Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie. ~ Jim Davis
And if ever a zucchini needed to go on a diet, it was this one. Our neighbors, M and C, had a banner squash year and gave us a real monster. I didn't think to take a picture of the poor thing before I started hacking into it, but it was nearly a foot-and-a-half long. The remaining portion you see in the picture about is about 1/4 of what we started out with.
The real problem when you let your zucchini reach such epic proportions is what to do with it. You can't just cut it up and cook it or you'll be eating the vegetable equivalent of leather. I started out with bread (which was wonderful and I will cover in another post as I still have the remnant above to deal with), but then one of my co-workers suggested zucchini-chocolate chip cookies. He had fond memories of his grandmother's cookies, and it was just off-center enough to be a must-try. I used this recipe, and my final assessment is that while zucchini cookies are interesting, they're not as good as bread. I was assured by my taste testers that the cookies were good, but for me, they were too cake-like. I still search for the perfect crunchy, chewy chocolate chip. Also? It's easier to convince people to eat the familiar bread than the weird-sounding cookies, and this is a major consideration because while I love to bake, I can't be responsible for consuming 100% of what I produce and Mr. flyskim doesn't really like sweets. My co-worker took some home but had no plans to tell his daughters that there was zucchini in the cookies.
The recipe calls for two cups of shredded zucchini. I used a really fine grater, and the result was pretty liquid. I ended up draining it a bit to cut down on the moisture.
Even with the eggs and butter, the batter was pretty crumbly until the zucchini was added in.
You end up with a pretty standard-looking cookie dough.
And some pretty standard-looking cookies. You can see the zucchini bread making a guest appearance on the cooling rack. My one real beef with this recipe is the portion estimate. The recipe calls for you to drop the cookies by the teaspoonful for a total of 36 cookies. No further guidance. A heaping spoonful? A scant spoonful? I used a tablespoon and wasn't stingy on my dropping, and I still ended up with 30 cookies. I also used the recommended cooking time. If I'd used a teaspoon, not only would there have been significantly more cookies, the cooking time would have been really off. This could just be my problem as cookies are something I have difficulty with, but there you go.
Here's a beauty shot of the last dozen before they went off to a good home. I still have a good 5-6 inches of giant zucchini left, so there will be more bread. I'm not sure if I should stick with my standard recipe or maybe branch out towards chocolate again. More to come later.
Oh, and we are still in our hot weather for another week, but after that, it looks like we're becoming more seasonable with temperature in the mid-70s. That means the sewing room reopens and I can finish my first fall dress! Super excited about the season.
