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Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Cucumber. . . Bread?

So, now that I have all these too-big-to-pickle cukes, I'm stretching my menu to find ways of using them up.  Yesterday, that meant grabbing a couple of cookbooks and choosing one cucumber recipe out of each of them to try.  The first one was easy, it was a cucumber 'salad' with cukes, sour cream, chives, onion, vinegar, etc.  Some people make this and call it refrigerator pickles.  We don't.  Our fridge pickles are much simpler (see post "Refrigerator Pickles" from August 2012).

The second recipe I chose to try was a bit less conventional.  In fact, I didn't tell the rest of the family what it was until after they'd tasted it.  When it came out of the oven, all nicely browned and smelling delicious, they couldn't wait to eat it.  They just couldn't believe the main ingredient was cucumbers.  It had barely cooled before the first piece was cut and eaten (by DH).

What was it?




"Cucumber Quick Bread"; the recipe came from my copy of Taste of Home's 2000 Quick Cooking Annual Recipes .

Here's the recipe if you'd like to try it for yourself.  It makes two loaves, and, as of breakfast this morning, we have less than one loaf left.  It's that good.

3 eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups peeled and seeded cucumbers, grated
1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1 cup chopped nuts
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder

In a mixing bowl, beat eggs.  Beat in sugar, cucumbers, oil and vanilla until well blended.  Combine the remaining ingredients; add to cucumber mixture and beat just until combined.  Pour into two greased 9" x 5" x 3" loaf pans.  Bake at 350 degrees for 60-65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.  Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.

Making bread from overgrown pickling cukes.  Who knew?  ;0)  Wonder what other amazing cucumber recipes I can discover in my stash of cookbooks.

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