Milk Chocolate Zucchini Bread (And the Third Generation Urban Gardener)

When I was but a wee lass, my family spent a lot of time at my grandparents house up by the Boundary Waters in Ely, Minnesota. If any of you've ever been there, you know exactly how amazing it is way up North. My grandparent's parents were both Yugoslavian immigrants, like so many others on the Iron Range, and my grandfather grew up there in the heart of The Great Depression.

 As many of you probably know from experiences with your own grandparents if they were alive during  that time period, they are incredibly frugal people who whole-heartedly embrace the philosophy of "Waste not want not", and since we were with our grandparents so much, this was a concept my family has  always kept in mind.

 The most poignant expression of this idea on my grandfather's part was that he kept his entire yard a massive garden. He was able to posess and plant his own heirloom seeds year after year, utilizing his whole yard as a food source. Every inch of that yard was covered with six varieties of tomatoes, cucumber, lettuces, carrots and zucchini. 

Grandpa Stan would sit outside many a summer night, sipping diet Shasta , just watching  his bounty take life before his eyes. Growing food has always seemed so cool to me, you put the seeds in the ground, and with sun, water and a sprinkling of fish emulsion FOOD grows!  As a third generation urban organic gardener, it was a magic I learned at a young age to never take for granted.

The zucchini my grandpa would grow  sticks out in my mind's eye especially because it was so insanely massive. Even though the bigger the zucchini the more watery and less flavorful it is, my grandpa would coax his zucchini plants to become borderline ridiculous sized. When it was nearing frost, he would begrudgingly give up on these squash actually getting 5 feet long, and haul his kayak sized zucchini out of the garden. 

Everyone involved in this situation who was given a giant zucchini quickly began rapidly  making zucchini fritters, breads, sautes out the yazoo until they were so sick of the fruit they never wanted to see it again.

One thing I could never get sick of though  is zucchini bread, and while I don't have my garden this year, I did somehow end up with a bunch of  zucchini. I realized I had better act quick to use it up, so I made a bunch of batches of my favorite zucchini bread.

It's not really the most regal looking fruit, but it is really fun to cook with. My grandpa is surely rolling over in his grave right now over this puny zucchini.

Zucchini Bread with Milk Chocolate Chips

-1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour ( I used Bob's Red Mill Whole-Wheat )
-1 cup sugar
-1 egg
-1 cup shredded, unpeeled  zucchini ( I used a food processor)
-1 t. cinnamon 
-1/2 t. baking soda
-1/4 t. baking powder
-1/2 t. salt
-1 t. nutmeg
-1 t. ginger
-1/4 cup canola oil
-1/2 cup milk chocolate chips 

Directions:
 Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a loaf pan or 6 muffin cups . In a mixing bowl combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda and powder, salt, nutmeg and ginger, whisk. In another bowl, whisk sugar, oil, egg, and zucchini. Fold into dry ingredients, and fold in chocolate chips. Using an ice-cream scoop or a spoon, scoop batter into loaf pan or muffin cups. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

I made this batch in muffin form so I could give them to people and bring them to work for lunch. Note the large zucchini chunk in the top muffin. It's a bit large, but  I think it gives them character, personally....=)

                                                           Zucchini bread, aerial view.

 Zucchini bread is an August staple in my household, and we consume and give several loaves to friends every week. Zucchini is such a versatile food that it can be used in everything from a cold soup to a cupcake, so I can see where my grandpa was going thinking the bigger squash the better, but it's not always true that bigger is really better....

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What's your favorite way to use up a  morbidly obese zucchini???