I’m starting a new series on this blog: Cinnamon Free Sundays. As you may know, I am allergic to cinnamon. Cinnamon is in a lot of dishes. I have learned to read labels and avoid various home-cooked foods at potluck dinners. Sometimes people remember when they’re cooking for holidays or dinners. And sometimes they forget. Furthermore, as my allergy didn’t develop until middle school, I remember what a lot of foods taste like and I miss certain things. And that brings us to Cinnamon Free Sundays.
I’m going to be presenting you with a recipe that usually calls for cinnamon and I’m going to give you a few small changes to make it taste good. I’ve learned some tricks over the years. I’ve also learned that, dang it, some things still taste just fine without cinnamon so, dang it, leave it out!
Also, because I’m so witty and funny, I chose Sunday for this theme because… get it? Cinnamon starts with… “sin.” And so, it’s a “sin” free day. Oh, I’m j ust hilarious sometimes, no? I also tend to do a lot of cooking and baking on Sundays for family meals so it just plain old makes sense.
However, I baked yesterday. What did I bake? Zucchini bread! Zucchini is coming in season and I grabbed some at our local Farmer’s Market this past Friday. My first thought was, “Mmm, zucchini bread.” My second thought was, “Flippin’ cinnamon!” So, I improvised. This particular bread will be more “sweet” than “spicy” for you spice loving people. So, take that as your warning and jump into this delicious little recipe.
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 cup raisins
1. Grate your zucchini. I used the larger holes (as opposed to the smaller ones) on our grater. This took almost two smaller zucchini and so logic would tell you that one larger zucchini would yield two cups of grated zucchini. I’m sure this is hit or miss.
2. In a large bowl (no, really, use your largest bowl; I’ll tell you why in a minute), combine your sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla. Once mixed together, add in your grated zucchini and mix that all together, too.
3. In a separate bowl, but still somewhat large, sift together your flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and ground ginger.
4. Now here’s the reason that you have your smaller amount of stuff in your biggest bowl: slowly blend your dry ingredients into your wet zucchini mixture. See? Told you. I made this mistake when baking and had to pour things into yet another bowl. Don’t be like me.
5. Pour the mixture into two greased 8×5 bread pans. Or, if you don’t bake much bread and you only have one pan, pour half of the mixture into the bread pan and cover the remaining mixture so you can cook it second.
6. Bake at 325 degrees for one hour. Remove pan. Let cool for approximately ten minutes and then remove the zucchini bread from the pan and place bread out to cool. If you’re like me, wash out and dry the pan and pour the rest of the mixture into the pan, place it in the over and bake (WITH HEAT*) for an hour.
* = I managed to turn off the oven after I baked the first loaf but didn’t seem to notice so I baked the second loaf, without heat, for a full hour, only discovering my error when the timer went off and I went to remove my uncooked loaf of zucchini bread. Yes. I am that awesome.
Zucchini bread tastes great as a dessert or an addition to your breakfast. Put a little butter on it, heat it up and it’s a great little snack. It’s also a great way to get your kids to eat some vegetables. You know, plus loads of sugar so they’ll bounce off the wall. Some people also add various nuts but I only like nuts in banana bread so, no nuts for me. Do whatever you please.
Just don’t add the cinnamon!
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If you’re interested in baking and cooking, even with cinnamon, how would you like to win a free cookbook? I’m giving away a copy of Heart of the Home: Notes from a Vineyard Kitchen by Susan Branch. It has a bunch of fabulous recipes including one for Stuffed Zucchini. No cinnamon there! Leave a comment on this post telling me that you, too, have cooked something for an entire hour in an oven that wasn’t even on and you’ll be eligible to win! (Or, any comment will do!) The contest will close on Saturday, June 29 at 3:00pm. I will then draw a winner via Random.org and announce it on Sunday with our next installment of Cinnamon Free Sundays!
82 Responses to “Cinnamon Free Sundays: Zucchini Bread (+Giveaway)”
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Last week I turned crockpot on warm instead of low. Had to have my Mom run over to my house to turn it up.
Also, zucchini bread loots great. We have zucchini planted in our garden and I never have to make any because our nice neighbor lady does.
Hmmm, I AM extremely forgetful especially the older I get. I know there have been plenty of times I have taken stuff out of the oven and left it on with nothing in it! Thanks for the chance to win a cook book! I am a fanatic!
