Zucchini Bread

Here is a wonderful recipe for an easy Zucchini Bread. It came from my mother in law who is the master at making this bread. It is such an easy recipe that she has been making for years and years; my kids love it anytime. I made 2 loaves out of this recipe and they were gone within a day and a half by my kids, I did not get any! What is up with that? The Cooking Dad never got any either. Now I have to go buy more zucchini so I can make more, this time maybe I will load up and make about 10 loaves and freeze some, that way maybe we can get some before the kids eat it all. Well, here is the awesome recipe!

Zucchini Bread

3 C flour
2 C sugar
3 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 C vegetable oil
3 eggs
3 tsp vanilla
2 C shredded zucchini



Mix all ingredients together. Grease and flour 2 loaf pans. Bake 1 hour at 325 degrees.



See... I said super simple and it was.

Notes:
Some other variations that she has done with this recipe to change it up a little.
- Add 1 cup raisins
- Add 1 cup diced apple
- Add 1 cup chocolate chips (seriously, the chocolate chips tastes really good in this bread, I thought it was funny at first, until I tasted it... delicious!)
- Spraying the loaf pans with cooking spray is ok too; that is what I did because I did not feel like greasing and flouring and it worked fine.

My Homemade Rolls

Just in case you didn't know... there is nothing better to go with turkey and the trimmings than homemade rolls to soak up all that gravy that goes over everything (well at least I put gravy over everything, but that is my own preference). And, contrary to popular belief, rolls are not hard to make at all, they just take time. If you have the time, then homemade rolls are the way to go, rather than store bought. They are more economical and taste better. Rather than spending $3 for a package of rolls at the store, I can make 24 rolls for just pennies a roll with the ingredients I already store in my kitchen on a regular basis. Here is how you do it (this is what my grandmother had done for years, so I am not totally sure where the recipe came from, but it is pretty easy):

My Homemade Rolls

4 1/4 to 4 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 pkg of active dry yeast
1 cup milk
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup shortening, margarine, or butter
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs

Combine 2 cups of the flour and the yeast. Heat and stir milk, sugar, shortening/margarine/or butter, and salt just till warm (120-130 degrees) and shortening/margarine/or butter almost melts. Add to flour mixture along with eggs. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes. Using a spoon, stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can. (I recommend using an electric stand mixer with dough hooks or electric hand mixer with dough hooks to make mixing easier).



Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface. Knead in enough of remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic (6-8 minutes total). Shape dough into a ball. Place dough in a greased bowl; turn once to grease surface. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double (about 1 hour)



Punch dough down. Turn out onto lightly floured surface. Divide dough in half. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes. Shape dough into desired rolls (I will show how to do cloverleaf and rosette rolls below) Cover and let rise in a warm place until nearly double (about 30 minutes)

Bake in 375 degree oven for 12-15 minutes or till golden brown. Makes 24-32 rolls.

To make cloverleaf rolls:
- grease 24 muffin cups. Divide the dough into 3 small balls per muffin cup. Place 3 little balls in each muffin cup. For fast cloverleafs, you can make a larger ball for each muffin cup then snip the top in a criss cross fashion on top and they turn into cloverleafs.

To make rosette rolls:
- Lightly grease cookie sheets. On a lightly floured surface, make 24 thin 12 inch ropes. Tie in a loose knot, leaving 2 long ends. Tuck top end under roll, bring bottom end up and tuck into center of roll. Place 2-3 inches apart on cookie sheet.

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

Whether you are fixing breakfast for a holiday or just because you want to; these cinnamon rolls are just plain fantastic! It does take some time, but taste so much better when they are homemade than store bought. With this recipe, you can be versatile and add raisins or use cream cheese frosting, or just use a plain powdered sugar glaze. Heat them up in the morning for breakfast or freeze some to bake later, they are great anytime. Here is my recipe:

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

4 to 4 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 package active dry yeast
1 cup milk
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup margarine or butter
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup raisins, optional

Cinnamon mix for center of rolls
1/2 cup sugar
3 Tbsp margarine or butter
2 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine 2 cups flour with yeast. Heat and stir the milk, 1/3 cup sugar, and margarine or butter, add salt and cook until warm and margarine has almost melted (about 120-130 degrees). Add to flour/yeast mixture along with the 2 eggs. Beat with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl. Beat on high speed 3 minutes. Using a spoon stir in as much of the last 2 1/3 cups flour as you can.

Turn out onto lightly floured surface. Knead in enough of remaining flour (there should be 2 cups left to add if needed)to make a moderately soft dough that is smooth and elastic (3-5 minutes total of kneading). Shape into a ball. Place in a lightly greased bowl, turn once. Cover; let rise in a warm place until double (about an hour)

Punch dough down. Divide in half. Cover and let rest about 10 minutes.

