Zucchini & Sweet Potato Bread
This zucchini bread is made with grated zucchini and sweet potato. The sweet potato adds sweetness and body to the zucchini bread. It might not sound like they go together, but they really do.Try to select zucchini that are smaller and lighter in color as they'll be sweeter and less bitter.
As with all quick breads, the key to this recipe is not overmixing the batter. Once the liquid ingredients are added to the dry, mix the batter by hand just until the flour is moistened, for no more than 10 to 15 seconds. Too much mixing can cause the final product to be dry, tough or misshapen.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour, 20 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour, 35 minutes
Ingredients:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
- 1½ cups grated zucchini
- 1½ cups grated sweet potato (peel before grating)
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 3 eggs
- ½ cup vegetable oil
Preparation:
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
- Beat the eggs in a separate bowl and then stir in the sugar, oil and vanilla.
- Stir the grated zucchini and sweet potato into the egg mixture.
- Thoroughly grease and flour a 9" × 5" × 3" baking pan (or use a nonstick baking pan or a flexible silicone pan).
- Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ones and mix no more than ten to fifteen seconds. The batter will be visibly lumpy. That's OK! It's extremely important not to overmix the batter, or the resulting bread will be too hard.
- Once the liquid and dry ingredients have been combined, gently fold the walnuts into the batter.
- Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake immediately.
TIP: The dry and wet ingredients, respectively, can be mixed in advance, but as soon as the wet and dry ingredients have been combined with each other, the liquid will activate the baking powder and the batter must be baked right away. - Bake 1 hour and 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean and the edge of the bread starts to separate from the pan.
- Once the pan is cool enough to touch, carefully invert the pan — the loaf should drop right out, so make sure you support it with your other hand. Let the loaf cool on a wire rack at room temperature.
