That Which Results From Dunging Out the Deep Freeze
Chez Boeckman-Walker has had its deep freezer about a year now, and as I was chucking into it yet another bag of frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts, I realized how much...clutter has accumulated inside it. I've got bag after bag of frozen chicken breasts (HEB has 'em at a great price right now--and I know I'll use 'em eventually) along with bag after bag of M&Ms and other candy from holidays now passed (again, bought at prices that can't be beat, and I know I'll use 'em eventually).
Along with the chicken and chocolate (what more could a person need in life?), the deep freezer is the home of other items I've either bought at low prices for use later or items I bought in large quantities for recipes that only called for a small portion (such as the giant bag of HEB-brand Rice Krispies that, I swear, is self-perpetuating). However, I'm as guilty as the next person of being seduced by a bargain for items that I don't necessarily need but could use at some point--if I remember I have them.
That's how I ended up with two bags (of 2 cups and 2.5 cups, respectively) of shredded zucchini. Last year, the price and the quality of my beloved zuccs got to be such that I couldn't resist, and I had been on a zucchini binge at the time and believed I'd always have time and opportunity to use zucchini. Fast forward nearly a year later, and I realize I should do something with all that shredded zucchini soon, or else I'll be forced to pitch it into the compost because it's beyond the point of hiding its freezer-burned state in some baked yummy with a lot of other flavors.
So what does a person prone to culinary misadventures do with all that shredded zucchini? Well, Gentle Reader, read on and find out for yourself.
Love Zucchini Bread. Love Chocolate. Love Chocolate Zucchini Bread?
What got me started on the zucchini kick last year was the gift from my dear friend the world's greatest Spin instructor of a hunk of zucchini bread, gifted to her by her neighbor. Of course, the bread was full of flavor--and butter, for it was made from a Paula Dean recipe. But the wonderful flavor had me seeking out a more healthful alternative, and I wound up making some orange zucchini bread--and just defrosted and polished off the last mini-loaf a few weeks back.
I didn't want to make the orange zucc bread again. No, I was keen to make a zucchini cake, much like the one I'd loved when on a yoga teacher training retreat at Barsana Dham in November 2004. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a comparable recipe I could modify, but I did find one for some relatively healthful chocolate chip zucchini bread for which I had all the necessary ingredients on hand. Having all the ingredients on hand and having a particular ingredient I'm anxious to use up is always a great impetus for getting into the kitchen.
3 T vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 C applesauce
2 C all-purpose flour
2 T unsweetened cocoa
1 1/4 t baking soda
1 t ground cinnamon
1/4 t salt
1 1/2 C finely shredded zucchini (about 1 medium)
1/2 C semisweet chocolate chips
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Place the first three ingredients in a large bowl, then beat them with a mixer at low speed until well blended.
- Stir in the applesauce.
- Combine the flour, cocoa, soda, cinnamon and salt in a second bowl, stirring well with a whisk.
- Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture, beating just until moist.
- Stir in the zucchini and chocolate chips.
- Spoon the batter into a 9" x 5" loaf pan coated with cooking spray.
- Bake for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out almost clean.
- Cool the bread in the pan for 10 min. on a wire rack, then remove it from pan to cool completely on a wire rack.
Calories: 161
Fat: 5.1 g
Sat fat: 1.6
Protein: 2.9 g
Carbs: 27.3 g
Fiber: 1.4 g
Cholesterol: 27 mg
Sodium: 145 mg
The Faudie's Futzings
Because the recipe appeared in Cooking Light, I didn't have to futz much with it. I did use Clabber Girl sugar replacer instead of the C&H I have in the pantry, if only to get rid of the stuff, and instead of using regular Nestle morsels, I used carob chips instead--again, if only to get rid of them. The carob chips gave the finished bread a bit more bitter than sweet, but the boys seemed to really enjoy that.
