I'm cooking more and more with zucchini this year, those of you who follow my blog recipes have probably noticed this. Our family go-to breakfast bread is banana bread, but for some reason they were all out of bananas at my local grocery stores this week. Well breakfast breads are versatile, so I combined three recipes to make this one.
Ingredients for the bread:
- 2 cups diced zucchini, alternatively you could grate the zucchini, but I diced them in a food processor
- 2 large eggs
- 2/3 cup melted butter
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon fine sea or table salt (omit if you used salted butter)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
- poppy seeds to sprinkle on top
Ingredients for the frosting:
- 50 grams cream cheese
- 1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar (more to make the frosting thicker and sweeter)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2-3 diced walnuts to sprinkle over frosting
Heat oven to 350˚ F (180˚ C)
Lightly grease 3 small bread pans with butter. I prefer to make mini-loaves, but you also make a large loaf or muffins.
In a large bowl mix the diced zucchini, chopped walnuts, melted butter, eggs, sugars, vanilla, and salt. Use a fork or electric mixer to mix well until combined.
Add cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and baking powder and mix well into the batter.
Pour the batter equally into the prepared loaf pans and sprinkle poppy seeds on top.
Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, test with a toothpick to make sure it is cooked inside.
Let the bread cool and then remove from pans.
In the meantime, let the cream cheese and butter for the frosting soften to room temperature.
Blend them thoroughly with the vanilla and powdered sugar.
I always find that I have too much frosting, so I reduced this recipe. I also find many frostings too sweet, so my frosting is a bit easier to spread but not as dense as some.
I also prefer to spread the frosting over the zucchini bread right before serving and then sprinkle the nut pieces on top. But you could wait until the bread is completely cooled and then frost the top of each loaf. I like it smeared on each slice like a sandwich, but to each his or her own.
Serve with tea...enjoy!
