Zucchini Muffins

Part 2 of our zucchini eating quest, these muffins are quick and delicious too. I modified this recipe on simplyrecipes.com. I ended up cutting it in half, as my muffin tins are very small and the portion looked big – it worked out perfectly for 12 small muffins. I switched to brown sugar and kept the spice amount for the large portion, as I love spicy cakes and I decided to add some candied ginger, which worked very well with the taste of the muffins. I had some homemade in the freezer I had made at Christmas – it kept very well frozen!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups raw, grated zucchini (350 ml)
• 1/3 cups melted butter (75 g)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (115 ml)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (350 ml)
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 2 tbsp finely chopped candied ginger
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (115 ml)
• 1/2 cup golden raisins (115 ml)

Method:

1. Grease a 12 muffin tin and preheat oven to 350 F/ 175 C.

2. Mix together sugar, eggs and vanilla.

3. Mix in the grated zucchini and butter.

4. Mix in the dry ingredients.

5. Stir in the nuts, ginger and raisins.

6. Spoon the batter into the prepared tins.

7. Bake for 25-30 min.

8. Let cool slightly in the tins, then take the muffins out to cool completely on a rack.

Enjoy!

Zucchini Cake

We are members of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), where we get organic veggies all summer long. We love it, the fresh veggies taste delicious and when we go to the farm to pick them up, they have a kids garden where our toddler picks carrots and green beans and more. It think it is great for kids to see where the food comes from.
As anyone who have grown them knows, zucchini plants can end up producing a lot, and so it is with our CSA – we get more zucchini than we know what to do with.

One of the things I did make was this great zucchini cake, which is a recipe I got from my mom. The original is a clipping from a Danish magazine, I don’t know when or what. It is simple to make, and delicious getting great flavor from cinnamon and hazelnuts.

So simple, this was my view down while making this!

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 200 g brown sugar (preferably dark brown) (7 oz)
• 150 ml canola oil (or other neutral tasting vegetable oil) (0.6 cups)
• 300 ml raw, grated zucchinis, about 2 medium. (1 1/4 cups)
• 225 g all purpose flour ( 8 oz)
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 3/4 tsp fine salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 75-85 g coarsely chopped hazelnuts, toasted or raw (2.5-3 oz)

Method:

1. Grease a 20-25 cm/ 8-10 inches spring form tin and preheat oven to 150 C / 300 F.

2. Use a mixer to mix the eggs and brown sugar until slightly foamy.

3. Add the oil little by little.

4. Add the grated zucchinis, the flour, cinnamon, salt and baking powder and mix well.

5. Add the nuts. I used toasted nuts for this, as my local Indian grocer sells big bags of these (much better than the tiny bags I can get in Safeway), but raw nuts works equally well.

6. Pour in your prepared tin, and bake for about 1 hour and 10 minutes. The cake should be golden and firm to touch, and an inserted toothpick should come out clean.

7. Let the cake cool a bit on a rack, then remove the tin ring and let cool completely.

Easy and delicious! Note that due to the high moisture from the zucchini, I find that this cake doesn’t keep as well as most other cakes I bake (which are usually fine for a week), eat within a couple of days.

Quick breakfast rolls – ‘Shower Buns’

I am not sure exactly where the concepts comes from, but going on trips or vacations with friends back in Denmark we always had the concept of ‘shower buns’ – rolls that would rise or bake while you were in the shower in the morning, getting you freshly baked bread for breakfast.

Some recipes requires you to make the dough the night before, and then leave to rise over night in the fridge. This is definitely a nice approach, and you can probably modify most regular recopies with a little less yeast to accommodate for the slow, cold rise. I wanted one that was quick and easy to make at the spur of a moment, and found this one that is made right away. It has a lot of yeast, and only rises once. It also is a lightly enriched dough containing butter, so it gives a ‘luxury’ roll, perfect for Sunday mornings.

Ingredients: (original recipe in Danish)

• 6 tbsp lukewarm water
• 50 g yeast cake (17g dry yeast, or .6 oz)
• 300 ml milk (1 1/4 cups)
• 50 g butter, melted (1/2 stick)
• 800-900 ml flour (3 1/3 -4 cups)
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp sugar

Method:

1. Dissolve the yeast in the water and melt the butter.

2. Add all the other ingredients and knead to form a dough.

3. Divide into 12 pieces and form rolls.

4. Set the rolls on a parchment covered sheet and let them rise under a moist towel.

5. Preheat oven to 225 C/ F. If your oven is underneath your stove, you can place the sheet on top for some extra heat for rising.
6. Let the rolls rise for about 25 min – while you take your shower!

7. Brush rolls with a egg and water mixture (egg wash) for extra shine. You can also use milk or water.
8. Bake for 12 min.

Very fast, very easy and they are really best right out of the oven.