Zucchini Bread

Yeah yeah, I know. Everybody has a recipe for zucchini bread, but this one is different! I promise! How is it different? It is made from whole wheat flour (my apologies to Stephanie who is gluten intolerant). I was searching & searching for a recipe with all whole wheat flour (no refined flour) and I couldn't find one that looked good to me, so I made my own recipe up. I had to do a couple of test runs before I got it where I wanted it, but here is the recipe. Following the recipe are a couple tips on keeping whole wheat flour fresh, and how to cook with it, and where to find it.

Jennifer's Whole Wheat Zucchini Bread

1 3/4 Cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/4 Cup whole wheat bread flour
3 t baking powder
1 t salt
1 t ground ginger
3 t ground cinnamon
1 t ground nutmeg

3/4 C unrefined sugar of your choice
1/4 C honey (note: you could eliminate the sugar & use a full cup of honey, but it is expensive)
1 C (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
3 eggs
3 t vanilla
3/4 C raisins, soaked in very hot water for 10-15 minutes, then drained
3 C shredded/grated zucchini, packed tightly to measure

Directions:
1. Grease two loaf pans & preheat oven to 350 F
2. Mix all dry ingredients together in one large bowl, set aside
3. Cream butter, sugar & honey in a mixer or with a hand mixer, add eggs, vanilla. Stir in raisins & zucchini, then add dry ingredients and stir till moistened.
4. Transfer to loaf pans & bake for 45 minutes to one hour, top will be golden and toothpick inserted in center should come out clean. Depending on your oven it may take a little over an hour, my oven was one hour exactly.

So, what is whole wheat pastry flour? It is whole wheat flour made from a type of wheat that is called White Wheat. It is low in gluten so it is not good for making yeast breads, but is good for breads that use baking powder or baking soda as a leavener.

All whole wheat, once ground into flour, will spoil. It should be kept at a cool temperature, like inside the fridge or freezer to prevent it from becoming rancid. I smell the flour at the store before I purchase it, and I check the expiration date. If it doesn't smell like flour, don't buy it. Unfortunately, you can't bake with cold flour. It will not rise correctly. I easily get around this by measuring my flour out first put it into a glass bowl and making a well in the center (to increase surface area) and pop the bowl in the oven as it preheats, and then remove it after 5 minutes. It takes the chill off the flour & then it is ready to go. I use this 5 minutes while waiting for the flour to measure out all of my other ingredients (mise en place).

If you try to convert a white flour recipe to whole wheat, keep in mind that whole wheat flour requires more moisture - so you may need to adjust the quantity of flour you use down a bit. Also, whole wheat will not rise up like refined wheat flour. If you want it to rise more in yeast breads you can use wheat gluten. I sometimes add about a tablespoon for pizza dough or 2 tablespoons for a loaf of bread.

Happy baking!