Roll half the dough into a 12x8 inch rectangle. Melt the 3 Tbsp butter or margarine, brush half the margarine or butter onto the dough. Combine the 1/3 cup sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle half the mixture over the butter on the dough. Top with raisins if desired. Roll up the dough and seal the ends. Cut the dough with a piece of fishing line pulling through the dough the make a clean cut without smashing the rolls. Slice into 12 pieces. Repeat with remaining dough until you have 24 rolls. Place rolls into 2 greased cake pans. Cover, and let rise until nearly double (about 30 minutes) Bake in 375 oven for 20-25 minutes. Cool slightly, remove from pans. Drizzle with powdered sugar icing or cream cheese frosting (recipes following here)

Powdered Sugar Icing

1 cup sifted powdered sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla
milk or orange juice

Mix powdered sugar, vanilla, and 1 Tbsp milk or juice. Stir in more milk and juice until desired consistency to drizzle over rolls.

Cream Cheese Frosting

2 - 3 oz packages of cream cheese
1/2 cup softened butter or margarine
2 tsp vanilla
4 1/2 - 4 3/4 cups powdered sugar

In a bowl, beat together cream cheese, butter or margarine and vanilla until light and fluffy. Gradually add 2 cups of powdered sugar, beating well. Gradually beat in enough of remaining powdered sugar to make frosting of spreading consistency. Frost onto cinnamon rolls

Pumpkin Muffins

A very good friend of mine gave me this recipe for pumpkin muffins with a few variations. This is a great muffin for snack or breakfast during the fall weather. Picture this muffin with your morning coffee. It is yummy warmed up with a bit of butter or honey on it.



Pumpkin Muffins

1/4 cup soft butter or margarine
1 cup sugar
1 cup fresh or canned pumpkin
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups milk
3 1/2 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease muffin tins or place paper liners in muffin tin. Cream butter (or margarine) and sugar until fluffy. Beat in pumpkin and eggs. Mix in milk. Sift together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a separate bowl. Make a well in the middle and pour in pumpkin mixture. Add raisins. Mix just until dry ingredients are moist. Spoon into muffin tins and bake 20 minutes. Insert toothpick into center and it is done when it comes out clean.

NOTES:
- DO NOT over mix, if this happens you get tunnels in your muffins and they become very dry and tough. Mix just until dry ingredients are moist, and then stop stirring. It may look like there are lumps of dry ingredients but it will even out in the oven.
- If you use fresh pumpkin, I suggest getting what is called a sugar pumpkin (they are smaller then traditional pumpkins and usually made into pies and other dishes) and then either steam it or bake in the oven until it is fork tender and then cool and mash to use in recipes. It does make the dish taste much better despite the fact that canned pumpkin is much more convenient; it just becomes a toss-up whether you have the time or the desire to use fresh pumpkin as it is a bit time consuming preparing it for the recipes.

VARIATIONS:
- You can substitute finely chopped carrots or zucchini for the pumpkin for a different flavor of muffin or if you do not have pumpkin available.
- For a nutty struesel topping: Mix together 1 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup butter or margarine, and 1/4 cup chopped nuts. Mix until mealy and then put on top of muffin batter in tins before baking and bake as directed.
- Maple Oat Topping: Mix together 1 cup brown sugar, 2 Tbsp maple syrup, 1/4 cup rolled oats in a bowl until mealy. Top muffin batter with topping before baking and bake as directed.

Grandma's Hobo Bread

This is an interesting recipe that I got from my grandma. She is one of the most wonderful cooks in the world. At almost 93 years old, she is still going in the kitchen; just a little slower than she used to. (that's a joke, haha)

(update: Sept 19, 2008: my grandma died last week 9-11-08 after a bout with cancer that took her life, I just wanted to remember her through her cooking, she was a wonderful woman and a very good cook. Please remember Audrey Rose Stewart if you make this recipe; she was 93 yrs old; RIP 9-3-1915 - 9-11-2008. Thank you)

One recipe that has stuck in my mind as one of her best is so simple, yet so yummy. I remember when we lived almost right next door to her growing up that when we would get home from school, she would give us a slice of this bread with some butter or peanut butter on it for a snack. If you like raisins, you will love this.

But, you do need at least 2-3 one pound empty coffee cans to make this bread. Coffee cans are used to bake this bread instead of the usual bread pans. It has to be a metal coffee can; since plastic will melt in the oven anyway.

Why does she call this Hobo Bread? I have no idea, I just know it is good.

Hobo Bread

2 cups raisins
4 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 cups boiling water

Soak 6-8 hours or overnight. In this photo, you can see when we put the water into the raisin/baking soda mixture, that it started to fizz or bubble. This is perfectly normal and it is supposed to do that.

After the soaking period add:
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup granulatd sugar
4 cups flour
4 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp salt

Mix well and divide between one pound coffee cans; filling about 2/3 of the way full.(Any fuller and the batter will overflow and you will have a huge mess in the oven.Grease inside of can with shortning, liberally. Bake one hour at 350 degrees on a cookie sheet. Let stand in can 1/2 hour before inverting to remove the bread. Cool on wire racks.


I know this would be good with butter or peanut butter. And, I wonder how it would be with cream cheese... hmmmm if anyone wants to try this, please comment me back on how it is with cream cheese.

One thing I do not suggest however is to use coffee cans bigger than one pound size, it does not work! Grandma tried it years ago to make more for us to eat and it just came out mush, so just stick with the smaller cans.