Upgrade: Chocolate Zucchini Bread

We were finally able to crawl out of the dark ages recently and upgrade our entire computer and internet system: new laptop, new printer, and new wireless, high-speed internet connection. I now know how Dorothy must have felt when she stepped out of her little black-and-white home and into the colorful wonders of Munchkin Land in Oz. The only thing missing was an adorably gruff greeting from the Lollipop Guild.

To celebrate my new ability to upload photos to this site in seconds rather than minutes (you have no idea how much time and frustration I have sacrificed to get these mediocre pictures up for your viewing…um…pleasure?), I thought I’d do a simple upgrade to a recipe. It was time again (again!) to make zucchini bread, so I took it to another level with the addition of cocoa and chocolate chips. Not only have I used up some of those prolific squash, but I’ve brought it into the realm of (modest) celebration with chocolate in the mix. No matter how great my new computer set-up might be, that’s probably as close to multitasking as I’m going to get.


I started with the zucchini buttermilk bread I posted last summer and made a few simple substitutions. The big one was the swap of some of the all-purpose flour for cocoa powder. I really wasn’t sure how much would be prudent here, but I think my (somewhat educated) guess was right, as the bread was plenty chocolaty without getting bitter. I replaced some of the sugar with dark brown sugar to enrich the bread a bit more. In fact, I added a little extra brown sugar to counteract some of the bitterness of the cocoa. I also substituted miniature chocolate chips, which are subtly present as little bursts of chocolate in the final product, for the pecans. As far as the spices go, I kept only the cinnamon, since I like it with chocolate.

Overall, this recipe upgrade was successful. The bread is moist and chocolaty. You can still see the occasional fleck of green zucchini skin, but the zucchini mostly contributes to the moistness of the bread. Okay, at this point you may be asking, as I did: with barely discernable vegetable and clear and present chocolate, how is this now not just cake. This is a good question, and I’ll have to think on that some more, sampling plenty of the product along the way. In the meantime I’ll have to give the answer, “Because I said so.” It’s my upgrade after all.

Chocolate Zucchini Quick Bread

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup cocoa powder
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup white granulated sugar
¾ cup dark brown sugar
½ cup canola oil or vegetable oil
2/3 cup buttermilk
2 cups shredded zucchini
1 cup miniature chocolate chips


1. Preheat oven to 350 F. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Stir well with a whisk to combine. Set aside. In a small bowl, combine the sugar and brown sugar. Stir together to combine and break up any lumps of brown sugar. Set aside.

2. Beat the eggs in a large bowl (I use a heavy-duty stand mixer with the paddle attachment at medium speed) about 4 minutes. They will start to get thick and paler in color. Gradually add the sugar mixture and beat until well-blended.

3. Stir in the oil, buttermilk, and zucchini. Gradually add the flour mixture and mix at low speed until just combined. Add the chocolate chips and stir gently with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, being sure to scrape up any dry ingredients from the bottom of the bowl that may not have been incorporated previously.

4. Grease or spray with cooking spray 2 8 x 4-inch bread pans. Spoon half the batter into each pan.

5. Bake at 350F for 45-50 minutes. When the bread is done, a wooden skewer or pick inserted in the center will come out with just a few crumbs sticking to it, not a glob of wet batter.

6. Cool the bread in the pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from the pans and cool completely on a wire rack.

Makes 2 loaves, or at least 20 slices.

Another recipe like this one: Zucchini Buttermilk Bread with Pecans

One year ago: Broccoli and Chickpea Salad with Mustard-Pepper Dressing

Sunday Dessert: Plum Upside-Down Cake

I love reading those articles (and blog posts) in which the author stumbled upon some seasonal bounty, took a load of it home, and made something fabulous. I’m happy to say that I did something similar recently, with these lovely plums. I did, however, keep my homeward haul modest, and of a scale compatible with two people in an apartment eating dessert on Sunday (with leftovers on Monday and Tuesday).

