This is a belated summer post – I’ve never really liked zucchini bread simply because most of the ones you would find in the stores tend to be unappealingly dense and gummy, as well as bland tasting. However, with plenty of zucchini from our garden this summer, I finally decided to try the zucchini bread recipe that I’ve seen in one of my favorite baking books – Baking Illustrated (check out the book at your local library). The bread I made is beautifully dotted with green flecks of zucchini, packs a delicious zucchini flavor and is moist but not gummy. The secret is in draining the shredded zucchini to extract excess zucchini moisture, thus enabling the addition of more zucchini flavor without compromising the texture. Beats the store-bought zucchini bread any day. I can’t wait till the next zucchini season!
Note: Although I followed the instructions in the recipe of extracting excess moisture from the zucchini, I ended up with what I thought was a beautiful but rather bland tasting bread. I wasn’t sure if it was supposed to taste like that but the next time I made it, I actually prepped the zucchini in advance. I drained the zucchini for four to five hours in a strainer in a bowl in the refrigerator (the bowl was covered with plastic wrap). I did not bother with the extra step of squeezing the zucchini with paper towels to absorb more moisture as directed by the recipe. Honestly, I didn’t plan to drain the shredded zucchini that long. It just happened that I didn’t have time to make the bread until hours later. This time, the bread not only turned out beautiful but deliciously flavorful as well.
