The Best Zucchini Bread!

Ok, I have to be honest. I have not tried out tons of zucchini bread recipes and I can't honestly say that this recipe is the best ever. I tried this recipe a few years ago and I absolutely love it, so that is how it earned the title of "the best zucchini bread!" It is loved by all! In the beginning of the summer, I made 8 loaves of zucchini bread with all the zucchini from our garden. Then I decided that I better get more creative with the zucchini, and that is when I went on to make recipes such as the zucchini and mushroom quesadillas, summer pasta dish, baked zucchini cakes, and zucchini brownies. We had one lone zucchini grow in the past week - the first one that had grown in a while, and I thought long and hard about what I wanted to do with the last zucchini of the season. Well, since there was just one, and since it wasn't too big, I decided on some delicious zucchini bread. I made it on Labor Day while my parents and Greg worked hard on our upstairs renovations (don't ask why they were working on Labor Day, because I really don't know). The recipe makes 2 loaves. We ate most of one loaf on Monday, and the other loaf has been enjoyed by me and Greg throughout this week. It makes a great breakfast, snack, and dessert! Enjoy.

Recipe for the Best Zucchini Bread
INGREDIENTS:
2 1/4 cups of grated zucchini (about 1 medium to large zucchini)
1 cup of vegetable oil

2 1/4 cups of granulated sugar

3 eggs
1 Tbsp. of pure vanilla extract
3 cups of all-purpose flour
1 tsp. of baking powder
1 tsp. of baking soda
3/4 tsp. of salt
1 Tbsp. of ground cinnamon
1 cup of raisins
2/3 cup of semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Butter and flour two bread pans (8 x 4 inches).

Use a box grater to grate zucchini (I used the largest grate setting on the box grater). Measure out 2 1/4 cups of grated zucchini and set aside.

Put the vegetable oil and sugar into a large bowl. Use a mixing spoon to mix well. Add in the eggs and vanilla extract and stir until well combined.

In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Pour into the sugar mixture and mix until ingredients are well combined. Add in the grated zucchini and mix. Fold in the raisins and chocolate chips. Pour the mixture into the bread pans. Place in the oven and bake for about 45 - 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean. Remove bread from oven, put pans on a cooling rack, and let cool completely. Then remove the bread from the pans carefully and cut into desired sized pieces.

Store bread in an airtight container at room temperature.

Recipe Adapted from All Recipes