Zucchini-Nutella Bread

I haven't shared much of our garden this year, but after a late planting, it's finally doing well. We've harvested all of the spinach and most of the radishes and a few ripe tomatoes, but the majority won't get ripe for another few weeks. We have red onions, banana peppers, jalapeno peppers, sweet cherry peppers and bell peppers yet to come. 

One of our neighbors dubbed this summer for us as "The Summer of the Deck" and I have no doubt that my gardener ageed with her. He's been working on the deck, weather permitting, since he began tearing down the old one last March. We started with plans of replacing just the flooring, but the more we uncovered, we found pretty much all of the wood was rotten and needed to be replaced. So, it was built from the ground up. You can see a little of it in the picture above, but I'll post pictures of it another time.

Oh, zucchini. I love you. I hate you. 

But mostly, I love you. 

We check the garden nightly now for zukes, because if left on their own for too long, they tend to grow to the size of baseball bats. My gardener found one that he swears was three feet long. Take into consideration that my gardener is also an avid fisherman ;) He joked that he was glad his brother had a 2.5 ton pickup so he could take the thing home with him.

When I saw Emily's Marbled Nutella Banana Bread on her blog, Sugar Plum, I thought hmm, how about Zucchini-Nutella Bread, and so it was born.

This is one of those recipes that tastes much better than it might sound. This is an amazingly moist bread with all the goodness of Nutella and all the healthfulness of homegrown zucchini.

I adapted my favorite Banana Bread recipe from Emeril for this. 

I made another loaf today with bananas, but I'm sending that to my granddaughter, Kayla, so she can have a slice for breakfast before she starts her first day at Kindergarten next Monday.

PRINT RECIPE

Zucchini-Nutella Bread

10 T butter, cut into 1/2" pieces

2 c grated zucchini

1/2 c sour cream

2 large eggs

1-1/2 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

3/4 c plus 2 T sugar

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 c toasted, chopped walnuts

1/2 c Nutella

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray 9x5 loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray. 

Puree the grated zucchini, sour cream, eggs and vanilla in food processor.

Sift flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer with a whisk attachment. Add butter and mix on low until blended. Add the zucchini mixture in 3 batches, scraping the sides of the bowl and mixing on medium speed between each addition. Fold in the nuts.

Divide half the batter into a medium bowl. Stir in Nutella until combined. Alternate spoonfuls of each batter into loaf pan. Swirl gently with a knife.

Bake until lightly browned and bread bounces back to the touch, about 1 hour 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and cook for 10 minutes before turning out onto wire rack to cool completely.

Three years ago today, I was sitting at my computer (looking up recipes, no doubt!) when I stumbled onto someone's blog. I then googled "food blogs" and found lots more! Having just moved from California to Montana and with plenty of time on my hands, I thought, hmm, I could do that! I went to Blogger and clicked on "create a blog" and the rest is history.

I've had so much fun with Karen Cooks these last three years and the best part has been because of you, and you, and you! I've met so many wonderful people in the last three years! So with my thanks for following, today I'm giving away a copy of Nigella Lawson's "How to be a Domestic Goddess". Just leave me a comment and you're automatically entered to win!