Knee Deep in Zucchini and Crookneck Squash
It’s that time of year…the arrival of the summer squash. If your zucchini and crookneck squash are producing like mine, it’s time break out all the summer squash recipes.
Almost every gardener I know has some version of Zucchini Bread. I am going to share my version with includes both zucchini and crooknecks. The is my versatile, go to recipe for quick bread. You can substitute pumpkin or bananas in place of of the summer squash. As fall draws near, I will demo the pumpkin version ( I am quite famous in my family for my pumpkin bread!)
Some notes about the ingredients:
You can use the squash in equal portions or not. My crookneck to zucchini ratio was 50/50. But, use whatever you have:all zucchini, all crookneck, anything goes!
I use olive oil for ALL my cooking and baking. For baking I use plain olive oil(not extra virgin). You can substitute with any vegetable oil.
You do not have to use the ground flax seed. It’s just another way for me to sneak in extra fiber for the kids. If do not have it just replace it with whole wheat or all purpose flour.
Ingredients
- 2 cups of shredded or chopped summer squash (zucchini and crookneck)
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup olive oil
- 2/3 cup water
- 1 cup of brown sugar
- 1 cup of white sugar
- 1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
- 1/4 cup of ground flax seed
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour three 7x3 inch loaf pans.
- In a large bowl, mix together the shredded zucchini and crookneck squash, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Stir the dry ingredients into the squash mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans.
- Bake for about 50 minutes to an hour in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
This recipe is a hit with my kids. We eat it for breakfast and for snack time. It’s full of fiber and omega-3 fatty acids. I have tried to cut the sugar and used splenda with this recipe, but it did alter the texture. My original recipe had 3 cups of sugar! So the 2 cups is the happy compromise. The Summer Squash Quick Bread passes the taste test with my kids, especially my oldest (he’s the picky eater…every family has one, right?)
How do you use up the summer squash from your garden? Comment below and share some of your recipe ideas. Happy Baking!
I loved this. I didn’t have any white sugar, so I just put in the brown & scaled back the recipe a bit (just the liquid & eggs), so it turned into 2 loaves instead of 3. Supplemented the sugar with a few handfuls of chocolate chips & put a little white wine vinegar in to help with rise.
Fantastic recipe. My wife and I had a nice inventory of crookneck squash piling up from our garden and wanted to do more than just sauté or roast. I research and found this recipe. Our daughter, Katie joined us and we ended up have a ball baking off this neat little bread. We went a little over board and ended up prepping out 39ea 3in x 5in loaves. No problem, we cooled them down, wrapped them in parchment and aluminum and froze them for future feast. Maybe batter dip them for a killer French toast or pan sear and serve along a nice grilled Chicken with blistered tomatoes(from garden) and steamed basmati rice. Anyway, nice recipe
E
Awesome Eric! I am going to try the fresh toast idea. Thanks for the inspiration!
This is delicious. I didn’t have all the white sugar in-house, so I used honey added an organic orange with it’s zest. It is BRILLIANT. Thx!
The orange zest and honey sound magnificent! I will try it this year when I have mountains of summer squash to cook up! Thanks Kate!