Cooking With Maddie Newsletter #65

Zucchini Bread

Hi friends! 

I have some big news… your girl is ENGAGED!! Eeeeeeekkkkkkkkkkkkk! 

Can you believe it? I still can’t. I’ve been on cloud 9 since Frank popped the question, and no one can bring me down. 

The day was more perfect than I could have ever imagined. We were at one of my favorite places, surrounded by family. The sun was shining. Flowers were blooming. I was crying. I actually couldn’t stop crying. We celebrated with champagne and friends. It will forever be one of my favorite days. 

I’m still giddy with excitement, which is making most other brain activity minimal. Like how do I even transition this now to a recipe? Do you all even care?! Or should I just keep going on about getting engaged…

I’m just teasing. 

I actually do have a recipe for you all. It’s one we’ve been making all summer because I don’t know about ya’ll but the squashes have been popping off this summer! I mean, I am seriously picking off a new zucchini every other day. And what do you even do with that much zucchini?! Besides making corn zucchini salad or summer squash aglio e olio… Here’s what you do. You make Zucchini Bread. 

Here’s what you’ll need —

• ½ cup (56.5 grams) butter 

• 1 ¾ cup (223.5 grams) all purpose flour 

• 1 tsp cinnamon 

• 1 tsp salt

• ½ tsp baking powder

• ½ tsp baking soda

• ¼ tsp grated nutmeg 

• 2 large eggs

• ⅓ cup (82.5 grams) light brown sugar 

• ½ cup (75.5 grams) granulated sugar 

• 6 tablespoons (90 milliliters) olive oil 

• 12 oz (340 grams) grated zucchini, unpeeled and grated on a box grater — about 1 1/2 - 2 zucchini 

• 2 tablespoons demerara sugar 

Note: For baking, I find it much easier to measure things out in grams using a kitchen scale. However, that seems silly when you’re doing teaspoons and tablespoons, so that’s why you don’t see those ingredients in grams. 

Start by heating your oven to 350 degrees F, and greasing a 9x5 loaf pan with softened butter. Line the pan with parchment paper, so it’s easy to lift the bread from the pan, after it’s cooled — like this. 

Melt your butter over medium heat, cooking and swirling the pot, until the butter begins to brown. This will smell amazinggggggg. Browning butter takes about 5 minutes, and you’ll start to see the butter foaming and brown bits sticking to the bottom of the pot. Remove from heat and set aside. 

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, baking soda and nutmeg. 

In another large bowl, whisk together the eggs, light brown sugar, granulated sugar, and olive oil, until no lumps of sugar remain. 

In another bowl (I’m sorry for all these dishes!), grate your zucchini. Use your hands to squeeze out as much water as you can from the zucchini, adding the squeezed grated zucchini to the egg and sugar bowl. Discard the leftover zucchini water. Squeezing the water out of the zucchini is oddly satisfying. Zucchini is a watery vegetable, so you’ll have quite a bit of water leftover in your bowl. 

Add the browned butter to the egg, sugar and zucchini mixture as well. Stir so everything is combined. 

Add the egg, sugar and zucchini mixture to the flour bowl, using a rubber spatula to stir so everything is combined, and no dry flour spots remain. Try to avoid over-mixing here! 

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan, smoothing the top and tapping on the counter, to eliminate any air bubbles. Top with demerara sugar, and place in the oven. Bake for 50-60 minutes, rotating halfway through. 

When a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean, remove the pan from the oven, and let cool on a wire rack. Let cool completely before removing from the pan, using your parchment flaps to easily remove the bread from the pan. Enjoy! 

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For what’s been giving me life, it’s obviously being engaged to Frank. I’m having so much fun in this phase. We’re doing a lot of dreaming, celebrating and enjoying the moment.

On top of the engagement, it was having a full two weeks with my momma in Denver. There’s truly nothing better than having your mom around. She baked for us, organized closets and pantries, made quick trips the store… all the things I wish I had year-round but feel so lucky to get for two straight weeks. Let me tell you, I don’t think anything but my mom could have cured my post-engagement hangover. There’s just something about your mom taking care of you, you know?

It was going to the Keystone Bluegrass festival with friends. It was having a tomato dinner party with girlfriends in the backyard, and then a cherry-themed dinner party a month later. I think we’re going to make ingredient-themed dinner parties a thing.

It was seeing Tyler Childers at Folsom Field, dinner at Hey Bangkok!, and celebrating my sister Caitlin’s birthday with a luau-themed party. It’s been dabbling in sourdough baking, although I’m so novice at it that I don’t think a sourdough recipe will ever make the newsletter. It was the Biophilia exhibit at the Denver Art Museum, and last, but not least, it’s all the cherry tomatoes and peppers we’re getting from the garden. I’m at my happiest when I’m plucking a ripe cherry tomato off the vine and popping it in my mouth.

Wish I was with you,

Maddie