Warm Zucchini Bread

A good friend of mine emailed me on facebook asking if I would bake her a cake. As some of you know baking is a dangerous territory for me, but curiosity got the best of me and I opened the link she had sent me. Joanne wanted me to bake a “Leprechaun Trap Cake” that was layered with at least seven different kinds of food coloring. This looked like something from a candy shop and I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. I am not Martha Steward and I could never even attempt to try to bake something so extravagant (okay maybe in a different life).

In honor of Joanne, I decided to bake something today. Before I tell you what it is, you’ll be happy to know that I did not use a Jamie Oliver recipe. I stepped out of my comfort zone and explored the wonderful world of www.foodnetwork.com and found an amazing Zucchini Bread recipe that Emeril Lagasse created.

Zucchini and I have never been real friends up until about three years ago and then it was love at first sight. I was living in Italy at the time and during one of my early morning English lesson’s a student told me she was hosting a party and me being a foodie asked her what she was making. In a very detailed description she told me about a zucchini dish she was going to make and when the lesson ended I stopped at a market on my way home and bought all the ingredients and it was amazing and I have been a fan of zucchini ever since.

What is it about zucchini that is so delicious? It is a plain green vegetable that tastes bland but if prepared properly can taste amazing. I have always in the past just grilled zucchini but this week I decided to try something new and as I am writing this I am surrounded by an exotic smell coming from the oven and I just want the cooking time to speed up (just peeked at the timer and five more minutes to go).

I woke up early this morning and had the sudden urge to bake and just like the preview week I was in the kitchen wearing my pajamas cooking away (I was well aware that I was in my pajamas and think that maybe this will become a habit of mine). The recipe was quite easy to follow and I really hope that I didn’t leave out an ingredient. I preheated the oven to about 180 and then shredded an unpeeled zucchini – if Emeril was sitting in my kitchen I would probably ask him why the zucchini needed to be unpeeled but he is the chef and he knows best and I’m just following the recipe.

Ever notice how ingredients always seem to end of everywhere regardless of how neat we try to be. In a bowl I sifted flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder and salt (part of me understands the purpose of sifting but another part of me wonders why bother…at the end of the day it will all be combined). Sifting the dry ingredients was no picnic simply because I don’t own a sifter so I had to use a pasta strainer instead which led to an arm work-out and dry ingredients everywhere. I then took another big bowl and combined brown sugar, an egg and some butter. Touching butter is something that I truly don’t like doing. I find it to be too sticky and oily and getting the grease off my hands is easy.

After I creamed the wet ingredients, I added the dry ingredients and mixed it all together. I then added the shredded zucchini and some walnuts. The recipe calls for pouring the mixture in a pan and baking it for 55 minutes. The bread did indeed bake for about 55 minutes but there wasn’t any pouring because the batter wasn’t liquid but rather nearly a firm ball of dough. I panicked but just for a moment and thought the hell with it and prayed that it would work out for the best.

Ladies and gentlemen this recipe is a winner. It came out great…crispy on the outside and moist on the inside.  The very small downfall is that it’s a bit too sweet for my taste (next time I will use less sugar or cinnamon and yes there will be a next time) but the combination of walnuts on the inside and a slice of butter on top brings it all nicely together. A big hands of applause to Emeril Lagasse.