Zucchini Bread with Coconut and Pineapple

As I’ve mentioned previously in other posts, we joined a CSA this year.  Last week Honey Buns brought home a stash of beets, turnips, and about half a truck load of zucchini.  There was definitely an impressive amount of zucchini.  Very impressive.  Somewhere a few miles up the road on our CSA farm there are some happy, happy zucchini plants.  The things must be producing like rabbits…

Last night I grilled some of the zucchini; grilling makes it so delicious.  Today, however, my sweet tooth is back in town and I wanted some zucchini bread.  Everyone has a tried and true zucchini bread recipe, except for me.  I have been searching for ‘the one’ pretty much every summer for 30 years.  There have been some good ones along the way, but apparently not so good that I locked the recipe away in a vault.  In other words, the zucchini bread recipes have never survived to see another summer.  So, I went on yet another search for ‘the’ recipe and got lucky this time.  I’m blogging it and I have put it away in the vault.

I found the base for this zucchini bread at All Recipes.  That place is the mother load for recipes.  Anyway, I found a good recipe over there and of course I messed around with it a little bit until I got what I wanted: a sweet moist, cinnamony center and a crumbly streusel-style top.  Just for fun, I threw in some coconut and some crushed pineapple.  IIIIIIIIIII like it!

Zucchini Bread with Coconut and Pineapple
Recipe by Terri @ that’s some good cookin’ as adapted from All Recipes
Printable Recipe

Crumb Topping

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup all-purpose white flour
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Directions for Crumb Topping

1. Mix all ingredients well.  I used my hands to get the butter worked in the best.
2. Set aside.

Zucchini Bread

• 3 eggs
• 2 cups white granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup crushed pineapple, well drained
• 1/2 cup coconut
• 2 cups grated zucchini
• 3 cups flour
• 3 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (I used fresh grated)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans

Directions for toasting pecans.

1. Preheat  oven to 350-degrees.
2. Pour nuts into a small baking pan such as a round or square cake pan.  Scatter them around so they form a single layer.
3. Bake nuts in oven for about 8 minutes.  Remove from oven and set aside until needed. Lower the oven temperature to 325-degrees F.

Directions for Zucchini Bread

1. Make sure to lower the oven to 325-degrees F.
2. Grease or oil two 8-inch x 4-inch bread pans.  Flour the pans well, then shake out excess flour.  Set aside until ready for use.
3. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Stir in the toasted pecans.  Set aside.
4. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the eggs until light and frothy.
5. Add the oil, applesauce, sugar, and vanilla extract.
6. Stir in the coconut, crushed pineapple, and the zucchini.
7. Pour liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients.  Stir just until blended.  Do not over mix, the bread will be tough.
8. Divide batter between the two greased and floured bread pans.  The batter will barely fill about half of the pan.  Sprinkle the crumb topping over each loaf.  To form small clumps of the crumb topping, I squeezed a handful together then lightly broke it apart as I sprinkled it over the batter.
9. Bake for 60-70 minutes in a 325-degree F oven.  Test with toothpick inserted in center.  The toothpick should come out with only fine crumbs sticking to it–no uncooked batter.