My recent passion for all things edible sparked my interest to create a new blog to share my foodie adventures. Its about everything.. cooking classes, markets, my favourite health food stores, new ingredients- really anything to do with everything edible.
The recipe i'm sharing today is one which i've found on foodgawker, its possibly my most visited site and frankly the only place to look for recipes. I love it. In the last year the site has expanded and evolved into a full fledged blog index of the most delicious, nutritious and daring recipes.
The second thing that excited me about this recipe is that the zucchini and spelt flour i'm using are from the Manly Food Co-Op. I started volunteering there a few weeks ago and absolutely love it. They have managed to pack hundreds of organic and locally grown grains, fruits, vegetables, teas, chocolates and oils into a tiny store run completely by volunteers. Talk about making it work! But there will be more about the Co-Op later, it deserves its own post.
This is my first time baking with spelt flour. After all of the hype about it I decided to do a little research. It turns out spelt flour is higher in protein, minerals and soluble fiber than traditional wheat flour and contains less gluten. An article in Food Chemistry even said that spelt helps regulate blood sugar and lower cholesterol! Basically, its healthier and has an awesome nutty flavour, just a little added bonus in my opinion. it is a bit pricey, but if you buy its not too bad- I paid about 7/kg.
Now that i've convinced you about all of spelt's super powers, its definitely time to go bake zucchini bread filled with eggs butter and sugar! Well.... sort of. This recipe has actually been adopted from cooking illustrated and modified to be a bit healthier. I'm not saying its healthy, but for a treat this yummy i'd say we did pretty well. So grab your apron, make a mess and enjoy!
Adapted From The Way The Cookie Crumbles
Ingredients
2 cups spelt flour, plus more for dusting
1 pound zucchini, washed and dried, ends and stems removed, cut into 1″ chunks (about 3 medium sized)
1/4 cup evaporated cane juice or granulated sugar (+ 2 Tbsp for mixing with zucchini)
1/4 dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon Cinnamon
¼ cup plain yogurt
2 large eggs, beaten lightly
2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
2 tbsp canola oil
Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 F or 180 C and grease an 9″ x 5″ loaf pan
Put the zucchini chunks in the food processor with 2 T sugar and pulse until coarsely shredded.
Put in a mesh strainer and drain for 30 minutes. Tip: using a spatula stir the zucchini mush around a bit to help drain the excess water
Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon and toss with the walnuts.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugars, yogurt, melted butter, and oil.
Squeeze any remaining liquid out of the zucchini, then mix into the egg mixture and stir well.
Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, stirring gently until the flour is mixed in.
Pour into the pan and bake for
50-60 minutes or
until a knife or toothpick comes out clean
Cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes, then turn out of the pan and cool completely on a wire rack.
Enjoy!
