Zucchini Bread

Undoubtedly the best you'll ever have

There is nothing that tastes of September quite like zucchini bread. It is the perfect bridge between seasons, the ideal way to use up any end of summer squash and marry it with the flavors of cinnamon and cardamom that I find myself craving with the approach of fall. This zucchini bread, however, I didn’t even know I needed—a happy accident of a few different recipes test that resulted in, dare I say, true perfection. So much so, I make about a loaf a week, or as soon as one is gone, which in my house, tends to happen very quickly. It’s moist—death of dry loaf cakes—and nutty. And it tastes as much like zucchini as you’d want it to, just enough to know it’s there, but not too much that it’s all you can think about. The bread itself, however, is all I’ve been thinking about for weeks.

Brown Butter Zucchini Bread

Ingredients

• 1-½ sticks cup butter browned

• ½ cup granulated sugar

• ½ cup brown sugar*, packed

• 2 eggs

• 2 teaspoons vanilla

• 1 cups all purpose flour, spooned and leveled

• 1 cup whole wheat flour

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1-½ teaspoons cinnamon

• ½ teaspoon cardamom

• 2 heaping cups shredded zucchini (about 2 lg zucchini), strained

• ⅓ cup greek yogurt

Method

1. Prep your zucchini. Trim off one end and then, using the largest hole on your box grater, directly into a bowl lined with a tea towel. Wrap your tea towel around your shaved zucchini and squeeze to remove liquid from the zucchini

2. Brown your butter. Once the milk solids have separated and become toasty, remove from the heat and pour into a large mixing bowl, using a spatula to scrape the bottom and side of the pan to get all the browned bits.

3. While your butter cools, preheat your oven to 350 degrees and prepare a bread pan with parchment and non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.

4. Mix your dry ingredients together in a medium bowl: AP flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and cardamom. Stir gently to combine and set aside.

5. Once the butter has come to room temp, add in your sugars and using a whisk or a hand mixer, beat until well combined. Add your eggs, one at a time to the butter mixture, mixing well after each until well combined. Whisk in the vanilla and beat until the mixture is smooth and has lightened slightly in color, about 3-5 minutes.

6. Fold in the zucchini to your sugar mixture. Then, add half of your flour mixture and fold until incorporated. Add in your yogurt. Fold until combined. Repeat with the second half of the flour until no dry bits remain, remembering to scrape all the way to the bottom of the bowl.

7. Pour batter into your prepared baking dish. Gently spread evenly with a spatula. Optional: sprinkle top with an even layer of cinnamon or cardamom sugar. Bake for 45-55 minutes, rotating after 30 minutes to ensure an even bake.

8. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes. Transfer to a wire baking rack until cooled complete and serve most perfectly with a cup of tea or a little bit of butter and honey.