I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’ve had some healthier options on the blog lately. I think it has something to do with the pressure of bikini season being upon us, but it also has to do with feeling good. See, it’s totally possible to eat delicious desserts without loading in a ton of butter.
But a little bit for brown butter glaze? Heck yeah. And the bread is full of zucchini, so it all balances out!
I’m teaching until June 21st, which means that while summer is coming, it’s arriving very slowly. For instance, my school system added a day onto the year to make up for a snowstorm, but from a practical perspective, I wonder how much work gets done on that additional day. Do you think it makes a difference?
I read about a company somewhere that doesn’t keep track of worker hours. Instead, employees are held accountable for the quality of their work. If jobs get done on time and well, nobody has any questions. To me, a system like that makes a whole lot of sense.
At the same time, I get why people would be freaked out by an idea like that. While the accountability is there, it’s harder to keep track of everybody and everything, especially if they might not physically be on the premises. But still, I really like the idea. It just seems logical to judge people by their work, not by how many hours they hang out in a location.
That’s why snow day makeups in the summer don’t make much sense to me. We’ve finished grades, cleaned our classrooms, closed out the school year, and all that jazz. Why keep us there? I don’t mind a lot, but it seems a little silly.
Snow day makeups aside, I can always tell by the desserts I bake what time of year it is. Zucchini are getting huge, so we might as well use them (and their delightful moisture) to good use.
If you’ve ever cooked with zucchini, you’ve probably noticed that it packs a ton of moisture. While that can be annoying if you’re trying to brown it for a stir-fry, it works perfectly in a quick bread. Before I even knew what zucchini was, I was a sucker for the texture of zucchini bread.
And those flecks of green? Just lie to your kids and say they’re soft sprinkles. I’d do it in a heartbeat.
Sometimes the quality of our work doesn’t correlate with how many hours we spend at work (in either direction), but at least we’re slowly creeping toward summer. It’ll get here, I promise!
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350. Coat a loaf pan with cooking spray. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine the yogurt, vanilla, egg, oil, and both sugars. Mix until well combined. Set aside.
- In a smaller bowl, combine the oat flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
- Add the dry mixture to the wet ingredients, stirring until just combined.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake until set, 40-50 minutes. Test with a toothpick to ensure that the bread is done. Cool completely.
- When the zucchini bread is cool, make the glaze. In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and let it cook until golden in color, anywhere from 3-5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat.
- Stir in the powdered sugar and vanilla and gradually add the milk until the mixture becomes spreadable. If the mixture is too thin, add more powdered sugar. If it's too thick, add more milk.
- Spread the icing over the cooled zucchini bread. Let it set.
- Slice and serve!
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