Oh, I also baked the dough in six mini-loaf pans instead of one big one. I've found the mini-loaves work better for the fam because the boy has an annoying tendency to get half-way through something--such as a regular loaf of specialty bread--and decide he doesn't like it. With the mini-loaves, I can avoid that. If you opt for mini-loaf pans yourself, Gentle Reader, reduce the baking time to about 40 minutes. I had them in for 45, and they were a bit dark.
I have to admit that when I added the shredded zucchini to the cocoa-laced dough, I had a visceral reaction to the sight. See for yourself:
Not a pretty sight, is it?The dough might not have been terribly appealing to look at, and the loaves might have turned out a little dark from a wee bit of overbaking, but I'm happy to say the bread itself is pretty tasty. Next time, I plan to use Nestle semisweet chips because I'm really curious how the flavor might change.
Who Needs More Bread When You Can Make Cookies!
Notice, Gentle Reader, that I didn't go for the obvious--and obviously lame--pun by changing need to knead in the subhead. I don't like to torture you all the time.
After my adventures in bread making, I still had a bag with 2.5 cups of shredded zucchini left over. "But if you used the 2-cup bag for the bread, shouldn't you have 3 cups left over?" you ask, Gentle Reader? The answer would be no. By the time I drained off the excess liquid from those 2 cups of thawed shredded zucchini, I had about a cup of the stuff, all very compressed. I learned then that I will never shred and freeze zuccs ever again.
But getting back to the bigger issue: What was I to do with that remaining bag of thawed shredded zucchini? I wasn't keen on making a second batch of chocolate chip zucchini bread because, at the time, the temperatures and humidity were quite high, so having the oven on for so long didn't appeal to me. I knew a cake was out of the question, so I began searching for a fall-back recipe: cookies.
While milling around in the runner's village (aka, the marketing zone) at the Texas Round-Up last weekend, we'd scored from Schlotzsky's some very yummy, toasty-from-the-oven oatmeal raisin cookies. I'll admit to you, Gentle Reader, that toasty-from-the-oven oatmeal raisin cookies are a particular favorite of mine, so imagine my surprise when I stumbled across an oatmeal raisin cookie recipe with zucchini. After some digging and searching for a recipe that didn't include either shortening or a ton of butter, I settled on one, which had a deceptive name, and was off to bake.
1/2 C diet or low-fat butter
1/4 C egg substitute
1 t vanilla
1 1/2 C flour
1/2 t salt
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t cloves
1/4 t nutmeg
1 1/2 C oatmeal
1 C grated, drained zucchini
1/2 C chopped nuts (optional)
1/2 C raisins (optional)
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl, beat the sugar, egg substitute, vanilla and butter together well.
- In a second bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and soda and the spices together.
- Add the flour mix to the butter-egg mixture, beating to combine.
- Add the oatmeal and zucchini, along with any optional ingredients to the batter, stirring to combine.
- Drop the batter by tablespoons on greased cookie sheets, then bake for 10-12 min. or until lightly browned.
Cooks.com does not provide nutritional info for the recipes its contributors add to the site. Sorry!
The Faudie's Futzings
While the recipe was pretty obviously health-conscious, I did make a few changes:
- I used Promise fat-free butter since I'd used up all the low-fat Blue Bonnet sticks I'd bought a few weeks ago.
- As noted earlier, in an effort to get rid of the stuff, I used Clabber Girl sugar replacer. I avoided sugar dust air by making sure to stir it into the egg substitute and vanilla before I turned on the mixer.
- Half of the flour was whole wheat and the other half was unbleached all-purpose flour. As I think I've mentioned a few times while posting about recipes, using whole wheat flour with oatmeal-containing recipes works quite well for my taste buds.
Because the fat-free butter has a fairly high water content and because the Clabber Girl tends to get sticky when wet, I knew the dough would be gooey and not great for drop cookies. Plus I didn't want to spend all that time dropping out the dough and swapping out cookies sheets in the oven. So I took the lazy way out and just made cookie bars. The pan needed 20 minutes of cooking time, and the dough didn't rise a whole lot, but I'm pleased with the final result. The boys didn't object to the obvious green bits, and the bars are sort of hearty enough to work as a breakfast option for the boy.
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