I don’t really eat zucchini bread frequently. It’s not really my thing, I’ve always found it to be “blah”. In fact, the last time I can recall eating zucchini bread, I was with my family at this place in New Jersey called “The Pub”. They had really good zucchini bread but again, it just wasn’t really my stitch. Fast forward, I met a really cool lady on Instagram recently named Gia (@houseshoehostess), who has coined herself as my “instagram mother”. We bonded over our cooking styles, recipes, memes, and of course – food! One day, she was telling me that she learned to cook from her grandmother and that her grandmother would make the most delicious zucchini bread. She asked if I could try to recreate this bread. Having never had her grandmother’s cooking, nor really being a fan of zucchini bread, I of course accepted the challenge. With that came a long line of questioning – “What did it taste like?”, “Did she add coconut and chocolate to it?”, “Were there nuts in her recipe?”, “What about ginger and cinnamon, etc?” – we must have talked about this cake for a good 20 minutes.
My first attempt at making a zucchini bread that I thought was good came out to be just OK. I topped it with salted honey and walnuts – it was good … but just good, not great. So I decided to hold off on posting it. Today, another person commented on the picture that I posted of my first attempt asking me for the recipe and frankly… I don’t remember what I did the first time so I started from scratch again – however, this time, I wanted it to be perfect. One thing that I do remember from my first attempt is that it was too much ginger and cinnamon, so I decided to lessen the spices and swap the honey for maple syrup.
As you know, I received a package from Runamok Maple last weekend and one of the maple syrup flavors that I LOVED was the cinnamon and vanilla maple syrup. My entire family enjoyed this flavor when they were visiting last weekend, it was unanimous. So I decided to use what was left of the maple syrup in this recipe – 3 tbsps to be exact – which truly added to the richness of the bread. When all was said and done, the zucchini bread had a lovely crunch to the outer shell and was super moist and dense on the inside. This recipe is ideal with a cup of coffee and a bit of butter and/or jelly … or simply by itself. Gigi, I hope that this recipe tastes like your Grandmother’s! It is exactly as you described and I cannot wait for you to try this!
