Rich Zucchini Nut Bread

When you have one of those community-published cookbooks, and you notice that five women all submitted the same recipe, you should probably try it out, right?  So I did. This is a yummy bread with a tempting (but optional) glaze--although I wouldn't know why you would want to leave it off.  If you still have a baseball bat zucchini sitting on your counter (I still do...) you might like this too.  Or you can find instructions for freezing zucchini here so you can eat this great bread all winter.  I made this fully loaded, raisins, nuts and all.  We loved it.

Rich Zucchini Nut Bread
2 c. peeled, grated zucchini
3 eggs
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. sugar
1 c. oil
3 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
3 c. flour
3 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 - 1 c. walnuts, chopped (optional)
1 c. raisins (optional)
1/4 tsp. cloves (optional)

Beat eggs light and fluffy; add oil, sugar, zucchini, spices, flour, nuts, and raisins.  Grease pans and flour them.  Bake at 350 degrees for 45 min.  Makes 3 loaves.

Optional Glaze:
2 c. powdered sugar
2 Tbsp. warm milk
1 Tbsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. orange extract

Stir ingredients together.  Place loaves on a cooling rack with a cookie sheet underneath and drizzle glaze over cooled loaves. (We spread the drippings from the bottom of the cookie sheet on slices of the bread too--you don't want any of this to go to waste! :)

Notes:  My loaf pans are big, so this made skinny loaves, I probably could make 2 fat ones and just bake it longer.  I used this parchment paper trick to get the loaves out of the pans nicely.  I was also lazy and used milk straight from the fridge for the glaze.  It was fine, but the glaze may be more translucent if you use warm milk.

Jenny