zucchini from Mike's garden

Not only was my vacation in Belle River @ the McGuire's awesome and relaxing... but I got some great local produce out of it as well. Mike sent me home with some zucchini from his garden - already grated and ready to be used!

This morning I woke up ready to bake. I found a zucchini lemon walnut bread from Julie Van Rosendaal's Grazing cookbook - but decided to change it up a little, especially since I've spent most of this summer (actually, let's be honest, this year) baking with lemon. I decided to swap the lemon for chocolate and raisins - yep, another recipe with a twist.

This recipe ended up not only making a loaf, but also a dozen muffins...
Oh, and a perfect recipe to make first thing in the morning if people in the house are still sleeping... no need for any electric beaters or mixers - nice and quiet baking... have people wake up to the smell rather than the noise of baking :0)

Choco - Zucchini Loaf (with raisins and walnuts thrown in)
ingredients:
1 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1 c. all purpose whole wheat flour
3/4 c. brown sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1/2 c. buttermilk (milk with 1/2 tbsp lemon juice, sit for 5 minutes)
1/4 c. vegetable oil
2 eggs
2 c. grated, unpeeled zucchini
1/4 c. walnuts
1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 c. raisins

Preheat your oven to 350 F. Spay your loaf pan with nonstick spray and line your muffin tins with paper liners - or bake 2 loaves or about 3 dozen muffins... up to you.

In a large bowl, combine the flours, sugar, baking powder and soda and salt together.

In a smaller bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, oil, eggs (beat each one in individually).

Add the wet ingredients to the flour bowl, along with the zucchini and chocolate chips, walnuts and raisins. Stir with a wooden spoon until just combined. Don't over work the batter.

Pour half of the batter into the loaf pan and divide the remaining half among the muffin liners (about a large spoonful in each).

Bake the muffins for 18 - 20 minutes and the loaf for 40 minutes.

Share amongst friends and family... they'll love it (I promise)!