Daughter’s Zucchini Bread

How can I simply tell you how deliciously good this is, how much it catars to the tastebuds when you cannot reach out for a slice but imagine the wholesome quality of a bread that is no longer basic in every household; rather, souped up into a deluxe zucchini bread that isn’t just a zucchini bread that kitchens in countrysides and in town and city still want something of that is so traditional and homemade like what their grandmothers and moms baked if you have or had a mom like I have who could bake the finest zucchini bread in  town, that folks from the countryside as well as the city still request her loaf.

It has been long-standing, my mother’s zucchini bread that has been the best; and many have proclaimed it to be such the case.  Nothing fancy, but it’s been as though she had a magic finger that she dipped into the bread batter without licking it to check for the proper taste of just what she wanted it to be.  She probably accidentally memorized it after many years of baking it, could probably, most likely, bake it blind-folded as she folded into the batter the last ingredients of each and every bread batter ready for the oven.  ‘Tis true that it’s got more to do with than the recipe, alone…  It’s the w a y in which it’s made, it’s the care it takes.  It’s the love of baking, not just liking it, not even just loving it.  It is an art, it is more than food prep for food intake.

I went years without baking a couple of loaves, myself, because nothing could compare to hers.  I would wait until I could see her again during some winter or fall, whether she already had some baked or upon request, my request or that of my sister’s, to eat her famous zucchini bread.  Close to being a cake, which she makes a uniquely fine zucchini cake, as well, it is moist, different; and you cannot hesitate with having just one slice.  One loaf will get devoured at one sitting by three.  People love good bread, sweet as well as savory. 

I’ve eaten a lot of zucchini breads through the years, and some were of what other people baked at office parties, get-togethers, holiday dinners, but to my surprise, there are still too many zucchini breads that are left dry, coarse, too coarse to call  moist, to call it–legitimately delicious; and in some cases, not moist enough. You cannot fathom asking for a second slice when it lacks the moistness needed to make this great, including the flavors combined together to give it the correct taste that it demands.  With that is the love for baking; maybe there are some who bake this but lack the passion.  You can breathe in, taste and enjoy a person’s love through food cooked and baked if you are fortunate to dine and snack on the finished products that someone makes who has the real passion for food and the creativity it takes to make it memorable and most pleasant.  We are born with different qualities.  If you have a baker and/or a cook who knocks your socks off with just one bite, by all means, “kiss the cook.”  You have a fortune in your kitchen, in your household if that truly be the case.  

I don’t go for boring.  Am not a boring individual; neither do I ever get bored or think it remotely possible.  There is too much exhuberance for me to get my fingers involved with.  My brain is always spinning with ideas and work is my left hand, or the right but every bit, it is a true accomplishment and delight, each and every task that is practically just as well-loved as this bread.  Don’t let yourself get bored; think of all that you could be doing that just might make a difference somewhere, in some way.  The world is hurried, but slow down a bit.  Breathe in the life that is still just as breath-taking as the smell of fresh homemade bread out of the oven cooling on a rack ready to be sliced for you.  Home is where it is. 

Contrary to basic zucchini bread, and instead of calling Mother on the telephone asking her for her recipe, I found it in myself to be the modern version of her zucchini bread baker.  Having my own, not duplicating hers or trying to, or seeming to bake zucchini bread even close to the bread she has always baked, I found my own zucchini bread that maybe, possibly one day, my children will be requesting me of when they come to visit, not only hers.  I’ll still have hers when I visit in the fall and winter; and after that, my kids will still have hers.

Stop the mixer.

Fold into batter, then combine together in a bowl: 

After blending together, fold into batter, as well.  Pour into loaf pans well-greased; oven set for 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Bake for 50 minutes.  Cool completely on rack before turning out of pans.

When cooled and out of loaf pans, mix:

Drizzle with icing, immediately sprinkle one loaf with chopped dried pineapple; and for variety, immediately sprinkle chopped walnuts over the icing for the other loaf. 

Store in the refrigerator once cooled to lock in moistness and flavor.  It makes a big difference.

Not a boring bake or baker…