Carrot & Zucchini Bars

I really think my body's starting to ask for healthier food on its own. Why? Well, after making an amazing Zucchini Bread, I realized that I had a bunch of left over zucchini. My mom said she wasn't going to use it, and my sweet tooth definitely started to act up, along with I guess my healthy tooth. I rummaged through my baking books, and decided on making these Carrot & Zucchini Bars from The Ultimate Cookie Book. It sounded healthy and yummy at the same time. The authors of TUCB even agree: "What a delicious way to get your family to eat their veggies! No one will suspect the healthful ingredients these heavenly, moist bars contain."

Carrot & Zucchini Bars
*makes 36 bars*

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups shredded carrot
1 cup shredded zucchini
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla
1 recipe Citrus-Cream Cheese Frosting

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350F. In a large bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ginger, and baking soda. In another large bowl stir together eggs, carrot, zucchini, brown sugar, raisins, walnuts, oil, honey, and vanilla. Add carrot mixture to flour mixture; stir just until combined. Spread batter evenly in an ungreased 13x9x2-inch baking pan.
2) Bake about 25 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack. Spread cooled bars with Citrus-Cream Cheese Frosting. Cut into bars.

Citrus-Cream Cheese Frosting
In a mixing bowl beat one 8-ounce package softened cream cheese and 1 cup powdered sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy. Stir in 1 teaspoon finely shredded lemon peel.

If you want to print this recipe out, go here to its link on the Better Homes & Gardens site.

Zucchini Bread

Today made me realize how important family really is. My whole life I've lived across the field (literally; I have a plantain field in front of my house) from this boy named J (I'm keeping his whole name private in order to respect his privacy and what his family is going through). We've grown up together; we used to hang out all the time when we were little. Once middle school came around, we stopped seeing each other as much, and that field became a giant wall between us. No lie, I didn't see him again until probably my senior year of high school. I saw him biking down the street as I was driving home from work. I pulled over and invited him to my house. We spoke about everything, and that's when I found out he really wanted to go to UM for college. I told him I had been accepted there, and to feel free to call me once my college year started in order for me to tell him all about it. You see, J and I were born a month apart (I was in September, he was in October). Because of that, we were separated into different grades. Anywho, once my sophomore year started, he came to me for help in picking his classes. Throughout all these years, his parents had been really good friends with my parents all along. Around the same time that J came to me for school help, my parents told me that J's mom had been diagnosed with breast cancer. I didn't know what to say, or how to help, but I managed to lend him an eager-to-listen ear, just in case he ever wanted to talk. After that news came around, I kind of lost touch with J again. He did his own thing, as well as I did my own thing. I would get updates all the time from my parents about how his mom was doing. This morning, I woke up to news from parents about J's mom's condition getting worse. Throughout the past year and a half, J's mom had been through surgeries and chemo, and nothing was helping her. The cancer had even spread to her liver and kidneys. Today, well, today seemed to be the day for J's mom to join the countless others that throughout history have gone on to what's beyond life. We went to visit J and his family, and seeing his mom there so helpless, so tired, so, well, I don't know how to put it, defeated (?), it all made me realize that I really have to appreciate my family, regardless of how annoying they can be most of the time. I haven't heard any news yet, so it's safe to assume she's still fighting and willing to live. I really hope she'll be ok, and also, I hope J will be ok. He's an only child, like me, and he's always been really close to his mom. I'll definitely be keeping J and his family, especially his mom, in my prayers tonight. I'd really appreciate it if you all would do the same.

After we all came back home, I decided to bake something for my parents tailored to their tastes. I knew that they had just bought some zucchini, and they've always liked breads that have vegetables in them, so I decided to make some zucchini bread from Williams-Sonoma: Bread. It ended up being extremely flavorful and very moist. It was a big hit among my parents, and it was gone within a couple of hours. This recipe featured a very helpful side note:

"LOAF PANS: Loaf pans give form to breads that are too moist to hold their own shape. They range in size and shape, but the standard size is 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 by 2 3/4 inches, with a capacity of 5 1/2 cups. Be careful when trying to substitute a pan of a different size than what's called for in a recipe. As a rule of thumb, the batter should fill the pan about two-thirds full. Use less batter, and you will have a flat loaf. Fill the pan too full, and you will end up with an overflowing, top-heavy loaf that looks awkward and is difficult to slice."

