Why have zucchini or banana bread if you could combine the two and have zucchini banana bread? Banana bread is delicious, but add the zucchini and it makes a dense, moist loaf of heaven. My older brother disagrees, he prefers it without the zucchini, and I get it, but I love this combination. My older brother specifically asked me to make chocolate chip banana bread next time, no bells and whistles, just the simple, savory loaf. While I love the chocolatey yumminess of chocolate chip banana bread, it is harder to justify eating three slices in one sitting. On the other hand, the zucchini banana bread is just as good (to me at least!) and is much healthier!
My one mistake in the making of this recipe was that I did not fold the zucchini into the banana mixture very well. This resulted in a few pockets of shredded zucchini throughout the loaf, which were not pleasant to bite into.
I loved making this recipe because the I knew that the zucchini was from our very own garden! We had a couple huge zucchinis this summer that were hiding in the garden, and unfortunately, when they get to be monster sized, they loose a lot of their flavor. Fortunately, they are still great for baking, so I shredded a massive one and I am finally being rewarded for all that shredding months ago. It was so easy to just pull the cup of shredded zucchini from the freezer and thaw it.
Check out my other banana bread recipes!
Ingredients ~
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 very ripe, darkly speckled large bananas, mashed well (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs, beaten lightly
6 Tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 medium zucchini
Instructions ~
Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
Line a 9-inch loaf pan with parchment paper then grease the parchment paper with cooking spray.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.
In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the mashed bananas, buttermilk, eggs, melted butter and vanilla. Stir the banana mixture into the dry ingredients.
Shred the zucchini on a box grater. Measure out 1 1/2 cups of shredded zucchini then squeeze is with your hands over the sink to remove excess liquid. Fold the zucchini into the batter then scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake the bread for 50 to 60 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a cooling rack to cool then lift the loaf out of the pan, slice and serve.
Recipe From: Just a Taste
So delicious!