I am a huge fan of anything that tastes good, so I subscribe to many different styles and genres of cooking and I sign up for just about every single group I can in order to come across fabulous recipes and fabulous people who want to share the joy of cooking and baking like I do.
This week, my made from home recipe is from the kitchen of King Arthur Flour....as far as I know anyhow. I like to give credit where credit is due....my grandmother's potato bread is a family secret, but where did SHE get it from?? I always wonder if the people at Cook's Illustrated, King Arthur Flour or Epicurious really make all of this stuff up themselves or if they take a recipe and tweak it a bit to make it their own. Everyone I know does that...most of the time I HAVE to do that in order to make it dairy free for me and the Sprout. But every recipe came from somewhere.... I just hope that people always give the credit to their source because it is the right thing to do.
I also want to give proper gushing time to the cocoa powder that I used in this recipe. I read a LOT about food...I devote almost as much time to reading as I do to the making. Food is such a passion for me. But the real joy comes in using the best quality and the freshest ingredients that I can so the bold, rich unadulterated flavors of whatever I am making can shine through whatever I do to them. I mean...isn't it amazing that you can take something like this....
.....and turn it into a rich, chocolatey loaf of sweet bread?? Yeah, it is AH-mazing!
I recently did some intense study on what cocoa powder was truly the best to use for baking. I stopped looking after 4 different sources all named Callebaut as the #1, end all be all of cocoa powder on the market. I couldn't find it here in Kanata or greater Ottawa at a reasonable price, so I ordered it off Amazon.com....have I ever mentioned how much I love the interwebs and how they bring the world of culinary spice and ingredients to my front door in a snap?? Well....I do! When my 2.2 lb bag of powder arrived it was like Christmas morning...or even better, my favorite holiday...Halloween night! I opened that sucker with all due speed and inhaled so deeply that I almost passed out. It was worth it though! I could SMELL that I had just bought pure gold and I was eager to mold it into something.
Dairy-Free Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread
2 large eggs
1/3 c. honey
1/2 c. vegetable oil
1/2 c. organic brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/3 c. Callebaut cocoa powder
1 2/3 c. flour
2 c. peeled, grated zucchini, gently pressed
1 c. Enjoy Life chocolate chips (dairy free)
Preheat your oven to 350°F
Lightly grease an 8 1/2" x 4
1/2" loaf pan OR 4 mini loaf pans and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs, honey, oil, sugar, and
vanilla until smooth and slightly airy. In a separate bowl whisk together the salt, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa,
and flour, mixing until combined. After the dry ingredients are incorporated, add them to the wet ingredient bowl and mix well. Stir in the zucchini and chocolate chips.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan(s) and bake a SINGLE loaf for 65 to 75 minutes or until toothpick clean (don't worry if you see a slight chocolate smear from the chocolate chips, that is normal). For the mini loaves bake 30 to 40 minutes or until toothpick clean.
Remove the bread from the oven, and let it cool for 10 to 15
minutes before turning it out of the pan onto the cooling rack. Make sure it is completely cool before slicing the loaf/loaves; store well-wrapped, at room
temperature.
The two bowls of zucchini up at the top of this post were a total of 4 cups of zucchini, so I was able to make this recipe twice. Four of the loaves remained dairy free and then I went the extra mile with the other 4 and drizzled melted Callebaut white chocolate (not dairy free chocolate) on top of them. I never got a shot of those triple chocolate loaves with my camera (oops!) before I gave them all away but, all of the taste testers loved them! My picky Mister enjoyed this bread quite a lot as well. Give it a whirl in your kitchen today, just make sure you have a top quality cocoa powder like Callebaut and you'll be in business!
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