Zucchini Banana Bread

Kitty FloridoMay 7, 2016

This post is also available in / Esta entrada también está disponible en ESPAÑOL (SPANISH)

There’s nothing like a good Banana Bread. Specially when it comes out of the oven, the smell is so good… and its so soft that it almost melts in your mouth. Picture that, but better. This is not just any banana bread, it’s a Zucchini Banana Bread. The zucchini adds an extra layer of flavor and a subtle yellow hue.

Why yellow, you ask? Well, a few days ago, I got the most amazing zucchini from a friend! Only, it was not the regular green zucchini, but a bright-colored yellow! So, turns out that its called yellow or golden zucchini. It’s a bit sweeter than its green counterpart and even make you think of pumpkin when tasting it.

You can have it raw or cooked, so to put it to good use, I decided to bake it! I have been eying this recipe from Kelly at Just a Taste for quite a while. The recipe won me over, not only for the gorgeous pictures, but the fact that she mentions this crucial step: Squeezing the excess moisture out of the zucchini ensures your bread won’t sink in the center. It is genius and it works!

I pressed the shredded zucchini as much as I could, it seemed like I squeezed cups of juice out of them… but it was all worth it. The banana bread grew tall and did not sink at all.

Oh, and a little more trivia, the yellow zucchini often gets mixed up with the yellow squash, but the difference is that the squash curves at the neck while the zucchini does not!

What else can we bake with zucchini? Let us know if you have any ideas!

Kitty

Zucchini Banana Bread

Makes 1 loaf, 9-inch
Recipe by Just a Taste

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup sugar
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
3 to 4 very ripe bananas, mashed well (about 1 ½ cups)
¼ cup buttermilk*
2 large eggs, beaten lightly
6 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
2 to 3 medium zucchini

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350ºF. Line a 9-inch loaf pan with parchment paper and spray the parchment paper with cooking spray. Set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.
In a smaller separate bowl, whisk together the mashed bananas, buttermilk, eggs, melted butter and vanilla.
Stir the banana mixture into the dry ingredients.
Shred the zucchini on the small holes on a box grater. Measure out 1 ½ cups of shredded zucchini then squeeze it with your hands over the sink to remove as much liquid as possible. It will look like your removing too much liquid, and that’s ok! Squeezing the zucchini ensures your bread won’t sink in the middle.
Fold the zucchini into the batter then transfer into the loaf pan.*
Bake at 350ºF for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. My cake baked in 65 minutes. So, if after 55 minutes you feel that the cake is not baked through and it’s getting brown on the top, tent it with kitchen foil.
After you get the bread out of the oven, transfer the pan to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Lift the loaf out of the pan, and serve sliced.

Note:

When filling the pan with the batter, it will be almost filled to the top. If you feel uneasy just place the baking pan on a baking sheet before baking. I sure did, so I used the baking sheet.
If you don’t have buttermilk at home, you can do it yourself.

Have you made this recipe?

Please let me know how it turned out for you! Leave a comment below and share a picture on Instagram with the hashtag #thefoodieskitchen

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