Butter Together: Let them eat cake ... errr, zucchini bread. - The Commercial Dispatch

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One of the positives about living under quarantine, as my family is still doing, is that we are growing and eating our own vegetables.

Sometimes this means that my husband harasses me until I finally cook the squash he picked three days before. Sometimes it means that I have no room to cook because of all the cherry tomatoes that seem to spring, unbidden, directly from the ground onto my countertops daily.

More often, though, it makes us feel really good about the fact that we are able to eat fresh food that we grew ourselves. (And by "we," I of course mean "Zack," because I hate to sweat.)

One day recently my daddy marched across our lawns to our house. I could see he was holding something behind his back as I approached the door but couldn't tell what it was. As I opened it, he handed me a surprise: it was a giant zucchini that had hidden beneath the leaves of the plant just a bit too long.

It weighed 3 pounds. I put googly eyes on it and named it Homer. I took photos with Homer. (Yes, really.)

After that, I wasn't sure exactly what to do with it. I knew it would likely be too tough to saute as I ordinarily would for supper. So instead, I made chocolate zucchini bread out of it ... four loaves of it, to be precise.

I used a recipe from one of my favorite cooking blogs, Our Best Bites. Actually, they have a chocolate version and a regular version of this recipe. I found the chocolate version on my phone and pulled it up on my laptop to print a paper copy of it.

You know where this is going, right? I made nearly the entire regular version before I noticed that my "chocolate" bread was looking surprisingly pale and absent of chocolate chips. Thankfully, I noticed before I mixed the wet and dry ingredients together and was able to fish out part of the flour mix and replace it with an equal amount of cocoa powder. Then I added the chocolate chips, and all was right in the world again.

I did adapt this recipe a bit. The original recipe calls for cinnamon and orange zest. If those appeal to you, by all means, add them. But I added about half the amount of cinnamon called for in the recipe and still didn't care for it. I am not a big fan of other flavors mixed with my chocolate. This recipe will yield two loaves that taste very much like regular chocolate cake.

Amelia Plair is a mom and high school teacher in Starkville. Email reaches her at [email protected]

CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI BREAD

3 cups shredded zucchini (no need to peel)

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup oil

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

3 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 cup sour cream

3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Set zucchini in a colander or sieve and place the strainer over a bowl or in the sink. (You are trying to drain away some of the excess liquid; you do not need to keep the liquid unless you'd like to reserve it for another use.)

Preheat oven to 350 F (or 325 if you are using dark or nonstick pans). Grease and flour two loaf pans.

In a medium mixing bowl (not the bowl that goes to your stand mixer), whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. Whisk in chocolate chips by hand.

In another bowl (using the stand mixer bowl if you have one), beat oil, both sugars, and eggs until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add vanilla and sour cream and mix.

Gently press zucchini to remove excess liquid. Add zucchini to batter and fold in.

Add dry mixture to batter and fold in by hand just until no streaks remain.

Divide batter between pans and bake in oven for 50-60 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire rack.

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Butter Together: Let them eat cake ... errr, zucchini bread. - The Commercial Dispatch
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