Simple Zucchini Bread {Vegan}

Tomatoes, zucchini, peaches, oh my! Can you tell I'm trying to hold onto summer? They are practically giving zucchini away this time of year, it's so cheap. I knew I couldn't let the season end before making (and freezing) some zucchini bread. Look no further than Deb Perlman, the goddess of smitten kitchen, and my go-to for almost everything. I've made her zucchini bread before, and like everything else she makes, it was delicious. But I wanted to make it a bit healthier, since I have zero self-control around baked goods. 

I had a feeling I'd be able to replace some of the sugar with a combination of maple syrup (I LOVE MAPLE SYRUP!!!) and a can of applesauce I had in the back of the fridge from a chocolate cake I made a little while ago.  I figured I could add a bit of whole wheat pastry flour in place of all purpose, pack a little more zucchini in there, and I thought, while I was at it why not make it vegan? I'm happy to report, I succeeded on all fronts. Way better than I expected, actually. (Note: I don't always succeed. I made loaded nachos last weekend intending to post them, and after 3 hours of dicing tomatoes and onions for homemade salsas, the result tasted significantly less good than the $8 nachos from Sharky's down the street. Sigh...)

The result is pretty damn awesome. It is probably the most moist, borderline too moist (if such a thing even exists) bread I've ever made. It's rich like gooey dark chocolate cake, but warmed by a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, & maple. 

Classic Zucchini Bread {Vegan}
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen 
Makes 2 medium loaves 

3 flax eggs (3 tbsp ground flax seed + 1/2 cup water + 1/4 tsp baking powder) 
1 cup coconut oil, melted  
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup cane sugar
1/2 cup applesauce, unsweetened
2 tsp vanilla extract
2.5 cups grated zucchini

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sea salt 

Prepare the flax eggs by whisking flax seed with water in a small bowl. Let sit for 15-20 minutes until the texture becomes much like that of an egg. Preheat the oven to 350 and grease two medium loaf bans. In a large bowl whisk together flax eggs with 1/4 tsp baking powder, oil, sugars, applesauce, and vanilla. Stir in grated zucchini (it can be grated using either a food processor with a grating attachment or a box grater). 

In a medium size bowl combine both flours, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Sift the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and stir to combine. Pour into loaf pans and bake for about 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean. 

Summer Peach Breakfast Smoothie

If you're like me and OD'ed on carbs this weekend, this post is for you! This summer I (re)discovered the smoothie. Particularly the breakfast smoothie. Until about June my attempt to eat better breakfasts had been by way of granola, eggs, and oatmeal. But waking up on hot summer mornings, nothing sounded more disgusting to me than warm breakfast. Even the idea of food grossed me out. But smoothies - sweet, cool, and refreshing? Now you're talking. So I started exploring the art of the green smoothie. I realized you can pack in a ton of spinach in and so long as you match it with a little bit of fruit it will taste fantastic. 

As summer began to wind-down, and I started buying peaches like a crazy person, this became my go-to smoothie. It's sweet and creamy, and leaves me full for hours and hours. 

Let me preface this by saying, despite making these sweet treats almost everyday this summer, I do not own a Vitamix. In fact, the blender I've used every morning we recently saw on sale at Target for $15. That's right, hold your laughter please. I survived daily summer smoothies with my husband's old $15 blender from college. #firstworldproblems? And though it wasn't without frustration, if I can do it anyone can. I believe you shouldn't let fancy gadgets hold you back from cooking your little heart out, because I sure as hell don't. 

That being said, can I say, I am currently OBSESSING over Vitamixes online. I never thought I could justify spending $600 on a blender, despite the rave reviews. But then I discovered that they sell certified-reconditioned machines, which are apparently, "almost" like new, and literally cost half the price! So my finger is on the trigger, and with a summer's worth of blender-frustration, I just might pull it.

So Vitamix users, I want your input, is it worth the splurge? Will it really change my life, homemade almond milk and all? 

Summer Peach Breakfast Smoothie 
Makes 1 quart 

1 banana 
1 peach
3 large handfuls baby spinach
1/3 cup frozen mango chunks
1/4 cup greek yogurt (optional)
1 1/4 cup almond milk
2 tbsp ground flax seed

Place all ingredients in blender, and blend until smooth. 

Notes: I find if you have a lower-quality blender, like me, placing the ingredients in your blender in the order listed, hugely improves blending ease. 

