Chopping the dried cranberries disperses them into the bread, giving you more bang for your fruit-buck.
I am not particularly fond of low-fat quick breads. By the time you replace most of the fat with applesauce (the low-fat baker’s “butter”), you’re left with a white flour/sugar combo that’ll shoot your blood sugar into the stratosphere in two shakes of a lamb’s tail (that’s fast!).
If I want something sweet with my afternoon tea, I’d just as soon nibble on a graham cracker, which gives me the illusion of a cookie without being overly sinful.
So, when the weekly handout at Weight Watchers meetings recently included a recipe for zucchini bread, I ignored it for obvious reasons.
Oh, Anne of little faith. Last Tuesday, a WW member named Gracie came in with a loaf that she’d baked and cut into bite-sized slices that she shared with everyone before the meeting. It instantly reminded me of an old saying, “Everybody doesn’t like something, but nobody doesn’t like Sara Lee.”
Nobody didn’t like Gracie’s zucchini bread. It was delicious, moist and not-too-sweet. She had replaced the raisins called for in the recipe with dried cranberries, which gave it a pleasant tang. And it was made with whole-wheat flour, a definite nutritional upgrade from the usual all-purpose.
The recipe yields two loaves. If you don’t have a recipient for the second loaf, slice and freeze it for future snacks; because of its low fat nature it won’t keep fresh for long.
*Next day addendum: I’ve been putting frozen slices in the toaster, which defrosts and lightly toasts them around the edges. Great for breakfast.
2 cups whole-wheat flour
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
3 egg whites
1 egg
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 cup canola oil
2/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 cups grated & drained zucchini (about 2 medium)
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
1/2 cup finely chopped raisins or dried cranberries
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and spray two 8″ X 4″ loaf pans with nonstick spray.
In a large bowl, sift together the whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon.
In another large bowl, beat the egg whites with a hand-held electric mixer until frothy. Add the whole egg, sugar, vanilla extract, oil and applesauce and beat until well combined. Beat in the grated zucchini.
Add the dry ingredients and stir together; fold in the walnuts and raisins. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a loaf comes out clean.
Each loaf yields 10 full slices
5 WW Points Plus per slice
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