These very small purple plums were labeled “Home Grown” at a local produce market, and I knew I had to at least try them. They looked beautiful, not so ripe that they were leaking, but also not too hard. I controlled myself and brought home a reasonable amount, immediately thinking of dessert. I sampled one as soon as I got home, and their taste was so just right – plenty of real plum flavor, just enough tartness to remind you that it came from nature, and just enough sweet juice – that I began to regret my plans to use them all in a dessert. Cake, however, would make up for that perceived loss.

I had made some kind of plum upside-down cake several years ago. I remember it being good, but making a big mess in the oven, and I don’t seem to have kept the recipe (although that could just have been lack of organization). I had had good luck, however, with the pineapple upside-down cake in Joy of Cooking (I have the 1997 edition). Why couldn’t I just adapt that to use with plums instead of pineapple?

It turns out that there is no reason why I couldn’t do just that. I made a few other modifications to the recipe as well. Inspired by the recipe in The Ultimate Cookbook by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough titled “Plum and Rum Barbecue Sauce,” I added a bit of rum to both the brown sugar topping and to the cake batter. Now, I’m a little bit chicken when it comes to boozed-up cakes (or anything else boozed-up for that matter), so I went pretty light on the rum. If you want a rum cake, you’ll have to find a recipe for a rum cake, and let my plum cake be a plum cake. I also replaced the buttermilk (which I didn’t have on hand) in the original recipe with plain yogurt (which I did have). Those two dairy products seem to perform very similarly in baking, and I often use them interchangeably.

Well, the story’s pretty much over now, except to say that the cake was really, really good. It wasn’t boozy at all, but the rum did seem to enhance the flavors and aromas, adding just the slightest caramel note. The yogurt made the cake super-moist, but not mushy, as if it had been underbaked. The plums, of course, were the stars. Sweet and tart and aromatic and fruity just the way only seasonal fruit can be. A scoop of vanilla ice cream on a wedge of warm plum cake…why else does summer even need to exist?

Plum Upside-Down Yogurt Cake
Adapted from Joy of Cooking

You can omit the rum if you wish. Just leave it out of the topping and replace it with yogurt or milk in the egg mixture.

1 pound small plums
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
¾ cup packed dark brown sugar
3 tablespoons rum, divided
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
¾ cup granulated white sugar
¾ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
1/3 cup plain yogurt

1. Cut the plums in half and remove the pits. If the plums are larger, you might want to slice them so that they can be arranged nicely in the bottom of your baking pan. Set aside.

2. Preheat oven to 350 F. Place the 3 tablespoons butter in a 10-inch cast iron skillet (you could also use a similarly-sized cake pan) and put it in the oven to melt the butter. (You can probably do this while it is preheating.) Once the butter is melted, remove the pan from the oven and brush some of the butter up the sides of the pan.

3. Add the rum and the dark brown sugar to the butter in the pan. Spread the brown sugar evenly over the bottom of the pan. Arrange the halved plums, cut side down on top of the sugar.

4. In a small bowl, beat together the eggs, remaining 2 tablespoons rum, and vanilla extract. Set aside.

5. In a larger bowl or the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer, combine the flour, white sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix together briefly with an electric mixer, or with the paddle attachment of a heavy-duty mixer.

6. Add the 6 tablespoons room-temperature butter and the yogurt. Beat at low speed just until all of the flour mixture is moistened, then increase the speed to medium and beat for 1 ½ minutes.

7. Add the egg mixture, one-third at a time, beating at medium speed until the egg mixture is fully incorporated after each addition. Also, scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula before each next egg mixture addition. When the last of the egg mixture has been incorporated, beat for an additional 20 seconds.

8. Spoon or pour the batter over the arranged plums in the pan. Smooth the batter so it is even.

9. Bake at 350 F for about 35 minutes. The cake is done when a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out free of unbaked batter.

