Zucchini and Walnut Loaf

This post is late. I apologise. I wrote this last week and forgot to publish it. Clearly I haven't got the hang of this blogging thing yet.

I haven’t done too much baking lately. I’ve hit a baking slump. Every time I bake, something goes wrong and it just bums me out. I was so excited to do baked cheesecakes as I’ve only ever done the standard continental ones. I did them especially for my boyf’s parents and I failed. I think I overcooked them as they were almost cakey with a cheesecake centre which threw off the whole texture resulting in....bizarreness. Of course his parents lied and said they were good but I know they were a fail. I will try them again because the taste was there, just not everything else.

Then last night I cooked a Zucchini and Walnut Loaf. The recipe says it’s bread but anything that has 2 cups of sugar has gone past the point of being bread and become cake. Anyway, I made little muffin ones as the recipe made oodles of batter, and they turned out perfectly. They taste amazing. However when I took the actual loaf out, it looked a tad undercooked. I took it out anyway given my tendency to overcook foods, and the stored heat would make it ok.

BUT when I flipped it, it stank. Literally, ‘OMG what is that smell?!’ stank. The pan I cooked it in was a silicone loaf ‘tin’ and I think maybe some plastic melted?? I have no idea. The bottom of the loaf was black and set like a rock. The pan itself was burnt brown which I found odd since it's silicone and shouldn’t burn. Right? Anyway, I was a tad upset. It’s still useable and I’ll just cut the bottom third off, slice it up and no onewill be the wiser. Just another total sigh moment.

SO I’m not sure. Maybe I need to just...I don’t know. I seem to be having so many fails. I realise that’s baking and lot of it is experimenting but it’s still disheartening. Especially when you buy expensive special ingredients and it doesn’t work.

This recipe is good though. Don’t let my experience deter you! It’s a lot sweeter then you’d expect and has a huge hit of cinnamon – almost too much if you don’t love the stuff like myself. You could probably omit/reduce it and it’d be a totally different flavour. My roommates loved it if that helps?

2 cups zucchini, grated 3 cups flour 1 tsp salt 1 1/2 tsp baking powder 1 1/2 tsp baking soda 1 tbspn cinnamon 1 cup chopped walnuts

1 cup sugar 1 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup vegetable oil 1/3 cup applesauce 1/2 tsp almond extract 3 eggs

To reduce the amount of moisture, press the zucchini between (multiple) sheets of paper towel. When most of the moisture has been absorbed, fluff back up and set aside.

In a small bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon.

In a large bowl, combine both sugars, oil, applesauce, almond extract and eggs and mix until well combined. Stir in the zucchini.

Add dry ingredients to the bowl of wet ingredients and mix well. Fold in the walnuts. Divide batter between the two mini loaf pans.

Bake for 35-45minutes. Let cool for about 10 minutes on wire rack before removing from the pan to cool completely.