Zucchini: From Flower to Bread

Olive Oil Zucchini Bread.

I planted a couple of zucchini plants in my raised bed this year, and so far I have harvested two zucchinis.  The plants are quite lovely, and they produce beautiful yellow flowers of two kinds: male and female.  It is the female flower that produces the fruit (yes the zucchini is actually a fruit even though we think of it as a vegetable).  Botanically speaking a fruit develops from the ovary of a flower. 

Zucchini developing from the ovary at the base of female flower petals.

As I said it is the female flower that develops into the zucchini squash. 

Lower flower is female developing into zucchini.  Male flower above produces the pollen.

One of my zucchinis still on the vine.

I am quite fond of zucchini bread so I used part of my zucchini harvest to make a loaf of  bread using a recipe that was in the NY Times.  It uses olive oil instead of butter. 

I mixed the wet ingredients together.

Wet ingredients.

Wet ingredients mixed together.

Then I mixed the dry ingredients together, and folded the dry into the wet.

Mixed dry ingredients.

Ready to bake at 350F for 40 to 55 minutes.

After 50 minutes of baking here is the loaf of bread.

Olive Oil Zucchini Bread.

It is quite delicious.  Maybe not quite as good as the recipe that calls for butter instead of olive oil, but I like to think of this as a pretty healthy variant.