10. Tilt the pan around to ensure that the cake is not stuck to the sides of the pan. If it does not seem to be free on all sides, gently slide a knife around the stuck edge to remove it. Set aside on a wire rack for about 5 minutes.

11. While wearing oven mitts or covered with hot pads, place a large plate over the cake. Carefully invert the pan, releasing the cake onto the plate. Gently remove the pan and rearrange any fruit that may be askew on the cake’s top. Cool. The cake can be served warm or completely cooled. Serve with ice cream or whipped cream (or by itself.)

Makes about 8 servings.

Other recipes like this one: Rhubarb Yogurt Cake, Cherry-Plum Crisp

One year ago: Gazpacho

Pasta with Summer Squash, Corn and Bacon

It’s been while since I’ve just given up and thrown what was left of the week’s fresh summer vegetables into an impromptu pasta or stir fry dish (although it looks like stir fry tonight: bok choy, cabbage, beans and broccoli). Therefore, I don’t have summer pasta fatigue just yet. I’m still enthusiastic to try a new vegetable sauté tossed with noodles. Of course, if the recipe also happens to be enhanced with cream and bacon, who can blame me?

The recipe I tried recently was in a stack of yellow summer squash recipes. It was quite simple, which I’m happy to read as “quick and easy” on these hot late summer days. It also promised to be flavorful, if a bit rich, since it was indeed enhanced by the cream and bacon alluded to above. The bounty from our CSA has come to the point, however, where using only one type of vegetable at a time seems a frivolous waste of a meal, not to mention a total bore. Though it made the dish even more yellow, I opted to add juicy kernels of fresh, sweet corn.

It turns out that rotini pasta not only looks good in yellow, but tastes great in yellow, too. You could use other kinds of pasta in this dish, but the point should be to trap the rich, thick sauce and sweet, creamy corn in the twists and folds of the noodle. I was thrilled with the flavor of the corn, which, of course, goes well with bacon and cream, but I was also very pleasantly surprised by the counterpoint its texture makes to the silky cooked squash and floppy pasta. The crisp bacon adds another nice texture, and since the squash and corn are cooked in the rendered bacon fat, its smoky flavor permeates every bite. (If you don’t want to use bacon, skip the bacon steps and sauté the squash and corn in about 2 tablespoons melted butter. More yellow!)

I served this dish with a simple cherry tomato and basil salad and garlic bread. The only thing missing was a great, crisp, well-chilled white wine, which not only would have tasted fabulous, but also would have been yellow. As long as the pasta looked and tasted so good in its matching yellow outfit, it was kind of a shame not to have the perfect coordinating accessory on hand. Even Harry was hoping for wine to go along with this dinner. Note to self: start buying wine by the case!

Pasta with Yellow Squash, Corn and Bacon
Adapted from Martha Stewart Everyday Food magazine

6 ounces short-cut pasta, such as rotini or cavatappi
3 slices thick-cut bacon (or 4 slices of thinner bacon)
1 pound yellow summer squash (about 2 medium squash), quartered lengthwise and sliced
2 ears fresh sweet corn, shucked and silk removed
2 garlic cloves, minced
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup heavy cream
Chopped fresh parsley for garnish
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese for garnish

1. Cook the pasta in boiling salted water until it is just a little bit more firm than you like to eat it. (It will cook a little bit more later.)

2. Cut the corn kernels from the cobs and set aside.

3. In a large skillet that has a lid (you’ll use the lid later), cook the bacon until it is well browned, turning to cook evenly. Remove from the skillet and set aside on paper towels to drain and cool. Remove all but about 2 tablespoons of the bacon fat from the pan and return it to medium heat.

4. Add the squash, corn, garlic, crushed red pepper flakes and salt. Stir well to combine. Cover and cook about 7 or 8 minutes or until the squash looks softened. Stir occasionally.