Peach Bourbon Pecan Cobbler Ice Cream

Happy Friday! We've survived the week. We deserve something special. Luck for you, I've got just the thing. I've been wanting to share a peach recipe as well an ice cream recipe before it starts cooling down and peaches leave us for the season. Then I had the brilliant idea to combine the two. And guys, the final product is everything I dreamed and more. This ice cream is the sweet, sweet, love child of peach bourbon pecan cobbler and vanilla bean ice cream. Oh, and it's dairy free and probably the best thing I've ever created. 

I hope I didn't offend anyone when I said "dairy-free", and if I did, give me a moment to defend myself. You see, my husband is a bit of an ice-cream snob. It's one of the few things he makes in this house, it's sort of his "job" to make the ice cream. He also happens to hate coconut and is highly skeptical of healthy, particularly vegan, adaptations of classics (one time I made him vegan mac and cheese and he practically divorced me, let's just say that's never happening again).  So I knew I had my work cut out for me. And let me tell you, you let this ice cream soften on the counter a bit, and I swear to you, you cannot tell it's dairy-free. It is so creamy and smooth. The secret is 1. the egg yolk custard (sorry vegans) and 2. using coconut cream. It's also got lots of brown sugar, a touch of maple syrup, a homemade crumble, and perfect summer peaches cooked in bourbon, coconut oil, and more brown sugar and maple syrup. Oh and the ice cream has those perfect little beads of vanilla caviar that add that extra touch. Like I said, it may be the best thing I've ever made. 

And as for the husband, he happily served himself not one, not two, but three giant scoops of the stuff with a huge grin on his face while he insisted that it wasn't that good. Yeah, right. Actions speak louder than words, my friends. 

Peach Bourbon Pecan Cobbler Ice Cream {dairy-free} 
Adapted from Sprouted Kitchen 
Makes 1 overflowing quart 

For the custard: 
2 egg yolks, room temperature 
1/4 cup cane sugar 
1/4 cup brown sugar 
3 tbsp maple syrup
1 13.5oz can full-fat coconut milk 
1 13.5oz can coconut cream
1 vanilla bean 
pinch of sea salt 

For the peaches: 
3 ripe yellow peaches 
1 tsp coconut oil 
1 tbsp brown sugar 
1 tbsp maple syrup 
1 tbsp bourbon (optional) 
pinch of sea salt 

For the crumble: 
1/2 cup Earth Balance (or butter)
1/2 heaping cup of all purpose flour 
1/3 cup cane sugar 
1/4 cup pecan pieces 
pinch of sea salt 

1. Make the custard. In a double broil over, whisk egg yolks, sugars, and maple syrup together over medium heat until mixture becomes smooth and sugar has melted. Slowly whisk in coconut milk, followed by coconut cream. Slice open vanilla bean and using the backside of a knife scrape the beans out of the pod, add the vanilla "caviar" to the custard along with the vanilla pod. Add pinch of salt and whisk for 2-3 minutes until completely smooth and incorporated. Remove from heat and let cool for 5 minutes. Pour custard through a fine-mesh sieve, and discard vanilla pod. Refrigerate mixture for 1-2 hours.

2. Make the crumble. Cut earth balance (or butter) into small chunks and freeze for 15-30 minutes (this makes the crumble extra crumbling and keeps it from caking - it's worth it, trust me). Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. And line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Combine flour and salt in a medium bowl, add cold butter and using your hands, work the butter into the flour until it becomes the consistency of very chunky (delicious) sand. Add the sugar and pecans. Bake for 25-30 minutes until slightly brown, removing from oven at about about 20 minutes to break the crumble into chunks, giving it a good toss so it cooks evenly. Once finished remove from heat and let cool completely. 

3. Make the peaches. Thinly slice peaches, leaving the skins on. Heat coconut oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add in peaches, sugar, maple syrup, salt, and bourbon and stir for about 5 minutes until mixture becomes extremely fragrant and peaches soften. Let cool. Then add mixture to a food processor and pulse until desired chunks are achieved. Refrigerate mixture. 

4. Make the ice cream. Follow the instructions on your ice cream making. Pour cold custard into maker, when the ice cream is about 75% done, add in peaches and about two thirds of the crumble (reserving the final third to sprinkle on top of the ice cream). Transfer to a container, top with more crumble, and freeze. 

5. Serve. This ice cream does best after sitting at room temperature 20-30 minutes. Because of the low sugar content and lack of actual dairy, it does have a tendency to get icy. Letting it rest until it just begins to melt around the edges is the way to go. To serve top with even more crumble and enjoy!

Recipe Notes: 

I've made regular ice cream enough times to know, there is no reason you couldn't do this same recipe using a combination of heavy cream and milk instead of coconut cream/milk. At some point, I will do this and post an update on here.