the 4 greased mini pans. Heat the 8 Tbsp Nutella just enough so that it is thinned out, it shouldn't take too long. Once it is thinned, drop 2 Tbsp of the delicious spread into each mini pan and make beautiful swirls in the batter with a knife. You can do this step without heating the Nutella, but I found it difficult due to thickness and the Nutella stayed in huge globs in the bread. Not that I'm complaining, but I thought the bread might be improved if there was a more even distribution of deliciousness. Finally, put the mini pans on a baking sheet and put them in the oven. Bake the breads for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Take them out and put them on a cooling rack. I am horribly impatient when it comes to freshly baked goods, but you must let these cool before taking them out of the pans or else they will be a horrible mess. I did not wait until they were cool the first time I made them and I had a mess on my hands. It was a delicious mess, but I was hoping for something a little prettier. So let them rest for about 15 minutes and then gently remove them from the pans. The creator of this recipe recommends letting them cool completely before slicing, but if you are like me, you are going to slice it before it is cool. Warm sweet bread is too tempting! The bread is also amazing once cooled. Enjoy!

Original post: http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/pumpkin-nutella-bread/