Cait's Wonderful Zucchini Bread

Imagine, after an eight hour, overnight plane trip, being welcomed with a plate of this delicious autumn-spiced zucchini bread, still slightly warm, accompanied by a ramekin of sweet cream butter and a steaming mug of coffee ......... My word to describe this, is .............
................ heavenly! This is exactly what my daughter had waiting when I walked in her door after my all night flight to London in September. It's an old family recipe, what I call an "heirloom-recipe", that I had all but forgotten about. I'm so glad she didn't!

It's so funny to me that you never know when a recipe you receive or find will become a family treasure. That's the case with this yummy bread. I remember the first time I tried it; a co-worker brought it for a treat to work one day many, many years ago. I took one bite and knew I'd have to have the recipe. I'd tasted and tried a lot of zucchini breads but this one was different. It had something special about it that I couldn't quite determine till I asked her ........... it was crushed pineapple! The pineapple adds an extra layer of sweet deliciousness and moisture. The spices are just perfect ......... this just seems to be one of those "never fail" recipes!

One day I went to look for the recipe and it was GONE, MISSING, AWOL! I looked everywhere but to no avail, Not only that, but I had moved from Wisconsin to North Carolina and had lost touch with my friend. This was before computers so I couldn't even check with Mr. Google (a very good friend of mine). Every time I got a new cookbook or saw a recipe in the newspaper (or a magazine) for zucchini bread I'd check to see if it had pineapple, nope ........... nope........... notta!

A few years later, while spending a weekend with my mom I was absently looking through her recipe box .............. and there is was! SCORE!!! I couldn't believe it. I copied it down quickly and from that day on kept it in a safe place. Now days I"m double safe as Cait has the recipe also!

This zucchini bread is a staple in our house, we make about once a week and it gets gobbled up every time by whoever happens to be hanging about - visitors, my kids, my husband, ME! The recipe originally came from my grandmother, I believe, but it had an entire cup of oil in the ingredient list. Since I wanted to not feel terrible about feeding it to my family on a regular basis I started slowly substituting apple sauce for the oil increasing the amount with each time I made the recipe. Eventually I added too much and the bread got dry and chewy, however I found that I could use somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 of applesauce in place of the oil without anyone noticing! I also decrease the sugar by about 1/4 cup since there's sweetness gained from the applesauce. So, between those substitutions and the two zucchinis that are already in the recipe I feel pretty good about giving this to my kids as dessert! And for me and my sweet tooth? Shhh, but sometimes I add a bit of cream cheese frosting on top...yum!! Enjoy, and thanks Grandma!

~ Caitlyn

P.S. I call it Cait's Zucchini Bread for two reasons, first of all because she changed the recipe a bit as noted above (making it more nutritious). Secondly, I think she deserves it because she can whip up a batch of this bread faster than you can say "lickedly split"! One day while I was visiting this Fall, I went upstairs to my room for not more than a few minutes. By the time I got back downstairs a batch was in the oven and she was cleaning up the kitchen! That's my girl! :)

Cait's Wonderful Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups sugar
⅔ cup oil

⅓ cup apple sauce
3 large eggs
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup chopped nuts, pecans, walnuts, macadamia, really whatever kind you like
1 cup raisins
8 ounces canned, crushed pineapple, undrained

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350˚F. Grease two large bread pans. (Mine are 5x9 inches)

2. Mix sugar and oil. Add eggs. Add remaining ingredients and mix well.

3. Pour into 2 large greased bread pans

4. Bake at 350 for 1 hour or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

I'm sharing this yummy recipe at Stone Gable's On the Menu Monday - check it out, you'll love Yvonne's site and all her wonderful crafts, decorating ideas and recipes!

PRINTABLE RECIPE