Zucchini Apple Bread-Cake

In typical Tracy fashion, I put something off until the last minute. It was my turn to bring treats for the adults to ECFE yesterday and I knew I wanted to make something with the apples we have from the orchard. A bit of Googling, and I found a recipe for Zucchini Apple Bread. I have zucchini coming out my ears in the freezer, so I thought it'd be a good way to use up two things at once.

So I printed the recipe. Then proceeded to waste most of naptime playing Words with Friends.

We have ECFE at noon. It takes us 20 minutes to get there. At 10:45 I started mixing the batter up. Sheesh. Not surprising I did that, but still. Sheesh.

The recipe says it makes 2 loafs of bread that you need to bake for 50-60 minutes. I didn't have that much time, so I thought maybe, just maybe, if I put the batter in a cake pan it would bake faster. It did! And so, the bread-cake was born. Looks like cake. Tastes like bread. Perfect!

Zucchini Apple Bread

Ingredients

Is it cake? Is it bread?

• Nonstick spray
• 1 cup finely grated zucchini (about 1 zucchini)
• 1 cup grated green apple, peeled and cored (about 1 apple)
• 1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
• 1 cup canola oil
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups plus 1/2 teaspoon all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• 1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Coat 2 (4 1/2 by 8 1/2-inch) loaf pans with nonstick spray. Line the pans with parchment paper and spray the paper.

Combine the zucchini, apple, brown sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla extract in a large bowl and stir to combine. Add 3 cups flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg to the bowl and mix well. Toss the nuts with the remaining1/2 teaspoon flour to coat and prevent them from sinking. Gently stir in the nuts and the extract.

Divide the batter between the 2 loaf pans. Bake until a toothpick or skewer inserted in the middle of each loaf comes out clean, 50 minutes to 1 hour. Remove the bread from the pans and cool on a wire rack.

I omitted the walnuts (yuck!) and made it in a cake pan, baking for about 35 minutes. Very delicious, but I would like a bit more cinnamon and nutmeg flavor. And I'd maybe do 1-1/2 apples, but with my luck that would mess up the recipe and it would be too wet and runny. Anyway,  I figured 18 pieces of cake-bread and 7 points plus per serving. (YIKES!)

And, yes, I made it to class on time. Whew. And, I'm making this my new motto:

 

Best Easiest Applesauce

Apple Mania continues..... We got about 10 lbs of apples, so I'm trying all sorts of fun ways to cook and bake with them. Yesterday I made applesauce. Oh. My. Yum. I had intentions of making several different kinds - some for me and some for babies (I don't want to give them a lot of extra sugar, but you know I love a good sugary, cinnamony applesauce!). I ended up with just 2 different batches. The babies woke up and I ran out of time. I do want to try one more variety today or tomorrow.

Anyway, my first batch was an Original Recipe - something I rarely, if ever, do. I always, always, always follow recipes to the exact specifications. I don't stray too often. But I had an idea that vanilla would be tasty in applesauce, so I went with it.

My Very Own Vanilla Applesauce
Ingredients
4 large very sweet apples (I used Golden Crisp)
1 cup of water
1 teaspoon vanilla

Before...

 Peel and rough chop the apples. I cut mine in 8ths with my apple slicer and then cut those wedges into 2 or 3 pieces. Add to a pot with the water and vanilla. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for 20 minutes or so. Mash with a potato masher. Cool ever so slightly and enjoy!

 

 

 

After!

Babies loved it mixed in their oatmeal this morning. Mmmmmm.

The second batch I made was a recipe from the ever-delicious Simply Recipes. It turned out so good - like apple pie without the crust. She suggest to eat it as a topping on ice cream. I think that's a brilliant idea! Perhaps that's what I'll serve up for dessert tonight.

Simply Recipes' Applesauce

Ingredients

• 3 to 4 lbs of peeled, cored, and quartered apples. (Make sure you use a good cooking apple like Golden Delicious, Jonagold, Granny Smith, Fuji, Jonathan, Mcintosh, or Gravenstein.)
• 4 strips of lemon peel - use a vegetable peeler to strip 4 lengths
• Juice of one lemon, about 3-4 Tbsp
• 3 inches of cinnamon stick
• 1/4 cup of dark brown sugar
• up to 1/4 cup of white sugar
• 1 cup of water
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt

Method

1 Put all ingredients into a large pot. Cover. Bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes.
2 Remove from heat. Remove cinnamon sticks and lemon peels. Mash with potato masher.
Ready to serve, either hot or refrigerated. Delicious with vanilla ice cream or vanilla yogurt.
Freezes easily, lasts up to one year in a cold freezer.

I used a combo of Gala (leftover from my last grocery store purchase) and Zestar (fresh from the Orchard). I would have preferred a bit more brown sugar and cinnamon taste in mine, but it's still SO GOOD. Like candy. And really not all that sugary - but too much for the babies. They can't have it. This applesauce is MINE.

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Not for Babies

We went to the Apple Orchard this weekend, so we have a million apples in the house. I've already begun to make delicious eats with said apples. Perahaps the most delicious of all so far has been the Cinnamon Sugar Apple Cake, another recipe courtesy of Pinch of Yum. (Seriously, I might just make everything on her blog. So yummy!)

I would not recommend this recipe for babies. There's way too much sugar in it for them! But it makes a tasty treat for Momma and Daddy after they go to bed. We topped ours with cinnamon ice cream, but we were thinking it would be equally delicious with Cool Whip on top. This might make a reappearance at the Thanksgiving table this year!

Pinch of Yum's Cinnamon Sugar Apple Cake

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 1/3 cup oil
• 1 egg
• 1 cup buttermilk (you can sub milk+vinegar, or plain yogurt+milk)
• 1 tsp. soda
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 cups chopped apples (I used Wealthy heirloom)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tbs. butter

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325.
2. Mix ingredients in order given (except the last 3 ingredients).
3. Pour batter into a 9×13 greased pan.
4. Combine last 3 ingredients to make a topping and sprinkle it evenly over the batter.
5. Bake for 45 minutes. It’s delicious when served warm!

Mmmm! And it smells as good as it looks!

 I made mine using the Golden Crisp apples we bought at the Orchard. The clerk at the Orchard said they are pretty sweet to begin with so reduce the amount of sugar you use, so I used *only* 1 cup of brown sugar. Ha. It's still plenty sweet. I don't recommend figuring out the Weight Watchers points on this one...... yikes!