This is one of my best recipes that I have conjured up lately. It all started with a HUGE zucchini I picked from the garden at my Nana and Pawpaw’s house. When a zucchini gets so too large on the vine its flavor is not the best for eating it alone, so once this happens you have to make zucchini bread out of it. At least I felt this was the only choice and my moment to conquer the beloved summer treat!
My husband [Tyler] always rolls his eyes and laughs at me because I refuse follow recipes. He thinks my confidence in baking is cute and he is always my guinea pig for the sweet treats I make. I feel I have an instinct that knows what ingredients will work well together, so while baking I follow my heart and let my taste buds lead the way.
As for the apple part of this recipe, started with my husband’s good intentions. He had purchased some apples to eat and with him not being a big fruit eater… they were never eaten. I do not like anything to go bad so I decided to use them in the zucchini bread. While baking I always experiment by adding in things that we have just sitting in the pantry. In this instance we happen to have some pecans and dates, so I added them to the mix as well!
My favorite thing about this Zucchini Apple Bread is it has that salty and sweet quality all at once, and the zucchini and apple make it super moist! Not to mention… I am a sucker for anything with dates and pecans!
Ingredients:
½ cup of butter, softened
½ cup of white sugar
½ cup of brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup of all-purpose flour
½ cup of whole-wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp of salt
¾ cup zucchini, shredded
½ of an apple, remove the core
1 cup of chopped pecans
1 cup of chopped date pieces
Step 1:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
Step 2:
Place butter, white sugar, brown sugar, vanilla and eggs together in a mixing bowl, and beat with an electric mixer until creamy.
Step 3:
In a separate bowl combine all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, baking soda and salt and mix well.
Step 4:
Slowly add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture, while using the electric mixer to blend the batter until smooth.
Step 5:
Shred the zucchini and the apple.
Step 6:
Add zucchini, apple, dates and pecans to the batter and fold in gently.
Step 7:
Spray loaf pan with cooking spray, add batter to pan and bake for 1 hour or until tester comes out clean.
Step 8:
Let cool and enjoy!
P.S.
I feel a great substitute for the apple would be crushed pineapple and a substitute for the pecans would be shredded coconut! If any of you do this let me know… I would be thrilled to know how it is!
~Happy baking to you all! I hope you enjoy it as much as my family and I have.
