Pumpkin Zucchini Bread

On a recent drive back from a wedding in Bar Harbor, Greg and I stopped by the home of one of his friends in Portland, Maine. After a delightful lunch and a quick tour of the city (Portland, by the way, is pretty cool), we went on our way, with the addition of one giant squash and one monstrous zucchini taken from our friends' garden.

 

What's a girl to do? She's to make Zucchini bread!

 

I've been wanting to adapt my favorite bran muffin recipe to include zucchini for a while now. It took two tries to work out the kinks to this recipe. The trick, it seems, is correctly balancing the moisture of the grated zucchini with the amount of milk, soy milk, buttermilk or yogurt. Since moisture content of zucchini varies with the size of the zucchini (larger = more watery), I'm going to suggest that you adapt the quantity of fluid ingredients based on whether you're using typical, medium-sized grocery store zucchini or the behemoth, overgrown garden zucchini variety (take out a few tablespoons of milk). I added an extra egg to increase the stability of the flour, and I nixed the white flour. I also chose to use pumpkin butter in this recipe because that's what I had in my pantry... You could just as easily add a applesauce, pumpkin puree, or a little extra yogurt in its place.

Why is this recipe a good one? Let me list the reasons:

(1) You can make it one bowl, if you'd like

(2) You can adapt the ingredients to whatever you'd like

(3) There's a lot of zucchini in this recipe.

(4) The bread is moist, tender, and barely sweet, with hints of the fall flavors of pumpkin, cinnamon and ginger.

(5) You can still adapt this recipe further. I kept the zucchini loaf itself plain, but I sprinkled some ground extra sugar, ground nuts and pumpkin seeds on top (see picture above; they all fell off). It would have been better if I had stirred everything in them in. You could add in some ground or toasted nuts (walnuts might be nice), a little extra sugar for sweetness, ground flax, oats, or double the spices for a super fall-themed treat.

Pumpkin Zucchini Bread

Note: less liquid gives you crumbly muffins, and more liquid gives you a soft cake. I am suggesting a dairy ratio for the typical size of zucchini. If you use the massively overgrown zucchini that I did, then take out a few tablespoons of soy milk. You could also substitute 1 1/4 cup buttermilk or play with the milk/yogurt ratio -- I've made the recipe (sans zucchini) with all sorts of dairy combinations, and it's always good. Don't be afraid to cut back by a tablespoon or two on the milk if your grated zucchini has a lot of moisture; it's probably better to lean towards too dry of a batter, since this recipe makes a very moist batter to begin with. If you make this batter and the moisture balance seems off (say, it's dripping off the spoon in large droplets rather sliding or plopping off the spoon in huge blobs), you can always stir in a little extra flour before baking it.

Preheat the oven to 350. Cut parchment to fit the bottom of a loaf pan and use a little butter to secure it in place. If the pan is not non-stick, be sure to butter the walls of the pan. Sift together:

1 cup wheat bran

180g whole wheat flour

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Stir in spices and nuts, if desired:

2 tbsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

Dash of nutmeg

~1 cup toasted nuts, optional

In a medium bowl, blend together:

3/4 cup soy milk + 1/2 cup yogurt *

1/2 cup sweetener of choice (I mix 4 tbsp sugar, 2 tbsp honey and 2 tbsp molasses - it's worth the extra effort, I promise)

1/2 cup pumpkin butter

2 large eggs

3 tbsp vegetable oil

Gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Stir in:

2 cups grated zucchini

Pour into  loaf pan. Bake until the tops spring back when pressed gently in the center, about 45-60 minutes.

The ultimate, perfectly textured bran muffin.

I happen to love bran muffins - actually, I love bran. It adds a nice texture to baked goods, and the nutty flavor and healthy omega three's are added bonuses. But, good muffin recipes are hard to find, and I've been looking for a long time. Traditional muffins are easy to toughen by over-mixing; bran muffins are almost always flat and heavy. Sometimes you can rescue a bran muffin's texture but adding lots of oil to the batter or butter to the final product. But what's the point of making a muffin out of something healthy if the flavor and texture is completely overwhelmed by oil? I'm not opposed to full fat bran muffins - they're delicious - but that's not that recipe I'm looking for.

That is, the recipe I was looking for... see, I found the bran muffin recipe of my dreams. It's basic. The flavor is the teensiest bit bland, but in a good way, because the muffins call you to play with all sorts of exciting add-ins. If you're anything like me, the ingredient list is going to strike you as fussy and when you mix it all together the batter will just see too liquidy. You might scoff at the idea of 1.5 tbsp in 12 muffins. But when you watch these glorious - repeat, glorious - muffins puff up into golden domes as they bake, your mouth will start to water. And then when they've cooled down and you take your first bite - you will be happy and saitsfied: healthy, tasty, perfectly textured bran muffin at long last.

This recipe is dead on for texture. I made some slight flavor modifications based on what I had in the pantry and epicurious recipe suggestions. Here are some ideas for what you could add to it:

Fresh or Dried fruit, like blueberries, cranberries, bananas, apples, raisins, figs, etc

Grated zucchini or carrot

Chocolate chips, toasted walnuts, pecans

Coconut flakes, shredded coconut or coconut milk to replace the oil

A variety of flavored jams, preserves or sweet things to tuck inside

Spices... cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, something spicy

Etc

I have made this recipe four times already. Twice, I used a mixture of yogurt and milk (turned out fine), once I used buttermilk (turned out better - the butermilk regulates the acidity and moisture level perfectly), and a fourth time I tried using all whole wheat flour (too sour). I have also played around with the sweetener part of the recipe and decided on a mix of sugar, honey and molasses. As I said, fussy! But tasty. My suggestion to simplify the sweetener step is to take a 1/2 c. measuring cup and fill it with whatever sweetener you want to. Just make it a 1/2 cup and you'll be fine. I tried both oat bran and wheat bran and do not have a preference; use whatever you wish (wheat bran is lighter).

Ultimate Buttermilk Bran Muffins

Adapted from the Healthy Oven Baking Book by Sarah Phillips, recipe here

Makes 12 muffins or 1 loaf

In my favorite batch, I chose to add chunked (chunked, not mashed) banana and coconut flakes. It was a wonderfully moist, barely sweet breakfast treat.

Preheat the oven to 350 and butter a muffin tin or loaf pan. If using the loaf pan, cut parchment to fit the bottom, and butter that too. Sift together:

1 cup wheat bran

2/3 cup (80g) unbleached all-purpose flour

2/3 cup (90g) whole wheat flour

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

In a medium bowl, blend together:

1 1/4 low-fat, cultured buttermilk (can substitute yogurt with milk or soy milk)

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 tbsp honey

2 tbsp molasses (see, 1/2 cup total)

1/4 unsweetened applesauce

1 large egg

1 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

Gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Stir in:

1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes

A banana, sliced into 1/2" chunks

Pour into prepared muffin tin or loaf pan. Bake until the tops spring back when pressed gently in the center, about 20 minutes for the muffins and about 30 minutes for the loaf. Do not overbake. Cool on a wire rack and enjoy.