Here’s the recipe, to go with the post! :)
This started as a recipe from The Zucchini Cookbook, by Paula Simmons. I have modified it to my own tastes quite a bit.
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/2 cup olive oil, or less
- 1 1/4 cup sugar, or less
- 2 T blackstrap molasses
- 2 eggs
- 1 t vanilla
- 1/2 cup sour milk (Or 1/2 c milk w/ 2 t lemon juice or vinegar added. Or 1/2 c yogurt.)
- 1 c white flour
- 1 c whole wheat pastry flour
- 1/2 c barley flour (So, 2 1/2 c flour total - you can experiment)
- 5 heaping T good quality unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 t baking powder
- 1 t baking soda
- 1 t cinnamon
- 1/4 t nutmeg
- scant 1/4 t cardamom
- 2 1/2 packed cups grated green zucchini (original recipe called for 2 c, cubed)
- 1/2 cups dark chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9×12″ square cake pan. (if desired, “flour” the pan w/ more cocoa powder.) Cream the butter, olive oil, sugar, and molasses together. Add eggs, vanilla, and sour milk, and beat until smooth. Fold in the grated zucchini. Sift together the dry ingredients. Mix wet ingredients with dry ingredients, stirring just until combined well. Pour into pan, and smooth with spatula to evenly fill pan. Sprinkle the top with chocholate chips, using as many as preferred. Bake about 30 minutes (?) until toothpick comes out clean. (Original recipe says bake 40-45 min at 325. I tend to not watch the time, but
go by smell and the toothpick test. Sometimes I turn the temp down to 325 halfway through the cooking.)
This cake is really soft and crumbly. Barley flour gives it a soft heavy density that’s really delectable.
You can just use regular flour, but it will be a different cake. I like the zucchini grated in it much better (than cubed), and can get more in that way. If I’m using a big overgrown zucchini, I only grate up the outer portions, not the seedy inside. Don’t use a zucchini so big its skin is getting tough.