Zucchini Bread
*makes one 8 1/2-by-4 1/2-inch loaf*

Ingredients:
8 oz zucchini, trimmed
1/2 cup canola oil, plus extra for greasing
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus extra for flouring
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup chopped pitted moist-pack prunes
1/3 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Directions:
1) Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease and lightly flour one 8 1/2-by-4 1/2-inch loaf pan.
2) Using the large holes of a box grater-shredder or the large-holed shredder blade of a food processor, shred the zucchini. You should have about 1 cup. Set aside.
3) In a bowl, combine the oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Beat vigorously with a whisk or with an electric mixer on medium speed until pale and creamy, about 1 minute. Stir in the shredded zucchini until blended.
4) In a bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, prunes, and walnuts. Add the flour mixture to the zucchini mixture and stir just until combined. The batter will be stiff. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan.
5) Bake until the bread is firm to the touch and pulls away from the pan sides, 50-60 minutes. A cake tester inserted into the center of a loaf should come out clean. Let cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes. Turn the bread out, place upright on the rack, and let cool completely.

The Cake Slice: Cinnamon-Pecan Coffee Cake

School has been ridiculously tough so far this semester, and tension is definitely in the air at the U. It's honestly crazy. This semester seems to be everyone's toughest semester. Every time I've gone to the library, it's always packed. No one seems to be out of there. Work, on the other hand, hasn't been that bad. It's gotten to be pretty fun, and I've been making some really good friendships there. On the private life front, it's been complicated. I've had my good days where everything falls into place really well, and I've had my bad days, where things just honestly go from bad to the worst ever. Throughout the good and bad times, baking is always there to help me out. Yes, I know I'm kind of personifying baking, but it really seems to be like a good friend of mine. It always cheers me up when I'm down; it relaxes me when I'm so stressed things seem to be crashing down all around me; it brings a smile to my face when I see others enjoy what I've made. Into this baking relationship falls the amazing group called The Cake Slice. Every month, we all vote on which cake to make, and then on the 20th of each month, we unravel our baked goodies to the whole world. This time around, we all decided on baking up a storm from the book Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott. For this month's choice, we made an amazing one-of-a-kind coffee cake. It's full of cinnamony goodness! It has a delicious filling and topping that's made of cinnamon, brown sugar, raisins, and pecans. While the cake's baking, it fills up the whole house with the most delicious cinnamon smell ever. It even caught the attention of my cat, Holy, which happens to be the pickiest eater ever. I'm telling you all. If you're into cinnamon, and into coffee cake, you have to try this recipe out.

This little background excerpt comes directly from Southern Cakes: "Christmas morning breakfast at our house always included this outstanding cake, which had enough cinnamon to perfume the kitchen and enough brown sugar and pecans to make us clamor for seconds. I love to make it throughout the year, sometimes in a tube pan but mostly in a big rectangle so that it's easy to cut into yummy, portable squares."

Mother's Cinnamon-Pecan Coffee Cake
*serves 8 to 10*

Ingredients:
FOR CINNAMON-RAISIN FILLING
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
3 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups raisins
1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped pecans
3/4 cup salted butter, melted

FOR COFFEE CAKE
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup whole milk
1 cup salted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs

Directions:
1) Heat the oven to 350F, and grease and flour a 13-by-9-inch pan.
2) To make the filling, combine the light brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a medium bowl, and stir with a fork to mix everything well. Combine the raisins and pecans in another bowl and toss to mix them. Place the cinnamon mixture, the nut mixture, and the melted butter by the baking pan.
3) To make the coffee cake batter, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl, and stir with a fork to mix them together well. Stir the vanilla into the milk. In a large bowl, combine the butter and the sugar, and beat with a mixer at high speed, stopping to scrape down the bowl, until pale yellow and evenly mixed, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs and beat for another 2 minutes, scraping down the bowl now and then, until the mixture is smooth and light.
4) Using a large spoon or a spatula, add about a third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, and stir only until the flour disappears. Add about a third of the milk and mix it in. Repeat two more times with the remaining flour and milk, stirring just enough each time to keep the batter smooth.
5) Spread half the batter evenly over the bottom of the prepared pan. Sprinkle half the cinnamon mixture over the batter, followed by half the melted butter. Scatter half the raisins and nuts over the batter. Spread the remaining batter carefully over the filling, using a spatula or a spoon to smooth the batter all the way to the edges of the pan. Top with the remaining cinnamon mixture, butter, and nut mixture, covering the cake evenly.
6) Bake at 350F for 45 to 50 minutes, until the cake is golden brown, fragrant, and beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan. Cool the cake in the pan for 5 to 10 minutes on wire racks or a folded kitchen towel, and then serve in squares right from the pan. The cake is delicious hot, warm, or at room temperature.

If you want to check out the other Cake Slice Bakers' monthly entries, click here.

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