Zucchini Bread

I recently received a request for my zucchini bread recipe, so I figured now was the perfect time to post it and get some post-garden bitching done. Don't get me wrong though; I am very grateful for the wonderful food the soil in my yard produced.

This was my second year of gardening, and I still haven't learned that I only need to plant one zucchini seed for all of my zucchini needs. I guess I just got a little nervous because my garden didn't do so well last year, so I planted three zucchini seeds.

Wow! There was an entire month where we ate zucchini for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Aside from that, I was also able to fill an entire freezer shelf with shredded zucchini, make a double batch of zucchini relish, cook up a nice zucchini crusted pizza, and bake four loaves of zucchini bread plus muffins. Oh! I also gave some away and guess what! It's still growing!

So without further Ado:

Zucchini Bread

1 1/2 C whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 C all purpose flour plus a little extra
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 ground clove
1/4 ground ginger
1/4 nutmeg
2 C granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 C oil (I use safflower)
3 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
2 C shredded zucchini
1 C chopped walnuts
1 C chopped dates

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

* Grease and flour 2 loaf pans. Set aside.

*Combine sugar, oil, eggs, vanilla in a large bowl.

* In med bowl, sift together flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, clove, ginger, and nutmeg.

* Place walnuts and dates in a separate bowl and dust with a little all purpose flour.

* Add flour mix to sugar mix and combine. Add shredded zucchini, walnuts, and dates and combine.

* Separate into 2 greased and floured loaf pans and bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.