Monday, August 10, 2009

Zucchini Goodness


What do you do when you have giant zucchinis? I thought this one looked like a sea slug.


You make ... chocolate zuchinni cake!



First, wisk together all your dry ingredients - flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt.



Then cream your sugar, butter, and canola oil in your mixer.

I love my Kitchen Aid Mixer! My parents gave it to me for my 23rd birthday - best birthday present ever!



Next add your eggs one at a time to the mix - stir well!



Next start throwing in the flour mixture, alternating with the yogurt additions.


Remember that mondo zucchini? Grate that into 2 cups. With the size of my zucchini, it was about 1/4 of the vegetable.


Add in your chocolate chips - the cake batter should look pretty moist and gooey by this point.


Pour your batter into a prepared pan - flour and grease ahead of time and then pop it into your preheated 325 degree oven for 50 minutes.




It will emit a wonderful chocolately smell while it's baking ... so good .... even a husband who is concerned about vegetables in his baked goods will admit this is delicious!




And then when you still have a huge zucchini leftover, make zucchini bread!



Needless to say, yesterday was a baking day. I'm finally done with my ethics class and this is how I like to spend my free time - baking with garden fresh ingredients!

Here is the full recipe!
Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Adapted from Bon Appetit, November 2005

Ingredients
2 1/4 cups sifted all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup plain yogurt or buttermilk
2 cups grated unpeeled zucchini (about 2 1/2 medium)
1 11-ounce package (about 2 1/4 cups) bittersweet chocolate chips
Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Butter and flour a 13×9x2 inch baking pan.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the sugar, butter and oil until they’re well blended. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla extract.
Add the flour mixture alternately with the yogurt (or buttermilk) in 3 additions each.
Mix in the grated zucchini, then the chocolate chips.
Bake for about 50 minutes, until a tester inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cool completely in the pan, then cut into squares.
Serves about 12-15, depending on the size of the squares you cut. Keeps well in an airtight container for at least 1 week.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I made a double batch of this today and oh my gosh- delicious!! I will definitely be using this recipe again. Thanks for sharing!:)