Heirloom Zucchini Walnut Bread

When I lived outside of Philadelphia, my favorite farmers market to visit was in West Chester, Pennsylvania. West Chester is a quaint, walkable college town situated close enough to Amish country to have several Amish families selling goods at the market. I was strolling around the market with my coworkers Ben and Blair, and  picked out a Zucchini, probably with the intention to cut it up and roast it in the oven. Ben told me about how delicious his Granny’s Zucchini bread was, and suggested that he call her to get the recipe. We walked to Blair’s apartment and he called her from there. I laughed to myself as I overheard him asking her to repeat it several times. She relays recipes quickly! With the recipe in hand Blair and I went to work, and we sent Ben off to buy walnuts. As walkable as the borough is, he didn’t have much fun walking in the rain to find those nuts! In the end, it was worth the work on everyone’s part. The bread was (and still is) heavenly.  I like to think there was a new spark between Ben and I that day that in part led to our marriage a year and a half later. I now bake or cook for him daily (not just to win his heart) and still send him off to pick up what we need!

Yield: 2 small loaves or 1 pound cake pan

INGREDIENTS

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup cooking oil (vegetable or canola)
• 2 cups shredded (uncooked) zucchini
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 cup black walnuts or pecans

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, mix the eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla with a whisk until smooth.
3. Stir in the shredded zucchini.
4. In large bowl, whisk together remaining ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nuts) and then combine dry ingredients with the wet ingredients.
5. Bake for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes and then remove from pan to cool completely.

NOTES

Granny recently told us the secret to her Zucchini Nut Bread–she substitutes self-rising flour for one of the cups of all purpose flour!