Cinnamon zucchini bread

Jenna of Jenna's Cooking Journey is this month's host for What's Baking. She chose quickbreads for the September theme, and I had a really hard time deciding what to make. Ultimately, I decided to make a cinnamon zucchini bread in order to use up the last of the zucchini that I had on hand. I originally wanted to bake a chocolate cinnamon zucchini bread but was unable to find cinnamon baking chips in any of my local grocery stores. With my luck, I will probably see bags upon bags of these the next time I set foot in the supermarket.

I only own one bread loaf pan, so I halved the recipe (I used two eggs instead of 1.5). I really enjoyed the streusel topping from the Penzey's apple bread so I made a full recipe of that. It will generously cover one loaf of bread but could easily be split up and cover two loaves (you will get a thinner layer of streusel, obviously). 

This bread is really spectacular. I was surprised how dense and moist it was, despite leaving out the oil. The applesauce acts as the liquid ingredient in the bread, and it does a good job preventing the bread from being overly dry. I think the streusel is what really made the bread go over the top. You can omit it, of course, but a little extra cinnamon is always a good thing in my book!

Next month, I get to play host to this fun baking group, so stay tuned to see what theme I come up with. I'm also excited to see what all my baking friends choose to make!

Ingredients

• 3 eggs (I used 2 eggs for one loaf)
• 1/2 cup of vegetable oil (I halved the recipe and omitted the oil)
• 1/2 cup of applesauce
• 2 cups white sugar
• 2 cups grated zucchini (I used almost 2 cups of zucchini for one loaf)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Streusel topping (recipe follows)

Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour two 9x5 inch loaf pans.

In a large bowl, beat eggs until light and frothy. Add in oil, applesauce and sugar and combine well. Gently stir in zucchini and vanilla. Combine flour, cinnamon, soda, baking powder and salt and stir into the egg mixture. Evenly divide the batter into prepared pans.

For the streusel topping, combine 3/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup granulated white sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon into a small bowl. Cut in 1/2 cup of room temperature butter (1 stick) until coarse crumbs form. Sprinkle the topping onto each bread loaf.


Bake for 60 to 70 minutes, or until done.

Yield: Two 9x5 inch loaves (I halved the recipe above to get one loaf but made the full streusel recipe)

Source: Adapted from Allrecipes.com; streusel topping from my Penzey's apple bread post