Merry Christmas! and Lemon Pineapple Zucchini Bread

December 25, 2011 | Filed Under Baking, Bread, Christmas, Holidays, Lemons | 10 Comments 

A funny thing happened on the way to the oven to bake this bread. 

I saw this Lemon Pineapple Zucchini Bread recipe on mischief mari’s blog.   The idea of how the flavors of the main ingredients would taste intrigued me.   Lemon, pineapple and zucchini?  Together?   Hmm… I don’t know about that.   Would it really taste good?  I wanted to know and set out to make my bread.

Following the instructions, I put all the ingredients together.  As I mixed the batter and looked at it, I kept thinking to myself, “Hmm… I don’t see any green.”  The batter was the normal pale yellow.  I could have sworn that I’d used all the ingredients, so I dismissed my thoughts and poured the light-colored batter into the baking pan. 

After I put the batter in the oven, I started cleaning up.   I washed the bowls, measuring cups, spoons… and put them away.  I wiped the sink and stove top and looked around the kitchen to see if I’d missed any other dirty dishes.  That’s when I saw the two cups of zucchini, patiently waiting to be mixed into the batter.  Yikes!   I’d forgotten one of the main ingredients of the bread!  Fer cryin’ out loud!  I chastised myself.  This recipe is called Lemon Pineapple ZUCCHINI Bread NOT Lemon Pineapple Bread.    I, quickly, pulled out the hot bread pan and placed it on the stovetop.  By this time, the bread had been baking for about 10 minutes.   It hadn’t taken shape yet, so I mixed the zucchini into the heated batter, returned the pan to the oven, and prayed that I wasn’t too late to save the bread. 

My Lemon Pineapple Zucchini Bread did not turn out nicely.   The zucchini didn’t spread in the batter and stayed mainly on the top.  The rest of the bread had baked properly but the zucchini portion of the bread didn’t bake all the way through.  I returned the loaf into the oven.   The top portion of the bread never completely baked, while the rest of the bread became over-baked and even turned too dry.  What a mess!  We ate pieces of the bread but no one wanted to finish it.

The next day, I was determined to try again.   Luckily I had extra zucchini and pineapple to use.   I put the ingredients together, attentively, and placed them in the oven.   Voila!  A perfect Lemon Pineapple Zucchini Bread loaf.  I’m happy to write that we were able to eat and enjoy this second loaf of bread.  The lemon, pineapple and zucchini taste good together.  Mari’s description was accurate, "It’s got a nice, light, slightly zingy flava.  So yum."  Yup!  Delicious.  The bread tasted perfect with a nice, hot cup of tea, Ovaltine or hot chocolate.

 Morals of my story:   1- Don’t bake (or cook) if you’re tired or pre-occupied.   2- If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. 

Thanks Mari, for the recipe.  By the way, folks:  Mari has a recently published book called the coolest cookies on the planet.  It’s a gem of a book!  I enjoyed reading her stories that inspired some of her cookie designs.  Her baking and design tutorials are easy to follow (I like easy!) and the photos are absolutely fantastic.   Check it out HERE. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS, everyone!  I wish you all a wonderful celebration.

Paz

My first bread did NOT turn out well.  Portions were unbaked.  So, I tried again.

Lemon Pineapple Zucchini Bread

as seen on  cha no ma-ri

original recipe from Feral Kitchen

3 c. all purpose flour
1 1/4 c. sugar
4 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
4 eggs
2/3 c. canola oil
1 8 oz. can of crushed pineapple, drained well. (I found fresh pineapple at my local store. Chopped it up in with a super sharp kitchen knife. Perfect).
2 c. zucchini grated
1 Tbls. lemon zest

Directions:

Mari’s recommendations:

*I recommends having your zucchini grated, your pineapple crushed and your lemon zested BEFORE you start. Just makes the combining of all ingredients easier. Grate the zucchini with the grating blade on a food processor because it’ll take you ages if you do this by hand.  And I sure hope you have a super sharp microplane zester because dull ones are no fun.

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Grab two 4″ X 8″ baking pans and grease well.
2. In a medium-sized bowl mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Mix well.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil, pineapple, zucchini and lemon zest.
4. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.  Mix until moistened.  Do not over mix. This will look like a thick cake batter, and that is okay, it’s supposed to be that way.
5. Add the mixture to the two baking pans and bake for 1 hour.
6. Cool on wire racks then remove loaves from pans.  Makes two fabulous loaves.

A fabulous loaf of Lemon Pineapple Zucchini Bread!