Courgette and cheese loaf is a “quick bread” rather than a bread as we know it. Quick breads are prepared with raising agent such as baking powder and/or baking soda instead of yeast. As a result, their taste is less involved but on the other hand they are fun and rapid.
Though this loaf contains vegetables it is really hard to tell that they are there which can be a really good trick to make children eat one of their five a day, without them noticing.
One of the best known quick bread is banana loaf. Quick breads freeze well, they are handy when you have friends around and don't have much time to prepare a feast for them.
There are several variations of this Courgette and Cheese loaf recipe, it is a great way to use the yearly plentiful harvest of zucchini/courgettes, another would be to bake courgette/zucchini muffins.
In the winter the recipe can be adapted using pumpkin instead
Courgette and Cheese Loaf Recipe
Cuts into 10 slices
Ready in 1 hour 10 minutes
Tip : Courgettes have a very high water content therefore once grated, pad them with a kitchen paper towel in order to avoid sogginess
Ingredients:
- 75g butter
- 200g courgette coarsely grated
- 2 tsp fine sea salt
- 225g self-raising white flour, sifted
- 3 large eggs, beaten with a fork
- 4 tbsp milk
- 1/4tsp cayenne pepper powder
- 1/4 tsp dry mustard powder or 1/2 tbsp mustard mixed with the mild
- 125g strong Cheddar cheese, coarsely grated
Method:
- Pre-heat the oven to Gas Mark 5 (190°C, 375°F).
- Line a loaf tin with baking paper, leaving 5cm above the rim.
- Melt the butter and leave it to cool
- In a large bowl, combine the sifted flour, salt, cayenne powder mustard .
- Add the grated cheese.
- Lightly beat together the eggs, milk and the butter, then pour into the flour mix and stir with a knife to create a dense sticky batter.
- Add the courgette shreds.
- Turn into the lined loaf tin
- Bake for 20 minutes, then raise heat to Gas Mark 6 (200°C, 400°F) and bake for 20 minutes more until the top is golden and/or the top spring lightly when pressed.
- Leave the loaf in the turned off oven for 10 minutes. Cool on a rack before turning out.
This recipe uses the creaming method whereby the eggs and the fat are mixed together prior to be added to the dry ingredients. Which ever method is used to bake a quick bread, it is important to remember that they vary widely in consistency. Experimentation with the time and the gas mark of the oven is often recommended and once perfected, apply to all the quick bread recipes.
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