Our Favorite Zucchini Bread

In August, in an effort to deal with an excess of squash, Nora and I began trying zucchini bread recipes. I think we tried four in all and the first of those was the best. It was an old favorite from my tattered Green Thumb cookbook. Later in the summer I picked up a recipe at Nora's (the other Nora of Stone's Throw Garden) and tried it out with Thibault with a few key tweaks. I should say that we omitted nuts and raisins in all of the recipes and replaced them with chocolate chips, testing various brands and types of chocolate as well. For the last recipe we used 1/2 white whole wheat and 1/2 white flour and organic cane sugar (and reduced the amount) instead of refined white. This moved it effectively into the domain of health food.

This fifth and final recipe was the hands down favorite zucchini bread. We've been eating it around the clock and the kids requested that we make even more to freeze. Now they're trying to figure out what other vegetables can be turned into sweet breads and made magically delicious with a heaping cup of choclate chips. Our favorite for zucchini bread by the way are Ghiradelli semi-sweet.

Best of Five Zucchini Bread

1-1/2 cup sugar (organic cane or Florida crystals if you have them)
3 eggs
3 cups flour (1/2 white and 1/2 white whole wheat if possible)
1 cup Safflower Oil
3 cups grated zucchini or summer squash
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1-1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 Tbs. vanilla extract
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips (we like Ghiradelli)

Preheat over to 350. Grease and flour two 8"x5" loaf pans. Combine sugar, eggs, oil, vanilla and zucchini. Add salt, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and flour. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour into loaf pans. Bake for 1 hour.