Cranberry Zucchini Bread

I have made this recipe for years, but I have always made it with blueberries. Since the holidays are upon us, I thought I would change the fruit to cranberries and add a sugared topping (and it turned out delicious). The recipe that follows is the holiday recipe.

Cranberry Zucchini Bread

1/2 c granulated sugar

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1 c vegetable oil

3 tsp vanilla extract

2 1/4 c granulated sugar

2 c shredded zucchini*

3 c all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 Tbsp ground cinnamon

12 oz cranberries (fresh or frozen)*

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease bottom and sides of two large loaf pans. Mix 1/2 cup of sugar and 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon in a small bowl. Dust the bottom and sides of each pan with half of the mixture.
3. In a large bowl, mix together eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar. Fold in zucchini.
4. Beat in the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Gently fold in the cranberries.
5. Transfer to prepared loaf pans and sprinkle the remaining cinnamon sugar mixture over the top.
6. Bake 1 hour 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a knife inserted into the center of a loaf comes out clean. Cool 20 minutes in pans, then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.

Notes:

I think I've mentioned in other posts that we shred our summer garden-harvested zucchini and store it in 1 cup increments in the freezer. That makes for easy baking throughout the year.

The original recipe called for 1 pint of blueberries (fresh or frozen) instead of the cranberries and did not include the cinnamon sugar topping.

If you have a small family, you might want to eat one loaf and freeze one to eat later. However, as tasty as this recipe is, you might also just want to dive into that second loaf!