Blueberry Zucchini Bread

It's that time of year. You know, the time when if you have a garden yourself, you probably never want to see another zucchini again. Or, if you are lucky, like me, the time when a coworker keeps bringing in zucchini because THEY never want to see any again. Enter blueberry zucchini bread! It's moist and delicious and uses a cup of shredded zucchini per loaf! This bread also freezes well, so feel free to stock up on the spoils of summer and enjoy this year round.

To make my version of Blueberry Zucchini Bread you will need:

2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup oil (if you are watching the fat and calories you can substitute 1 cup of applesauce)
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
3 eggs
2 Tablespoons cinnamon
2 cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2.5 cups all purpose flour
1.5 cups fresh blueberries

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Prepare 2 bread pans by greasing them and giving them a light coating of flour.

Ina large bowl, mix together all of your wet ingredients, including your zucchini. In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients (I usually set aside a tablespoon of flour to toss with the blueberries before I add them at the end, it help to keep them all from sinking to the bottom of the bread).

Add your dry ingredients to the wet bowl and gently stir until a batter forms. Add your blueberries and stir until evenly distributed. Pour the batter into your prepared bread pans (batter will come about half way up the pan).

Bake for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the loaves comes out clean. Set on a cooling rack for at least 15 minutes, then remove the bread from the pans and allow to cool completely before wrapping it up.

This recipe also makes great muffins, mine usually take 30 minutes or so to bake. If you like a muffin with an extra crispy top, just sprinkle the tops with a little bit of sugar, or cinnamon sugar before baking. Yum!

What's your favorite zucchini recipe?

Friday Food Craft: Blueberry Muffins

I LOVE fresh blueberries. They are a weakness of mine. So you can imagine my delight when I saw that in the dead of Winter, my grocery store had some good looking ones on super sale for my enjoyment! I may have bought several pounds... ok, I did. What better way to enjoy them than in some amazingly tasty muffins? You will note that I use cinnamon in both the streusel topping and the muffins themselves. I think that blueberries and cinnamon are a combination created by the gods themselves, if you disagree you can certainly omit it from the actual muffins, but it would make your topping fall a little flat.

To make these at home you will need:


For the Muffins:

1-½ cup All-purpose Flour
¾ cups Sugar
½ teaspoons Salt
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
⅓ cups Vegetable Oil
1 whole Egg
⅓ cups Milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1 cup Blueberries

For the Streusel Topping:

½ cups Sugar
⅓ cups Flour
¼ cups Butter
1-½ teaspoon Cinnamon


Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners (I always go with the liners to ensure my muffins come out of the pan easily).

To make the muffins, combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 2 cup measuring cup; add the egg, milk and vanilla. Mix this together and add to the flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. *This makes a very thick batter that bakes up surprisingly light, you've been warned. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full, and sprinkle with streusel topping mixture.

To make streusel topping: Mix together sugar, cup flour, butter, and cinnamon. Mix with a fork to cut in the butter (a pastry cutter or food processor may also be used), and sprinkle over muffins before baking.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Friday Food Craft: Blueberry Butter Cream

Welcome back for another food craft! Ok, this one isn't much of a food, it's a frosting only post! This is great on cakes, but also can be spread on your favorite cookies or dare I say graham crackers would be mighty tasty with some as well.

It is a pretty simple recipe, and great for Summer, especially right now as it is Blueberry season.




To make some of this yummy Butter Cream frosting at home you will need:

2 cups ripe blueberries
1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
1 tsp fresh lemon juice

1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon Vanilla flavoring
1 egg yolk (room temp)

To start, you will need to make a blueberry syrup. To do this just place your blueberries, granulated sugar and lemon juice into a saucepan over medium to medium low heat. Cook for approximately 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Your berries will open up and give out tons of yummy juice. You want to cook this down just a little bit and then pass the mixture through a fine mesh sieve, catching all the yummy blueberry goodness. Set this in the refrigerator to chill. This makes about 5-6 tablespoons of blueberry syrup.

In a separate bowl, cream together your butter, vanilla and egg yolk. Slowly add confectioners sugar until incorporated. Remove your blueberry syrup and add 3 or more Tablespoons (depending on taste--I used all of mine, yum!). Mix on high for about 30 seconds until incorporated, the frosting should be light and fluffy. Spread onto your favorite cake, cupcakes or cookies (cooled, of course).

I kept my cake in the refrigerator until it was gone, it keeps the frosting from getting all melty. Take it out about 30 minutes before you plan to serve.