Zucchini Anyone?

As usual my garden is overflowing with zucchini again this year, so I've set out to increase my zucchini cooking reportoire.

I've made loads of zucchini bread and zucchini brownies and even chocolate zucchini cake in my time, but this year I wanted to expand a little. I started searching for some different zucchini recipes. Here is what I found at (all together now) ALLRECIPES.COM. Where else?

Soft Zucchini Spice Cookies

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 cups grated zucchini

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg. Mix well. In a separate bowl combine dry ingredients. Gradually incorporate dry ingredients in to butter mixture. Add milk. Mix well. Stir in zucchini.

Drop by spoonfuls onto a greased baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 12 - 15 minutes.

Notes: These cookies were super moist and delicious. They taste exactly like zucchini bread...only in a little bite-sized portion. You can also add orange zest, walnuts and/or raisins to give them a little more texture and flavor.

Frosted Cinnamon Zucchini Bars

3/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups shredded zucchini
1 cup flaked coconut
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
FROSTING:
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine four and baking powder; gradually add to the creamed mixture. Stir in zucchini, coconut and nuts.

Spread into a greased 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

In a bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon. Stir in butter, vanilla and enough milk until frosting reaches spreading consistency. Frost cooled bars; cut.

Note: These bars were DELICIOUS! I've already got someone harrassing me for the recipe since he sampled one, or two, or seven. The coconut gives them an extra special sweetness and the zucchini provides plenty of moisture, of course the powdered sugar icing poored over the top doesn't hurt either. I omitted the nuts because while my children will eat squash in their cookies they draw the line at nuts....actually they draw the line at coconut too but what their unsophisticated pallettes can't pick up won't hurt them.

Of course I also just made some regular fried zucchini (which was fair).....

And some grilled zucchini (which was pretty good).....

I'm sure I'll break down and make some plain old zucchini bread before the summer is over, but the only other recipe I plan to bring back from last year is the Zucchini Quiche. Brian has been requesting it, so I need to dig it out. I'll let you know how it turns out.

For more great recipes head over to Tempt My Tummy Tuesday.