Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread

It's time again for Secret Recipe Club reveal!  My secret blog assignment this month is Thyme for Cooking Blog which is all about the food, and life in France.  I wish, wish, wish I had more time to spend poring through this lovely blog.  I want to know about restoring a French farmhouse, and I want to know how Katie, who started in Minnesota and Wisconsin, managed to end up in France - with a few other interesting stops along the way.  We lived in Wisconsin for 15 years, but I do not think there's any chance we'll be ending up in France.  I will most definitely be reading through Katie's posts more thoroughly whenever I find the time!  I love how all her posts include not only the recipe but also an interesting story about what is going on in her life.

For now, I'm glad she loves healthy food, healthy ingredients, and most of all Simple Recipes.  Of course, simple (but tasty) recipes are a big favorite of mine, but this month I really needed something simple.  I spent a week cooking dinners for approximately 90 people at Camp Outreach, and the weeks prior to that were spent planning, shopping, and cooking chicken and taco meat in advance.  If only I could have used a recipe from Thyme for Cooking Blog for camp...   That would have been awesome!  So, Katie, when you read this, feel free to point me to any of your recipes that may have been great camp fare.  There's always next year.  Maybe.

This Italian Beef and Cabbage might have been good.  I am definitely going to try that soon.  Chicken with Red Beets and Cabbage is on my 'to make' list too, along with Beef, Cabbage, and Feta on Barley.  I seem to see a cabbage theme here.

In the end I picked this Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread, because chocolate.  And not only chocolate, but double chocolate.  And also zucchini, and it's one of those simple recipes which I thought would be perfect to share, because, with the slightly longer 4th of July weekend, we decided to go visit my parents, and I always try to take something so Mom doesn't have to fix all the food.  This Apple Bread was also a possibility, but the chocolate won out.

Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread
from Thyme for Cooking Blog

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 4 cups shredded zucchini
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup unbleached flour
• 1-1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup cocoa
• 6-8 oz. chocolate, chopped (I used Hershey's Special Dark)
• 1 cup walnuts, chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
2. Butter 2 large loaf pans, then line the bottom with parchment paper.
3. Combine butter, sugars, eggs, vanilla in a large bowl and mix well.  Stir in zucchini.
4. Mix flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon together; stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients and stir gently to combine.
5. Add chocolate chunks and walnuts and stir just until combined. 
6. Divide batter between prepared loaf pans.
7. Bake 55-60 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
8. Remove from oven and let rest for at least 5 minutes before removing from pans. Cool completely before slicing.

This recipe is a definite keeper.  Deep, dark chocolatey, chunky and super moist.  The first words that came to mind when I bit into my first piece were, "Oh, Baby."  It is so good.  I stored it in the refrigerator because of the moistness, and I think that made it even better.  The two loaves did not last long when I put them out to be shared.  It really was hard to resist grabbing just one more piece.  And it didn't look like anyone was actually trying to resist.

Thanks for the recipe, Katie.  I will be making this again.  And again.  I see why you make it often.

An InLinkz Link-up

White Chocolate Chip Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

I found this recipe on Pinterest a while back and finally got the chance to make them today.  They are as good as I thought they'd be.  I especially love the tartness of the cranberries against the sweetness of the rest of the cookies.

White Chocolate Chip Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies
adapted from two twenty one

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 cup unbleached flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1-1/2 cups quick oats
• 3/4 cups dried cranberries
• 1-1/4 cups white chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup coconut
• 1/4 cup pecans, chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°
2. In mixing bowl, cream butter with sugars; mix in egg and vanilla.
3. Mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together and stir in.
4. Fold in oats, cranberries, white chocolate chips, coconut, and pecans.
5. Roll into 1" balls and place on cookie sheet.  Flatten slightly with the bottom of a glass or measuring cup dipped in sugar.
6. Bake 12-14 minutes or until cookies are set and starting to brown.  Cool on a wire rack.

I mixed these up by hand, but the original recipe called for using an electric mixer. Either way works.  Just be sure your butter is really soft if you're mixing by hand.  When it's time to add the cranberries and white chocolate chips, etc., you'll want to mix those in by hand.

I added the coconut and pecans to the recipe, because they just sounded good with all the other ingredients.  I also flattened the cookies slightly before baking them because I just rolled the first pan I baked, and they didn't really spread out.  Even flattened, they don't spread out much, but that's OK - they're good!  I'll definitely make these again.

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Apple Bread with Pecans and Dried Cranberries

I've been without an oven for a couple weeks.  The oven just wouldn't heat up - one day it worked, and the next it didn't.  I thought the bake element had gone out (like I would really know why my oven won't heat up), but it was more serious. The oven needed a new control board, and then it took a while to get it fixed because they had to order the new part, and then the guy who came to put it in couldn't get the oven out of the wall.  And it was the wrong part.  So, they re-ordered the part, and two guys came to put it in yesterday. It took a bit, but they finally figured how to slide the oven out of the wall/cabinet enough to put the part in.  And now my oven works!

Of course, I had to test it, so I made this apple bread.  Yep, the oven works again!!!!!!

Apple Bread
from The Best of Mennonite Fellowship Meals

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups chopped apples
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup unbleached flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries

Directions:

1. Cream butter and sugar together; add eggs.  Mix well and add apples and vanilla.
2. Mix dry ingredients and stir in.
3. Stir in pecans and dried cranberries
4. Pour batter into a well-greased loaf pan.
5. Bake at 350 for 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Turn pan on side to cool on wire rack.

The original recipe did not call for whole wheat flour, so you can make this with all white flour- but why would you want to?  The whole wheat just gives it some extra substance and flavor.   I also used pecans instead of the walnuts called for and added the dried cranberries at the last, just because.  They are so good in this!  Oh, and I reduced the sugar from 1 cup down to 3/4 cup with part of it being brown sugar, for the flavor.

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Coconut Lemon Bars

When I was posting that last recipe for Cranberry Coconut Pecan Bars, I was planning to link to this recipe.  That's when I realized that I never posted it here.  I have it on my old recipe site, but since I never use that one anymore, I really need to get all the recipes copied over here.  I thought I had, but I guess I got distracted by new recipes before I brought all my old favorites over.

Anyway, these Coconut Lemon Bars are some of my favorites.  I'm going to have to make them again soon, because I don't have any pictures, but trust me - they're good.

Coconut Lemon Bars

Ingredients:
Crust:

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1/4cup brown sugar

Filling:

• 3 eggs, well beaten
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 cup shredded coconut
• 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
• 2 T. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. grated lemon rind

Directions:

1. Mix flour, butter, and 1/4 cup brown sugar together and press firmly into a greased 13 x 9 inch pan.
2. Bake 10 minutes @ 350°.
3. Mix the eggs, 2 cups brown sugar, and salt thoroughly, then stir in the coconut, walnuts, lemon juice, and lemon rind.
4. Spread evenly over partially cooked bottom layer.
5. Bake about 25 minutes until lightly browned.

Cut bars when cool - Makes 24

  Looking at the recipe card, I see that the original recipe called for raisins - 1/2 cup raisins stirred in with the coconut, walnuts and lemon juice.  My mom never used the raisins, so I've never used the raisins.  That, and nobody here seems to like raisins except me.  But now I'm thinking maybe raisins next time...  Probably I will split this into two separate pans and put raisins in one of them, just to see how it turns out.

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