Zucchini-Carrot-Apple Bread

There is a feel of autumn in the air in Minnesota these days. Which means there is an over abundance of zucchini in our garden. I thought this was truly a good reason to make more zucchini bread.

Simply this is the reason why I was looking at recipes in a book that I found at our public library. More Minnesota Mornings and Beyond  A Cookbook & Travel Guide from the Minnesota Bed & Breakfast Association. I wrote about this book in a previous blog post.

When I noticed the recipe Zucchini-Carrot-Apple Bread in the book it popped out at me. Not because it was like oh my goodness this sounds like a wonderful recipe or not even because they had great looking pictures of the bread. I would never have thought of pairing zucchini, carrots, and apples together.

Remember I grew in rural Wisconsin where meat and potatoes were the staple. So to say the least this recipe was a little out of my cooking comfort zone. Needless to say my curiosity was peeked, so I had to bake a recipe of this bread, just to see what this combination of ingredients would produce.

Much to my surprise this bread was quite tasty. It was incredibly moist but I really don't think that I could taste the apples or the carrots. Maybe the flavors all blended together or maybe they were added for their moistness.

I guess I need to step out of my cooking comfort zone more often!!!

Baking Time: 25-30 minutes
Baking Temperature: 350 Degrees
Recipe:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon baking soda
1-1/4 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups grated zucchini, with skin on
1-1/2 cups grated carrots
1 small apple, peeled and finely chopped
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts, optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat loaf pans with shortening and flour. In a medium mixing bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, salt, baking soda, and nuts. Lightly mix to ensure even distribution of dry ingredients.

Grate zucchini and carrots into a small mixing bowl. Peel and chop apple.

In a large mixing bow, combine sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla extract. Stir mixture just until combined; do not over mix. Fold in zucchini, carrots, and apple. Fold in dry ingredients mixture just until combined; do not over mix. Pour batter evenly into 5 mini loaf pans. Bake 25-30 minutes, checking regularly to confirm loaves are done. Place on cooling rack for 10 minutes, then remove from pans.

Slice loaf and serve slightly warm. Enjoy!

Tips:
I did not have 5 mini loaf pans, so I baked them in one large loaf pan and two mini loaf pans. I would say that it would be best if you baked this recipe in one large loaf pan. The loaves were very small even in the mini loaf pans. If baking in one large loaf pan baking time should be expanded to 40-50 minutes or by sticking in a tooth pick and if it pulls out clean it is done.