Chocolate Sourdough Zucchini Bread

Recipes like this Chocolate Sourdough Zucchini Bread can dispatch a bunch of either fresh or pre-grated frozen zucchini in short order! This whole grain, vegan loaf has a bit of tang from the starter discard (no waste!) and makes one large loaf - plus a few muffins!

Our fridge freezer's door broke about 2 months ago. While we are lucky enough to have a large, standing freezer, the shift of all the frozen goods to it meant that other things - like this past summer's stash of frozen, grated zucchini - had to go. Luckily, we love the squash and I could toss handfuls into cottage pie, soup and stew. However, I saved some just to make this delicious quickbread, because (like I'm sure many of you) I also have a sourdough starter that spends most of it's time just chilling out in the fridge and I hate throwing away perfectly good flavour!

The mixture of flavours in this bread is insanely good, almost like a red velvet cake with more chocolatey oomph. It is sweet, but not tooth-achingly so, and with all the liquid it stays tender and moist for days even though it is incredibly low in fat! I tossed in some Naked Rice protein powder just because I had it on hand and wanted to make this a little bit more breakfast friendly. If you make resolutions (I don't - I don't have the attention span for those :D ) this loaf is definitely one that supports any "cook more, eat more veggies, eat fermented foods, eat vegan, eat breakfast, eat more fibre... etc" ones! If not, then sit back and enjoy a slice with abandon - it's 2021 after all, why not?

Saffron and Orange Cookies

Have a happy holiday with these two bite Orange and Saffron Cookies. Soft and full of exotic flavour from blood orange zest, saffron and orange flower water, they'll be a real treat even after the holidays are over!

I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday season (and are continuing to do so if you're still off of work and school!). No matter how long or short the actual holidays seem to be, the ghosts of cookies past seem to remain prevalent on the table for most of January simply because I (and mom) make so many kinds. These cookies were a sleeper hit over Christmas 2019, so even though last year's celebrations were tiny I made sure to whip up a batch for doorstep delivery. 

We always have multiple varieties of oranges around the house in the wintertime, but by far blood oranges are my favourite. There is something about that shockingly garnet hue they have! Their Spanish origin (and my general love of falling into rabbit holes about cuisines) led me to a random recipe from Midwest Living that I just had to try out - with a few changes of course. I love the texture cream cheese lends to cookies along with the slight tang, and paired with the sweet-tart orange juice, saffron and orange flower water my kitchen smelled nothing short of heavenly. The oat flour addition (the first time around) came out of desperation - I ran out of all purpose - but I have to say it made the cookies have the perfect texture and just a tiny hint of flavour. When I made the batch again, I added it as well because, why not?

One of my favourite things about these cookies is that they pack a ton of flavour into a two-bite drop. The batch only makes about two dozen, but you won't feel the need to eat them by the handful - one or two will do (especially with tea - they are SO NICE with tea). You can also roll the dough into a log and slice it before stamping or docking it, or scoop all the cookies and freeze so you can only bake off what you need. They do keep quite a while though - not that they'll last too long anyway!

Here's to a wonderful new year!