Chocolate Zucchini Cake

I love zucchini! I know that a lot of people get too zucchinified during the late summer months when zucchinis grow relentlessly and turn into giants if left unpicked for a couple of days. Give them to me! They won’t go to waste, I promise. They might be turned into fancy boat vessels for veggie loaves but most of the time they will be thrown into summer stir fries for a quick and filling meal.

One of the things that I really love is a light and lovely quick bread. It has been forever on my to-do list to bake zucchini bread or something like that this summer. However, there weren’t any recipes that caught my eye. That seems weird, right? Considering how everyone else has baked up zucchini into breads, cookies, and all that.

Two weeks ago, my blogger friend from Greece, Katerina of Culinary Flavors, posted a recipe for Little Chocolate Zucchini Bundt Cakes. It was THE recipe that I have been waiting for! So, I made it, all the while trying to follow the recipe as closely as I could given the ingredients that I had on hand. Best decision ever!

 

Instead of all-purpose flour, I used half spelt and half rye. You would think this would ruin the cake because of how dense these flours tend to be, but it didn’t! The spelt and rye flours gave the cake a nice heft but still left it with a good deal of springiness. The secret to the balanced bread-cake texture was the olive oil and moisture from the zucchini. This cake does not require any butter, just olive oil, which adds a touch of earthiness to the cake.

 
What about the zucchini? Is there really any zucchini in there? Yep, there’s a lot of zucchini in there but you totally won’t be able to tell. One thing I ask of you though is to please do not let the arduous task of shredding zucchini daunt you, especially if you’re working with a 5 pounder (like the zucchini that my coworker Diana endlessly supplies me with). Just cut it into workable hunks and enjoy the workout. And I will repeat this, if you’re not a zucchini fan, you don’t need to worry because you won’t taste them at all. I believe that the sole purpose for shredded zucchini here is the good hydration that it contributes to the cake.

This chocolate cake is incredibly good, so delicious and wholesome! It is rich with just the right amount of sweetness plus surprise bites of chocolate chips here and there that make it even more special. This cake is filling like a grainy quick bread, but soft like a cake should be.

Make it as a last summer hurrah. You will absolutely love it!

 

Chocolate Zucchini Cake (Makes one, 9-inch round cake)

Slightly adapted from Little Chocolate Zucchini Bundt Cakes, by Katerina of Culinary Flavors (original recipe from King Arthur’s Flour)           

1 cup spelt flour
1 cup rye flour
¾ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1/3 cup cocoa
 
2 large eggs
1/3 cup honey
½ cup olive oil
½ cup brown sugar, packed
1 tsp vanilla extract
 
2 ½ cups (14 oz) thinly shredded zucchini
1 cup (6 oz) semisweet chocolate chips

a bit of olive oil to grease the pan

 

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the spelt and rye flours. Add in the baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cocoa, and whisk until everything is well-combined.

In a separate large mixing bowl, beat in the eggs, honey, olive oil, sugar, and vanilla using a hand held electric mixer on low speed. Beat well until all the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is smooth.

Pour in half of the dry mixture into the wet mixture and mix on low speed until everything is just incorporated. Add the rest of the dry ingredients and again, mix on low speed until everything is just incorporated. Scrape the sides and bottom of the pan with a rubber spatula to make sure there are no dry ingredients left behind. The batter should be thick.

Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in the chocolate chips and the shredded zucchini until everything is spread out evenly. The liquid in the zucchini will cause the batter to become thinner and easier to work with.

Move an oven rack in the middle position and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Pour a bit of olive oil on the palm of your hand and use your hand to thoroughly grease the sides and bottom of the pan.

Slowly pour the batter into the pan. When the oven is ready, bake for 60 minutes. You will see cracks on the top of the cake and the sides will begin to pull away. Just to be sure, test the cake for doneness by inserting a toothpick in the middle. If it’s done, the toothpick will come out clean. If there’s chocolate goo on the toothpick, test again in a neighboring area, you might have just stabbed a melted chocolate chip.

Enjoy!

 

 

Have a great first week of October friends! As always, thank you for stopping by! 

 

From Food Blogs to Our Table

Eating good food is a must in our household. If we want to stuff ourselves silly with pizza, cookies, and ice cream, might as well do so with style, right?

