A recipe

Hi Everyone,

We have all become intimately aquainted with the patty-pan squash. We've made gratins, we've made ratatouilles, we've made ravioli, we've made lasagna, patty-pan egg scrambles...Here is one of the ways that I have most enjoyed patty-pan-- classic zucchini bread (the patty-pan is essentially a zucchini, as I think we all know!). I've been getting pretty creative with the ingredients (i.e. the other night I ran out of flour and substituted with ground almonds or adding dates and powdered ginger instead of raisins and nutmeg). All in all the loaves have been pretty good. So grab a giant squash from the garden, bake up a loaf and share your innovations with the rest of us PLEASE!

Zucchini Bread Recipe

Ingredients

2 eggs, beaten
1 1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups grated fresh patty-pan squash
2/3 cup melted unsalted butter
2 teaspoons baking soda
Pinch salt
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)
1 cup dried cranberries or raisins (optional)

Method

1 Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Mix in the grated patty-pan and then the melted butter. Sprinkle baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour, a third at a time. Sprinkle in the cinnamon and nutmeg and mix. Fold in the nuts and dried cranberries or raisins if using.

2 Divide the batter equally between 2 buttered 5 by 9 inch loaf pans. Bake for 1 hour (check for doneness at 50 minutes) or until a wooden pick inserted in to the center comes out clean. Cool in pans for 10 minutes. Turn out onto wire racks to cool thoroughly.

Makes 2 loaves.