5. Uncover and cook 2 to 3 minutes more, or until most of the liquid in the pan has evaporated.

6. Chop the cooked bacon. Stir the bacon, cream, and pasta into the squash mixture. Cook and stir another 2 to 3 minutes or until the cream has thickened. Garnish with the parsley and Parmesan cheese.

Makes about 4 main-dish servings.

Other recipes like this one: Pasta with Kale, Summer Squash, Olives and Feta Cheese, Corn and Green Onion Tart with Bacon, Corn Chowder with Edamame

One year ago: Pasta with Cherry Tomatoes, Olives and Basil

Lazy Salad: Couscous with Nectarine and Chickpeas

Sometimes, the only way I can stand to put together a more complicated dish, especially from a recipe I have not tested before, is to make something, simple, easy, and, frankly, pretty lazy on at least one of the remaining days of the week. If the lazy dish also makes lots of leftovers that keep well in the refrigerator for a few more future lazy days (or too-busy-to-cook days), so much the better.



Enter a couscous salad with nectarines and chickpeas that I’ve been making for about 10 years. It didn’t start out as a lazy-day dish because I was still learning how to cook. It was probably one of, if not the first thing I made starring couscous. It also was a new way to use nectarines, which I’ve always found to be a bit less elusive than peaches. They seem to be both affordable and good more often.

I must keep buying nectarines every week and then forgetting about them, because I keep finding them in the fruit drawer in the refrigerator. I also happened to have some whole wheat couscous for a zucchini dish I never got around to trying (such is the level of my current laziness). It seemed like a good time to revisit this salad.

Couscous, which is a sort of finely ground dried pasta, is pretty much the epitome of totally easy cooking. Literally, if you can boil water you can make couscous come out just right. All you have to do is stir it into your boiling water masterpiece, take it off the heat and leave it alone for five minutes, then sort of fluff it up to separate the grains. The only delay to your gratification is waiting for it to cool if you’re using it for a salad.

Once the oh-so-difficult task of cooking and cooling the couscous has been completed (really you don’t even have to wait until it is completely cool), just stir up a sweetish vinaigrette with lime juice, honey, cumin and coriander and toss it with the couscous, some chickpeas, chopped nectarines and green onions. I also added some fresh mint, but you could add a different fresh herb that you have on hand, or even some fresh spinach or chard. I also think it would be pretty good with some of the nectarines replaced by chopped cucumber. Peaches could stand in for the nectarines, too, if you happen to have those on hand instead.

Nutritionally, this salad is pretty high end for as low on the effort scale as it is. While I used whole wheat couscous, which added some of the benefits of whole grains over refined, you could use regular couscous. I think it is probably easier to find and the salad will taste just as good. The point is to embrace the laziness embodied in this simple, flavorful dish. Goodness knows we’ll be awfully busy tomorrow.



Couscous Salad with Nectarine and Chickpeas
Adapted from Cooking Light magazine, June 2000

1 ¼ cups water
¾ teaspoon coarse (kosher) salt, divided
1 cup uncooked couscous
2 tablespoon lime juice
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
½ teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon ground coriander
3 medium nectarines, chopped (about 1-inch cubes)
¼ cup chopped fresh mint
¼ cup chopped green onions
1 (15 ½ oz.) can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained and rinsed

1. Bring water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add ¼ teaspoon salt and slowly stir in the couscous. Remove from the heat. Cover and let stand 5 minutes. Fluff gently with a spoon or fork to separate the grains. Set aside to cool.

2. In a small bowl, combine the lime juice, olive oil, honey, cumin, coriander and remaining ½ teaspoon salt. Whisk until well-combined. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl, combine the couscous, nectarines, mint, green onions and chickpeas. Pour the lime juice mixture over the top and stir to combine well. Chill until ready to serve.

Makes about 6 1-cup servings.

Other recipes like this one: Wheat Berry Salad with Sugar Snap Peas and Lemon Vinaigrette, Three Grain Salad with White Beans and Artichokes

One year ago: Summer Squash Casserole with Basil and Onion