Zucchini Bread and a Chance to Learn

My son came home from school raving about the zucchini bread baked and brought to his third-grade class by the instructional aide Corinne Le.

The charming Mrs. Le had baked a treat for the class to keep up their flagging energy during the long morning of standardized state testing in May. Gotta love our public school teachers and staff; they will do anything necessary and within reason to keep test scores high!

"It's goooood," he said. "And she gave me the recipe, so can we make it? It's really, really good!"

Why yes, we can! In fact, it made an excellent baking lesson, from how to grate a zucchini and crack an egg to how to properly measure flour, sugar and spices. There was the lesson on how not to stir the batter so much that it gets rubbery, how to grease the pan, how to test the loaf to see if it is done and—once the loaf was in the oven—how to clean up the dirty bowls, utensils and floor.

When you break down a simple recipe into its parts and components, you begin to see how much there is unspoken in most recipes. If you really, truly wrote down everything you did and the best way to do it, every recipe would take a slim novel to describe.

The experience also taught following directions, grace under pressure while your elder explains concepts, a steady hand, using the proper tool for the job, delayed gratification (as we waited for it to bake and cool) and how to wait (im)patiently for it to cool all the way down, so you don't cut it too early and cause it to be gummy. 

And the final lesson? That life is sweet, and if you do the job, you get to lick the bowl while you wait for the loaf to bake. 

Thanks Mrs. Le for once again creating an environment of learning and for the excellent recipe! Now that zucchini is in season, we're all over this one as a repeater.

So many delicious lessons in life, so little time.

SPICED ZUCCHINI BREAD

Recipe from Corinne Le. My slight tweaks are in parentheses.

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons ground flax (I added this for extra nutrition)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I used Penzeys Vietnamese Cinnamon, a very strong version)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup sugar (I used 7/8 cup sugar)
1 cup finely shredded, unpeeled zucchini (I did not squeeze it dry after shredding)
1/4 cup cooking oil
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon finely shredded lemon peel (I used 1 teaspoon out of personal preference)
1/2 cup shopped walnuts or pecans (Omitted at the request of my son)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom and 1/2 inch up sides of an 8- by 4-inch loaf pan; set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl combine the flour, flax, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, salt and nutmeg; set aside. In another medium mixing bowl combine sugar, shredded zucchini, cooking oil, egg and lemon peel; mix well. Add dry mixture to zucchini mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy). Fold in walnuts or pecans, if using.

Spoon batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 55-60 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove loaf from pan and cool completely on the wire rack. Wrap and store overnight.

Makes 1 loaf; 12 servings.

APPLE BREAD VARIATION: Prepare as above, except substitute 1 cup finely shredded, peeled apple for the shredded zucchini. Continue as directed.