Zucchini bread recipes are a dime a dozen. Everyone seems to have one but me. I’m constantly looking them up whenever I get the craving and, frankly, some work out better than others.
There are factors beyond the recipes that make a zucchini bread good or bad, like moist or dry, soft or tough, dense or crumbly. Humidity, measuring errors, and temperature of the ingredients can matter.
Maybe it was yesterday’s beautiful cool air and wind that blew away the morning humidity that explain my success. Maybe I just got lucky, but this was the best zucchini bread I’ve ever made. The flavor was sweet, texture moist but not gummy, crumb soft, yadda yadda yadda.
At any rate, this is the newly official, Loaves & Dishes approved and branded zucchini bread.
I should mention that it’s largely from a allrecipes.com recipe, Mom’s Zucchini Bread, submitted by v. monte. I’m changing a few things, including the name to

“My Zucchini Bread”
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups peeled, grated zucchini (I used about 6 inches of flesh from one of those huge monsters often missed under the vines until someone stubs their toe on it. Cut, seed, peel, grate. You can probably get away with 2 12-inchers. Don’t bother peeling those.)
2 1/4 cups white sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup chopped walnuts, optional
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees, and spray two 8-by-4-inch pans with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flours, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon.
3. Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, sugar and zucchini together in a large bowl. Gently add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, and stir just until moistened. Stir in nuts if until just combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.
4. Bake 50 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes.
5. Remove bread from pan and cool completely.

I don’t understand the vitriol with which people assault innocent zucchini. Maybe it’s just so common to complain about it that its arrival presents us a rare chance to rail against vegetables without feeling guilty.
Yes, it’s prolific and it’s hard to figure out what to do with it all. But it’s so versatile, its flavor so subtle, texture so creamy, its prep so simple, I actually herald its arrival in local vegetable patches (though not my own. I don’t have the space for vining stuff, but I’m happy to partake of the bushels of it provided by my co-worker and favorite vegetable gardener Pat Cuneo).
I made a pureed soup with it for Loaves & Dishes in 2002 that I popped into my head this morning, and now it’s ballooned into a full-blown craving.

ZUCCHINI SOUP
11/2 teaspoons olive oil
11/2 cups chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
9 cups (1-inch) sliced zucchini,(about 21/2 pounds)
5 cups fat-free, low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground blackpepper
1. Heat oil in a 2-quart stock pot over medium heat. Add onion and garlic, sauté 5 minutes or until tender. Add zucchini, broth, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 25 minutes or until zucchini is very tender. Let stand 5 minutes.
2. Place half of the zucchini mixture in a blender; cover tightly, and process until smooth. Pour pureed zucchini mixture into a large bowl. Repeat procedure with remaining zucchini mixture. Place pureed zucchini mixture in pan. Cook over low heat five minutes or until thoroughly heated. Keep warm.
Makes 10-12 cups
n Per 1 cup: 43 calories, .5 gram fat, 2.7 grams fiber.
– adapted from Cooking Light
UPDATE: Making this the evening of July 18, 2012, I replaced most of the pepper with a teaspoon of Montreal Steak Seasoning.