This is precisely why I immediately freeze anything I bake (unless it's for someone else)!! But first, it's been quiet here blog wise for a couple weeks but I've been a very busy girl and that means I have several blog posts lined up! Back to this picture. If you know me, you know I bake A LOT. But I usually freeze and hoard what I bake and enjoy goodies on Sundays, aka Sugar Sundays. I made this incredible chocolate bread last night because I had a very large zucchini and five over ripe bananas sitting on the counter. About the zucchini - I planted four plants that were marked "zucchini balls" imagining that we would harvest little orbs that would sensibly produce. To our surprise, we discovered conventional long ones all over the stock tank garden! So much for the label I have on those plants. I looked up a recipe on the internet for something chocolate I could make with both ingredients. Perfect. When the loaves were done and cooled, I wrapped them for storage in the freezer but put them in the refrigerator until morning. Big mistake. As we were getting ready to make breakfast, Dan asked if he could try the chocolate bread. Sure. He exclaimed how delicious it was and asked if I wanted a slice. I hesitated but said yes. Oh my gosh! I ate it cold - it was so incredibly chocolately with big chunks of chips, super moist, meaty, so delicious! I stopped at one. Finished my bitter sugar free hot chocolate that I was tolerating (but enjoying) in the very, very warm humid kitchen with sweat on my brow and trickling down my back. I had dressed nicely today with the intention of visiting some older ladies in my congregation/ward who are pretty much house bound. No appointments but I was just going to drop in on each. Then I got a phone call from Stratham Hill Nursery saying that the five huge shade trees we ordered a few weeks ago were going on the truck and could they plant them today?!?! (That's tomorrow's post). Dan had conference calls lined up so I had to run to Home Depot and buy bags of soil amendments and then stay home and over see the tree planters etc. So while the landscapers ran their heavy equipment all over the property and dug huge holes and planted trees I weeded, watered, replaced a rose plant, tied up tomato plants, ripped out cut and tired lettuce and spinach plants, planted more grass seed on spots all over the place, pulled out all sorts of growth behind our stone wall bordering the golf course, etc, kept very busy. One of the landscape guys came up to me and asked me if I worked like this everyday and I replied yes, that it was one of the joys of my life and he just said "hummph" and walked away. I was starving for lunch having had only the one piece of chocolate bread so I went inside with the intention of having meat, cheese and salad. I saw the chocolate bread still in the refrigerator and not able to stop myself I cut two more pieces and ate them at the counter. Back to the yard work. Approaching dinner time and quite hungry and obviously sugar crashed, I came inside, saw the chocolate bread and cut a piece and went and told Dan I wasn't eating dinner tonight because I was on the fourth piece and planning on having another. He laughed and told me I had better get it in the freezer quick. I did put the other loaf in the freezer but not the cut one. Two hours later I came back in, Dan was at a meeting at the church so I ate 1 1/2 more pieces and then hated myself for doing this to my body so I walked to the beach and then walked for about 40 minutes more. I'm crashing as I write this. And I'm telling you all of this because it's important that you know that along with the gluttony, I did get some exercise to hopefully offset the obvious overload of calories. Bippity! Here is the recipe. You now have a fabulous treat to make with all the zucchini you will be producing. Keep extra loaves in the freezer and practice self control.
BANANA ZUCCHINI CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE CHIP BREAD
Makes two large loaves. 325 oven - bake 50 minutes convection, 60 minutes regular oven. Grease pans.
3 cups flour
1 cup cocoa powder (I used Barry Extra Brute - it's super dark and dutched - you can use natural)
2 t cinnamon
2 cups sugar
1 t salt
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
2 1/2 cups chocolate chips
Combine dry ingredients in a bowl, stir in the 2 1/2 cups chocolate chips (I used Ghiradelli 60%) and set aside.
In a mixing bowl blend well :
1 cup melted butter
5 medium very ripe bananas
2 cups pureed unpeeled zucchini (don't just grate it, puree it)
1 t vanilla
2 eggs
Add the dry to the wet and mix until just blended. Pour in to 2 prepared loaf pans - they will be over half full.
Do NOT eat warm. Let the bread cool and sit over night preferably in the refrigerator since it's a fruit/veggie bread. I don't eat the heels on fruit bread since I find them dry and rubbery but the rest of the loaf is awesome. Eat cold or room temp - you don't need butter or cream cheese. Control yourself.
Detail!
And pics from tonight's walk. After I dipped my dirty feet in here.
Oh, one more thing. And this is kind of funny. Up in the loft of the garage, stored, there is a life size card board cut out of my son Dane that was made so he could "be" at my daughter Gabe's wedding reception although he was actually in Australia on a mission for our church and couldn't come home. While we were out of town last week, some sneaky family member, a Soucy or Sampson, put the cut out in the loft window. I jumped out of my skin a couple days ago when I was walking to the garage and glimpsed a guy in the window (Dane) and then I laughed in relief. Today one of the landscapers did the same thing when he was walking to his truck by the garage. It was so funny and I told him I had recently done the same thing.
Look up at the middle window. See the guy there? Below is the close up.
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