Dark Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Zucchini and more zucchini ! I found out a few secrets to really good zucchini bread. First shred them on the finest shredding disk and toast your walnuts before adding them into the batter. In addition, I really love these mini loaf pans. It is great for portion control and all those lovely chewy corners. Another thing is to preheat your oven twenty five degrees higher and once you throw them in the oven turn down to the baking temperature. You will get the best rise this way. The recipe is adapted from better homes and garden fall baking magazine. They have a really yummy recipe for double trouble cookies. Half toffee and half chocolate chip. The chocolate chip half has a chocolate dough too! It is a really great issue.

3 cups of AP flour
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of kosher salt
2 extra large eggs
2 1/2 cups of finely shredded zucchini
2 cups of sugar
1 cup of vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla paste
3/4 cup of dark chocolate pieces
1 cup of toasted walnut pieces

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and then turn down to 350 degrees. Spray your baking pan with baking spray. Now place all the wet ingredients into a mixer and mix well. Now add in all the dry ingredients and mix until incorporated. Place into pans and bake until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool if you can. It is very good with a cup of hot tea.

Beef Stir Fry with Gochujang

I was checking out my neighborhood Korean grocery store looking for the much talk about Gochujang. Gochujang is a heavenly fermented chile paste. It comes in different heat intensities. I recommend getting the medium heat, because I like adding additional fresh chiles to my dishes. You can add this condiment to any number of things. Talking to a Korean friend would be fun for more ideas. Gochujang is becoming increasingly more popular in Western cooking too. To make the stir fry easy I bought a tray of beef stir fry. You can of course cut up your own. But it is so easy to purchase a prepare one at a store. The following is a list of ingredients:

1 package of beef stir fry
2 bok choy sliced
1 small young zucchini sliced
1 small onion slices
3 cloves of garlic minced
1 package of shiitake mushrooms quartered
1 tablespoon of ginger diced
1 yellow bell pepper sliced
1 tablespoon of Gochujang
1/4 teaspoon of five spice powder
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon of curry powder
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 tablespoons of shaohsing rice wine
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
1 Fresno chile sliced

3 tablespoons of cornstarch to dust the beef


Begin with heating a pan with peanut oil on high. Place a small amount of beef in a plastic bag and add one tablespoon of corn starch. Shake the sealed bag. Add the beef in batches to a smoking hot pan. Flash fry until lightly brown and remove to a plate. Repeat until all meat is seared. Now added a little more oil and add the onion, mushrooms, bell pepper, bottoms of the bok choy, garlic, ginger and chiles. Lightly brown and make the sauce. To make the sauce, place in a bowl the brown sugar, Gochujang, rice wine, brown sugar, soy sauce and spices. Now your vegetables should be lightly browned. At this time add the zucchini, bok choy tops, beef and sauce. Cook until the zucchini is lightly browned. I hope you had your rice cookers going. I love my rice cooker and I recommend basmati rice. You could also cook up some Asian noodles too. Enjoy the dish it is really delicious.

Cinnamon Sugar Rhubarb Muffins

When I see really fresh thin ruby red rhubarb I cut it up and stick it in the freezer. These muffins are a really delicious use of the frozen rhubarb. When you melt the butter pour it over the frozen rhubarb to defrost the rhubarb. As I mentioned before in my blog freezing rhubarb really helps in the baking processes. This is an easy and very addictive muffin recipe. You can swap out the rhubarb for peaches, apples, berries.....


For the muffins:
2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
2-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 stick of unsalted butter melted
2 large eggs
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups 1/4-inch-diced frozen rhubarb
For the topping:
3 Tbs. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 400°F and line a muffin tin with foil baking cups. I really like foil baking cups.They are so much better than the paper ones.To make the muffins use a mixing bowl to combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt and whisk to blend.

In a another bowl mix together the buttermilk, rhubarb and melted butter, eggs, and vanilla until smooth. Lightly stir the wet mixture into the dry ingredients until the batter just comes together.

Divide the batter among the muffin cups, using a large ice cream scoop.

Now in a small bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle 1/2 tsp. of the cinnamon sugar over each muffin.

Bake the muffins until they’re golden brown for 18 to 22 minutes. Watch the tops of the muffins because the sugar will burn. Cover lightly with foil close to the end of cooking if getting to dark.

For more baking, PBS will be airing the new British Baking Competition in September. I think these muffins would definitely get the heads up!

So Good !