Here are some great foods we have made at home from my favorite food blogs. Thank you to Joanne, Joy the Baker, and Food Network for making us happy! Your blog posts and recipes are well-loved in our home.    

No-Knead Pizza with Corn, Hatch Chile, and Bacon, from Joy the Baker

I followed the recipe closely… the no-knead pizza didn’t really turn out to be no-knead and I ditched my spatula and used my hands instead. There’s really nothing better than kneading dough and I love every part of the whole process. So using some arm muscles was not a big deal. The dough was delicious, but what is even more amazing about this pizza are the toppings. I altered the recipe a bit by using my own fresh pizza sauce, half mozzarella and half queso fresco, roasted poblano peppers (instead of hatch chile), and roasted corn. The homemade pizza sauce, salty cheese, crispy bacon, spicy poblanos, and sweet corn are so perfect together! One of the best pizzas I have ever made.

Here’s the recipe for my homemade fresh tomato sauce.

Fresh Tomato Pizza Sauce (Good for 2 pizzas)

3 Roma tomatoes, roughly chopped

2 cloves garlic
¼ tsp olive oil
¼ tsp coriander
¼ tsp salt
a pinch of chili flakes
 
Place all the ingredients in a blender. Puree until everything is well-mixed and smooth.
 

Dark Chocolate, Pistachio, and Smoked Sea Salt Cookies, from Joy the Baker

You guys, these cookies were so good! That Joy girl sure knows her stuff. When I read her blog post on these babies I knew I had to make them. And boy, I was pleasantly surprised to find out how so much better these cookies were than what I had imagined! DFJ ate about 5 per day until they disappeared. These cookies are a combination of fancy, campfirey, and all-time favorite. Please do yourselves a favor and bake these for your loved ones or just for yourself because you deserve them!

 

Roasting and Seeding Various Peppers, from Food Network courtesy of Emeril Lagasse

 

I followed this recipe to make roasted poblano peppers and loved the result. I roasted 4 large poblano peppers, peeled, and then sliced them. They already went on the pizza above, stir-fries, and Zucchini with Sausage and Greens. I love how they add a wonderful mild spiciness to all the dishes they have been thrown into!  

Peanut Butter and Honey Ice Cream, from Joanne of Eats Well with Others

My blogger friend, Joanne of Eats Well with Others, is going through a difficult time right now with news of her father’s cancer. To support her, I decided to make this delicious ice cream recipe that she posted on her blog. DFJ and I made ice cream for the very first time a few nights ago and hovered our ice cream maker like little kids. We followed Joanne’s directions closely and used all the ingredients required except for the peanut butter. Only almond butter was available at home and that’s what we used. If you tasted the ice cream, you would think we had been making ice cream for years. This was utterly delicious! Goodbye store bought ice cream! And hello homemade ice cream, especially you Almond Butter and Honey Ice Cream.

Joanne, thanks for sharing this recipe. You and your family are in my thoughts.

Zucchini with Sausage and Greens

Hello friends, it’s another Food Matters Project Monday! This week’s recipe, Whole Cauliflower with Sausage, was chosen by Gracie of Food Fascination. I almost opted out because there was not a single cauliflower to be seen at the farmer’s market last Thursday.

However, there’s really no reason to opt out when there’s two 5 pound zucchinis sitting on the counter daring me to cook them. So, zucchini it was instead of cauliflower!

I used the rest of the other ingredients from Mark Bittman’s original recipe, which you can find over at Gracie’s blog, namely: sausage, onion, bread crumbs, and parsley. But beyond that, I just kinda did my own thing. So, instead of steamed cauliflower with sausage-bread crumb-parsley sauce, I ended up with a very savory zucchini with sausage and greens stir fry.

 

Let’s start with the homemade bread crumbs. It really is so easy to make. I just defrosted a hunk of good sourdough bread, tore it into chunks, and dried it in a hot oven for a few minutes. Once the chunks of bread were dry, I ground them in a blender until they resembled bread crumbs. Easy peasy! Keep reading, the recipe is below.

