Mom’s Zucchini Bread

As far back as I can remember my mother has been making zucchini bread. And to this day, I have not met a  person who does not love her bread at the first bite.  It all began  one day not long after moving to Maryland. It was the day  my mother stopped at the farmer’s market on the way home from work.  At that market she discovered some enormous zucchinis and never having seen a zucchini so large,  she asked the farmer what one might do with  such a huge zucchini. The farmer replied, “about the only thing they are good for is   bread”.  And so she did just that.

I remember those zucchinis  being about  a foot long with about a 4″ diameter.  They were huge! My mother  would grate them with the  handheld grater because there was never any food processor in our house, ever,  and she would make  loaf after loaf of bread. We would eat one or two, usually two because there were alot of us.  She would give one or two away and then  she’d put the rest in the freezer.

After all these years, she still makes her zucchini bread and nowadays every time she comes to my house to visit she brings at least one  loaf because now we have whole new generation of kids that love her bread!

Of course since I love to bake, I asked her for the recipe.  The first time I  made her zucchini  bread, much to my surprise, my bread did not turn out like hers. Not at all!  I was not deterred because often the first time making a recipe it may not turn out just as expected for any number of reasons.   I might have used a different type of bread pan than my mom.  I could have used light brown sugar instead of dark OR the zucchini i used had more water content. Who knows ?  So I tried the recipe again and same thing.  Not the same!  When I thought about it I remembered that much the same thing happened when she gave me  her crab soup recipe.  Hmm….

Was she doing this intentionally?

Did she not want to share?

When  I asked her about  this she revealed that it was not intentional and just her technique that had improved over time and did without really thinking.  She would  do this or that differently and add a little more of this and not that ingredient just generally using the recipe as a guide rather than follow to a tee.

Well, why didn’t you tell me that in the first place Mom?

Here is the recipe exactly how it should be made: