Friday Faves – Confections of a Foodie Bride makes Banana Zucchini Bread

This week I’m featuring Shawnda from Confections of a Foodie Bride for my Friday Favs. I’ve been following Shawnda’s blog for quite some time now. It was thanks to her blog, that I made the Chocolate Overdose Cake last year – wow that cake was awesome. I need to find an excuse to make it again. Shawnda posts recipes that are interesting and along the lines of how Hubby and I eat, so her blog is always a source of inspiration. And with her amazing photography skills, she provides a decent amount of eye candy to look at while being inspired!

Howdy, y’all! I’m Shawnda, one half of the carb-loving Texas team behind Confections of a Foodie Bride. The Foodie Groom and I make a great team. We cook together, bake, make wine, and chase our 13 month sous chef around with a camera. (But she’s a tad harder to photograph than, say, banana bread!) I stand alone, however, when it comes to cookbook obsession.

The Foodie Groom has a 5×8″-ish gadget that stores all of his books. Nearly every book he could ever want is at his fingertips. Me? I have 3 moving boxes and a bench that’s serving as a bookshelf to my more heavily-used cookbooks:

When I buy a new cookbook, I flip through it once quickly looking at pictures. And then I go back and flip through it again, more slowly, looking at head notes and skimming interesting recipes for ingredients (we gotta eat dinner tomorrow!). And then I go back and read it cover-to-cover, like a “real book,” and mark recipes with sticky notes. Some books will sit on my nightstand for weeks at a time just in case I have time for some late night reading before bed, which has been a total of 0 minutes since becoming a mom.

The first recipe I marked in my newest
score
cookbook, Deliciously Organic, was this Banana Zucchini Bread. Partly because The Foodie Baby had gone on an impromptu banana strike, leaving me with a bunch of black bananas. And partly because I don’t have a banana bread recipe and the picture of Banana Bread Bruschetta in her book made my mouth water.

I loved the idea of “sneaking” zucchini to my kiddo – I haven’t been able to prepare zucchini stand-alone in a way that she’ll actually eat it. But she’ll eat it in Banana Zucchini bread! We had toasted slices for breakfast every morning until the loaf was no more. Between the obliterated banana and shredded zucchini, there’s no lack of moisture. Moist and banana-y. Exactly the way banana bread should be!

Banana Zucchini Bread

Yield: 8-10

Ingredients:

3 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted (plus more for pan)
3 Tbsp coconut oil*
2 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup whole cane sugar
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking soda
3 very ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup grated zucchini
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs, at room temp
1 tsp vanilla extract

*Coconut oil is suggested as a replacement for vegetable oil in cooking/baking. It's actually a solid, despite the name "oil." If you cannot locate it or do not wish to use it, consider using olive oil or vegetable oil.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 with rack in the middle position. Butter a 9x5 (mine is slightly smaller) loaf pan.

Add mashed bananas (I obliterated the bananas in the food processor until I had "banana paste"), zucchini, buttermilk, eggs, melted oils and vanilla to the mixer bowl and mix until well blended. Add flour, sugar, salt and baking soda and mix until just blended.

Pour batter into the loaf pan and bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until golden brown and a knife inserted into the center comes out with a moist crumbs attached. Cool for 10 minutes in pan. Use a knife to loosen the edges of the bread from the pan, if necessary, and remove from pan. Let cool on a rack before cutting into slices.

Recipe slightly adapted from Deliciously Organic by Carrie Vitt

Be sure to check out all of my favorite bloggers as they are featured on Friday Favs!