Looks and sound fantastic.
I’m going to give that a try.
I have a molasses cookie recipe I’m going to email you. No cinnamon
I love cinnamon!!!! So good~I will have to try this recipe. Please include me in your drawing. I would love to win this prize.
Thanks
~Amy
I have pre-heated the oven with a plastic cutting board inside. It’s a wonder we didn’t all die from the toxic fumes!!! Thanks for the give-away!
I’m going to be paying close attention to these recipes, since Cordy has an allergy (intolerance? whatever you’d call it that causes blisters on her bottom from eating it) to cinnamon. We are a strictly cinnamon-free household because of that.
My daughter’s skin develops a red rash wherever cinnamon touches it. Weird.
And yes, I have totally “baked” something without the oven on!
And I love Susan Branch books!
And I love Martha’s Vineyard! Which is one of the reasons I love her books.
Two funny incidents:
1. I once locked a baked chicken in the oven when I moved the oven cleaning lock to the on position. I had to wait for the oven to cool down completely before I could open the door. That was my mother’s new oven. Dinner was only an hour and a half later than expected.
2. I once baked cookies with the oven off. My oven had one dial that had to be moved (temperature). This one had two (setting and temperature). The boys I was babysitting were very surprised that my cookies took twice as long as their father’s to bake. And then the oven browned the bottoms but not the tops….I made the cookies before I went next time.
Two stories about oven-disasters:
1. I once forgot about a lasgna that I was cooking for my inlaws in the oven. It cooked for seven hours. Needless to say, it was runied and I scored no “brownie points” with the in-laws for my cooking skills.
2. I had been looking forward to waking up to the smell of banana bread. I had made the mix the night before and my sweet husband was instructed to put it in the oven as soon as he got up for our out of town guests to enjoy. Well, he put it in with no problems, but forgot to turn the oven on. By the time we all got up, we realized the mistake and headed to breakfast at McDonalds.
No, I haven’t left something in the oven for an entire hour without turning it on, but I have done that for 30 minutes! So aggravating!! I also baked a cake once and forgot the eggs. Flattest pancake cake ever. But strangely, it tasted the same!
I have put many things in the oven to cook without the oven on and I have left the oven on after cooking without anything in it! My biggest mistake was preheating the oven with a pan in it. I didn’t know that the pan was there, but I basically melted the handle off of it! LOL!! I never professed to be a chef!
Dinner party for 8, chicken roasting in the oven……20 minutes into dinner party, wondering why I don’t smell said chicken roasting in the oven…….oven off! We go and get pizza and beer.
At least your goof wasn’t so expensive and non-eco friendly as me leaving the oven ON for hours after I was done baking. I’ve done that twice now.
I have more of a problem with burning–but several times I’ve accidentally turned the oven off when I turned the timer off!
My problem is that I like things done extra well and I mean EXTRA, EXTRA, EXTRA well. As in no juice, dried out, hockey puck hard. So my perceptions of doneness for anything are warped. My medium is the next person’s extra well so I am constantly overcooking the rest of the family’s food. I sincerely don’t mean to do it but it just doesn’t look done to me and then when I take it out and it sits for a minute I realize that I’ve done it again and overcooked it all. Needless to say, when we have company, my husband cooks.
i followed a recipe for making pineapple upside down cake to the T
or atleast that’s what I thought.
Got right down to the final step
(preheat oven to 350) and somehow I saw 450.
well….need I say more?
I was making muffins once and thought I had pre-heated the oven, turned it on, but NO, I put the muffins in and not having the aroma from the baking muffins I went to check on them and I hadn’t even turned the oven on at all!
palmersf(at)bellsouth(dot)net
I tend to walk away from things on the stove and end up with ruined saute pans and pasta with the water all boiled away. Finally my husband put wireless internet in the house and put a small undercounter tv in the kitchen. Now I don’t walk away from the kitchen when I get distracted. My brain cells may be rotting away, but at least the food is edible.
I have forgotten to preheat my oven and there I am ready to put something in and whoops I am faced with a cold oven. I have also set it at the wrong temperature by just trying to remember what the recipe might call for instead of looking at the directions.
The cookbook sounds like the recipes are delicious (if I master the oven).
I put a frozen pizza in the oven for starving children, and come back to find out they were still starving!