Pineapple Zucchini Bread

I'd never had, much less made, zucchini bread until last night when I made this. It turned out wonderfully though! We liked it hot from the oven and I had some for breakfast and as a snack later on. When I make other quick breads it tends to languish for a long time until we finally finish it but the first loaf is already half gone after one day in a house with two people. Usually we're not big fans of "things" in our bread but the pineapple and raisins are good. I like golden raisins a lot more than regular ones because they taste better to me but you can use regular ones and add in a cup of nuts if you feel so inclined. Before I made it (altered from this recipe) I was concerned there'd be too much going on what with the zucchini, pineapple, raisins and cinnamon- why not add in coconut and chocolate chips while we're at it?- but it's very yummy with great flavor and texture. The original plan was to give one of the loaves away but I cut the second one in half and froze it so we can enjoy it ourselves later ~muahaha~

A note on preparation: The original recipe says to mix the wet ingredients and dry ingredients separately, then to mix them together and stir in the raisins. I pondered that for a couple seconds and then just stirred it all up. Maybe the bread would have risen more if I'd done everything separately, but I can't imagine it turning out any better than it did! The original also had some cockamamie method for preparing the loaf pans and removing the bread. I skipped that completely and just greased nonstick pans and the bread came out fine after cooling in the pans.

I do have to admit that I accidentally left out one of the eggs. The recipe called for 3 and I only used 2. You can go either way. My bread ended up more cakelike in texture. You'd have a hard time holding a slice of it in your hand and eating it. The third egg may give it a more bread like texture. We like it a lot the way it turned out (who doesn't like cake?) but next time I'll toss in the extra egg to see what happens!

Behold the ugliest delicious bread ever:


Pineapple Zucchini Bread

2 C grated zucchini, squeezed dry (measure after squeezing!)
8 oz can crushed pineapple, drained
2 C sugar
1 C vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 t vanilla extract
3 C flour
1 C golden raisins
1 T cinnamon
2 t baking soda
1 t salt
1/4 t baking powder

Preheat oven to 325 and grease two nonstick 9 by 5 loaf pans. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the first 6 ingredients until well combined. Add remaining ingredients and stir just until it comes together. Do not over mix! Divide batter between the two prepared pans and bake until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the loaves comes out clean, about 1 hour. Cover with foil partway through baking time if the loaves are getting too brown. Remove from oven and allow bread to cool in the pans.