Zucchini Bread With Cherries, Chocolate & Cardamom

This post is sponsored by Bob's Red Mill. All opinions are my own. Whelp it's that time of the year folks...Zucchini is flooding the farm and our CSA members and farmers market customers are receiving a lot of it these days. In all honesty, I'm actually super excited about the abundance of zucchini and I've got a lot of recipes coming up that celebrate this seasonal gem. But before I get to those, let's talk about this tasty quick bread. This recipe packs in a lot of tasty ingredients including fresh, in-season cherries, dark chocolate, Oregon hazelnuts and local honey. It's absolutely divine and tastes great toasted up in the morning with a dab of butter and a cup of strong coffee. I hope you all enjoy this summertime loaf as much as we do! Cheers to the harvest!

Zucchini Bread with Cherries, Chocolate & Cardamom

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 55 minutes
Serves: 1 loaf

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup hazelnut oil (or another neutral tasting oil)
  • 1/2 cup honey
  • 2 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups coarsely grated zucchini (about 1 medium-sized zucchini)
  • 1/2 cup fresh cherries, pitted and sliced in half
  • 3/4 cup all purpose flour (bob's red mill)
  • 3/4 cup whole wheat flour (bob's red mill)
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
  • 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup toasted hazelnuts, chopped
  • a few hefty pinches of turbinado sugar for topping (optional)

Preparation

  1. Place an oven rack in the middle position of your oven and pre-heat the oven to 350F.
  2. In a large bowl, beat together the oil and honey. Stir in the eggs, vanilla and zucchini. Mix until well combined then gently fold in the cherries.
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, cardamom, and salt. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients (being careful to not over-mix) and add the chocolate chips and hazelnuts.
  4. Pour the batter into a lightly greased 8 1/2-by-4 1/2-inch loaf pan. Sprinkle the top of the loaf with the turbinado sugar (if using). Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean, 50-60 minutes. Cool the zucchini bread in the pan for about 15 minutes, then transfer it to a wire rack to cool completely.

Notes

Cooking times will very from kitchen to kitchen

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