Gad Zukes! It's Time for Zucchini Bread!

Zucchini by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

When life gives you zucchini, you don't have much time to muck about. You can make zuke soup, Mollie Katzen's ZuCanoes, ratatouille, and zucchini bread, but you better be fast because fresh zucchini only lasts a few days before shriveling to primordial ooziness. Here's a zucchini bread that yielded two loaves, one big, one small. The large one made breakfast toast for a week. The baby loaf made the kids at work happy for about 10 minutes. Then they asked what I would bring tomorrow. Something about orange scones...

Zucchini Bread by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Zucchini Bread

adapted from "Bon Appetit, Y'all" by Virginia Willis

1 cup canola oil

3 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla

4 zucchini, peeled and grated, yielding 2 cups

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Grease two loaf pans with baking spray or cooking oil. I used one medium and one small loaf pans, you may do well with just one large loaf pan.

2. In a bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients, whisk together.

3. In a measuring cup, place the oil, eggs and vanilla and stir together.

4. Add the wet to the dry mixtures, stirring just until combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pan(s).

5. Bake until golden brown, with the cracked spine along the top, about one hour. Transfer to a wire rack to cool for about five minutes, then turn out of the pan. Keep at room temperature, well-wrapped, for a few days.