Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Spicy Flax Zucchini Bread

This week heralds the end of our major backyard harvest season. It's sad to see the end of the sweet, perfect heirloom tomatoes, the hot and sweet peppers, and of course all my gorgeous herbs. However, the cooler weather does mean the end of one thing I'm glad to see go - zucchini. I'll probably be ruing it's absence a month from now, but at the moment I have had so many zucchini based dinners that I am sated. Since even the three of us veggie-lovers at home couldn't mow through the fruit of both the "standard" and "Italian" (aka cucuzza) zucchini plants (we had 4 of each), I got the leftovers to play with in the sweet kitchen.

Oh and play I did! Aside from the Zapple Butter, I did at least 4 bakes with the stuff - the first of which being this (relatively simple) quickbread. I found the base recipe on CHOW.com, and with some tweaking I had a meltingly moist, just-sweet-enough batter baking away, filling the kitchen with the scents of warm spices, orange and just a whiff of coconut. The texture from the whole grains and flax kept it interesting and hearty without being leaden, and the leaf stayed tender and soft for days - no butter needed! My mom and grandma shared a few slices with a smear of apple butter (which they mixed with peanut butter... man that looked good) and raved about the perfect mix of sweet and spice. Hey, if my two baking mentors want to praise my novice attempts, I'm not going to say no!

Spicy Flax Zucchini Bread


Spicy Flax Zucchini Bread
Makes one 9x5" loaf, 12 slices
⅓ cup ground flaxseed
⅔ cup hot water
¾ cup brown sugar
8 packets Pure Via Turbinado and Stevia Blend
¼ cup melted coconut oil
½ cup Blueberry Pomegranate Butter (or apple butter)
½ tbsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp cardamom
½ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
zest of 1 orange
1 cup flour
1 ¼ cups whole wheat flour
⅓ cup wheat germ
2 tsp baking powder
¾ tsp baking soda
12 oz zucchini grated on the large holes of a box grater (about 2 1/2 cups)
¼ cup whole flax seed
  1. Heat the oven to 350°F grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan.
  2. Whisk together the ground flax and water in a large bowl and set aside for 10 minutes.
  3. Add the brown sugar, PureVia, coconut oil, Blueberry Pomegranate Butter, spices, salt, vanilla and orange zest, mixing well.
  4. Add flours, wheat germ, baking powder and baking soda, mixing gently.
  5. Fold in the zucchini and whole flax seeds.
  6. Bake for 1 hour - 1 hour and 10 minutes.
  7. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then turn out and cool completely.
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 255.5
Total Fat: 7.6 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 9.4 mg
Total Carbs: 50.3 g
Dietary Fiber: 5.1 g
Protein: 5.4 g

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