The crumbs sogged up because of the moisture from the zucchini and the oils that I did not drain (no worries, there wasn’t much because I used pre-cooked sausage), but they were so flavorful and added a nice heartiness to the whole dish. Of course it helped that sourdough is already full of flavor all on its own. Thus, I highly suggest using stale sourdough for this recipe.

As for the sausage, I used Chipotle Chorizo Chicken Sausage from Al Fresco. The flavors in the sausage really contributed to how the whole dish turned out. But I believe that you can use any other sausage and the results will be great too. Pre-cooked sausages do not have a lot of oil, so keeping the oil in the pan is fine as it will just add flavor to your entire dish. However, if you use uncooked sausage, I suggest that you drain almost all of the oil that it renders and just leave enough grease to lightly coat the other ingredients. Too much of that oil just makes a dish super greasy and very unhealthy.

Zucchini is such a humble vegetable that turns into something special when cooked right. The trick is to not let it cook for too long so it doesn’t end up mushy, a slight crunch is necessary! I absolutely loved how this dish turned out. The zucchinis and the bread crumbs soaked up all the good sausage flavors and the arugula and parsley added a nice herby touch.  

Homemade Bread Crumbs

2 heaping cups dry, stale sourdough bread

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Tear the bread pieces into small chunks and measure a generous 2 cups of it. Place the bread pieces on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for a few minutes, just until the bread pieces are dry and crispy, maybe slightly browned but definitely not burnt.

Place bread pieces in a blender or food processor and grind until it resembles coarse bread crumbs. This makes about ½ cup.

 

 

The perfect use for old bread.

 



Zucchini with Sausage and Greens (Makes 3 servings)

Inspired from Mark Bittman’s Whole Cauliflower with Sausage, The Food Matters Cookbook

1 tbsp olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, sliced
2 pre-cooked sausages, sliced
1 lb zucchini, chopped
1 small bell pepper, sliced
½ tsp cumin
¼ tsp salt
½ cup bread crumbs (see recipe for homemade bread crumbs above)
1 cup arugula, packed
½ cup parsley, chopped (stems removed)
¼ cup sliced roasted poblano peppers (optional)
 
Heat olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the garlic and sauté until golden brown. Toss in the onion slices and cook until soft and translucent, about 3 minutes. Toss in the sliced sausage and cook for 5 minutes until brown spots appear. Add all the zucchini and cook for about 3 minutes, stirring often, until the pieces start to glisten. While the zucchini is cooking, season with salt and cumin. Add the bread crumbs, arugula, and parsley. Toss everything until the greens wilt, about 3 minutes. Add the roasted pobalno pepper slices, if using, and cook for another 2 minutes. Serve warm.

 

This is an all in one meal. We ate it by itself and it was super filling and tasty!  

Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Beets

Oh my goodness! This, my friends, is the reason why vegetables are so much better than junk food. The combination of roasted Brussels sprouts and beets is so good you would want to eat it right out of the oven.

A long time ago, when DFJ and I were planning to make sides for a dinner party, he suggested this recipe and acted like it was his own brilliant idea. But I totally knew it was an Ina Garten one because I have a knack for memorizing recipes. We never got to make it because Brussels sprouts were not in season during that time. I wish we made it sooner though and not a year or so later because we totally loved it and everything was devoured in less than 10 minutes.

There were some beets sitting in the crisper for a few weeks that needed to be taken care of, so I peeled them and threw them in with the sprouts. Guess what? They go really well together and make for a good-looking couple. It’s like a Christmas tree in your oven! 

The browned Brussels sprouts are crispy and salty on the outside but still tender on the inside. That slight bitterness is still there and is so perfect with the earthy sweetness of the roasted beets.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Beets

Inspired from Ina Garten’s Roasted Brussels Sprouts, The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook

2 large beets, roughly chopped
½ lb brussels sprouts, ends chopped off
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
¾ tsp cumin
freshly ground pepper

Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Coat the chopped beets and brussels sprouts with olive oil and season with salt, cumin, and pepper in a roasting pan. Use your hands to toss everything well together.

Roast for 35-40 minutes. Stir the vegetables halfway through cooking time.

Turn the oven off and serve immediately.

So delicious and so good for you! I promise this roasted vegetable combination is 100 times better than French fries!