my jerusalem kitchen

Whenever something breaks in my apartment, I feel really bad calling my landlord and asking him to come down to fix it. Despite being jolly, helpful and never making me feel bad, I always feel guilty for disturbing him. When I dropped 10+ cups of dry rolled-oats behind my fridge the other day, and they fell into the container of water that sits under the fridge, I didn’t know how to explain to my landlord that the fridge was making oatmeal! I was so embarrassed, shocked and grossed out from picking out all the oatmeal by hand. When he came downstairs and heard what happened, he laughed in disbelief, until he got close enough to the bottom of the fridge and got a whiff…As a peace offering, I cut him a huge slice of my favorite zucchini bread. It’s good for an on-the-run breakfast, as a gift for your neighbors, as a snack, dessert or even a peace offering. Maybe I’ll write Netanyahu an email…

So, this is healthy, right? It has vegetables in it! It has whole wheat flour! It’s dairy-free! Well, I’ve at least tried to make it a little healthier, though this recipe is much more like a cake than a bread. I’ve had zucchini bread before that was really dry and dense but this recipe is nothing like that. It is moist, light, sweet and almost creams into a batter inside of your mouth.I brought this to a party the other day, and within minutes everyone had ripped off chunks (by hand!) and were on their way back for seconds and thirds. I know there are probably a lot of great zucchini bread recipes out there, but give this one a shot because it’s the best one I have ever tasted. Plus, it looks beautiful when it comes out of the oven because the center splits open and you can see all the delicious treats inside. You really can’t fail with this recipe either–just make sure you follow the order of mixing the ingredients because one time I forgot to do the eggs and added them at the end which left me with two cement blocks that I had to throw out.

Makes two bread loaves, or you can turn them into muffins, though admittedly, I don’t know how many it will make–maybe 20.

Majorly adapted from here

What you need:

2 large zucchinis; grated (or you can do one large zucchini and one large carrot for some variation)

1 1/2 c sugar (you can go as low as 1 c here, too)

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 c whole wheat flour

1 1/2 c all-purpose flour

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 c vegetable oil (you can go as low as 3/4 c, but this is where the moisture comes from)

3 heaping teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 tsp baharat spice (if you can’t get a hold of it, just go with nutmeg)

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 c chocolate chips (or cranberries, raisins, or nuts…your choice)

How to do it:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Beat the eggs in a large bowl and add the oil, sugar, vanilla and zucchini.

Combine the flour, cinnamon, baharat (or nutmeg), baking soda, baking powder, salt and chocolate chips (or nuts/dried fruit). Stir this into the egg mixture and divide the batter into two loaf pans. Bake for 50-60 (but check on it around 45 min) minutes or until the center no longer looks wet and you can give the pan a slight shake without the cake wobbling like belly fat. Enjoy!