Lemon Zucchini Bread (Ssh, It's the Healthy Version)

I found a recipe last year for Glazed Lemon Zucchini Bread and it was great -- but way more than I wanted in the sweet and refined carbs area. Glad to share this newly adjusted and delicious version! Makes either 1 loaf (9 by 5 inch pan or, my preference, 10 by 3 inch) or fills an 8 by 8-inch cake pan.

Mix dry ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup unbleached flour
2 tsp baking powder
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp lemon zest OR 2 tbsp candied lemon peel (I used King Arthur Flour's version )
2 tbsp lemon juice powder (again, King Arthur Flour sells this; if you don't have it, add the same amount of lemon juice to the wet ingredients instead)

Mix wet ingredients:

2 eggs
1/3 cup oil
1/2 cup buttermilk OR (my fave subsitute) milk + yogurt adding up to 1/2 cup

Combine. Fold in:

1-1/2 cups coarsely grated zucchini

Bake in greased pan at 350 degrees for 45 minutes (1 hour if using 10 by 3 inch pan). Cool for 15 minutes in the pan, then remove if using a loaf pan, to finish cooling on rack. (You can leave the cake-pan version in the pan and serve it from there.)

A Different Holiday Treat: Pumpkin Coffee Cake

My husband is not a pumpkin pie fan, but I am -- yet making a pumpkin pie for one person is usually not smart, because the extra slices don't freeze well. But cake slices do! So this recipe has become one of my favorites. It's also easy to share slices or more, with neighbors. I've made a couple of changes to it over the years since 1990: I use yogurt instead of sour cream, because I'm more likely to have it around. And the original last layer of topping was a streusel with butter and nuts, and I've simplified it to just brown sugar. There's already plenty of butter in the cake, and nuts can be an issue with a lot of people that I like to give treats to.

PUMPKIN COFFEE CAKE

Preheat the oven to 330 degrees, and grease a 13 by 9 inch pan.

Into a small bowl, measure out and lightly crumble with fingers:
1/2 cup (packed) light brown sugar

In a medium bowl, mix with a fork:
1 can pumpkin (the 15-ounce size; about 2 cups)
1 egg
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

In another medium bowl, stir together:
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda

In large bowl, either by hand or with an electric mixer, cream togetherL
1/2 cup (1 stick) soft butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Add to large bowl, one at a time and beating well:
3 eggs

Measure out:
1 cup yogurt or sour cream

Now, add the flour mix and the yogurt or sour cream, alternately, to the big bowl, in two or three stages, beating each time. You should have a nice light buttery batter.

Spread HALF of the batter in the greased pan. Gently, spread over this the pumpkin mix. Then "dollop" the rest of the batter on top (I do it with 12 evenly spaced spoonfuls). Using your fingers, sprinkle the brown sugar over the top as a last layer.

Bake for 50-60 minutes.

Cool to room temperature before serving.

NOTE: If you don't have yogurt or sour cream, this recipe can also be done with 1 cup milk, BUT you need to change the 1 tsp baking powder plus 1 tsp baking soda, to 2 tsp baking powder instead, if you use milk.

Apple Cake: Best Version Yet!

Autumn is apple season in Vermont, and last month when Dave's sis visited, I celebrated by baking an apple cake. (She helped!) This one is made with Empire apples -- not as soft as a Mcintosh, but still soft enough to give the right "feel" after baking. I've also fine-tuned the recipe in some other ways: There is a "secret ingredient" that I've adopted after seeing it in a few recipes that King Arthur Flour provides. It's an extract called Fiori Di Sicilia (flowers of Sicily, yes?) and mingles vanilla and citrus at once. If you don't have access to it, substitute a tablespoon of freshly grated orange rind and an extra half teaspoon of vanilla -- but I really like the way this extract scents the entire cake.

Here we go:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a tube pan, preferably the kind that comes as two pieces (in a pinch you can do this in a pair of 9 by 5 inch bread pans, but it's prettier with the tube pan).

Stir together:
2 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup sugar

Peel and slice 5 large apples (Empire preferred; should amount to 5 cups) and place the slices in a large bowl; stir in the cinnamon-sugar mix and let sit while you do the rest.

Beat in large mixer bowl:
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup orange juice
1-1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
few drops (about 1/8 tsp) Fiori Di Sicilia (see note above)

In a separate bowl stir together:
3 cups unbleached flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Add the dry ingredients to the mixer bowl and beat only until well mixed.

Layer by thirds into the pan: one-third of the batter, then lay onto it one-third of the apples, and repeat twice more. If you're particular, make sure to save the prettiest apple slices for the top layer.

Bake 1-1/2 hours until golden on top. (If you used bread pans, start checking after just 1 hour.) Let cool 10 minutes and then remove the outer part of the tube pan. If it works for you, carefully lift the cake off the inner part, too. (It almost never works that way for me, so I slice the cooled cake carefully until the remainder will come off the inner part of the pan. Nothing wrong with serving this as a platter of slices!)

A note about the recipe: This version began from a Joan Nathan version that she calls "Jewish" Apple Cake, noting that the fact that the cake is made with oil, not butter, may have encouraged the name. Note that many "Jewish" apple cake recipes are designed to have layers of apple that ripple more in the finished cake. The rise in the oven will separate these slices enough, though, so that the finished cake is less regular than the layering makes it sound. I have also tried this with 1 of the cups of flour replaced with a finely ground whole wheat flour, which worked well; more than that, and Dave would realize that I was trying to turn the dessert into something overly "healthy."