Vanilla Glazed Triple Chocolate Zucchini Bread

This month the Blogger Improv Challenge features two of my favorite ingredients: Chocolate and Vanilla! Improv, if you are not in the know, is a foodie challenge hosted by Kristen of Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker. Each month Kristen selects two ingredients for us to work some magic with.

Chocolate and Vanilla may be two of my favorite ingredients, but that doesn't mean it was easy to come up with a good idea for this challenge. Let's face it--adding a dash of vanilla extract isn't exactly creative. So, I took a quick inventory of what I had and went from there....

This part was easy...I have Costco sized vanilla in my cupboard....

This coconut milk had Vanilla written all over it...I had to use some...

White Chocolate Chips just plain look vanilla-y...and I'll need some Dark Chocolate, too.

Honestly, I didn't come up with an idea until yesterday, when I saw a post on Facebook from King Arthur Flour---a beautiful picture of Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread. As luck would have it, someone at work brought in a rather large yellow zucchini that was now resting in my refrigerator. Don't you love it when worlds collide? I had vanilla stuff, I had chocolate stuff, I had zucchini, and had a recipe from King Arthur Flour...

Vanilla Glazed Triple Chocolate Zucchini Bread (adapted from King Arthur Flour)
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

2 large eggs

1/3 cup honey

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon instant coffee powder

1/3 cup cocoa

1 2/3 cups all purpose flour

2 cups shredded, unpeeled zucchini, gently pressed

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate candy bar

1/2 cup white chocolate chips or chopped white chocolate candy bar

Glaze:

1/3 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tablespoon butter, softened

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 teaspoons vanilla flavored coconut milk (or regular milk)

Preheat the oven to 350°F; lightly grease an 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf pan.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs, honey, oil, sugar, and vanilla until smooth

.

Add the salt, baking soda, baking powder, instant coffee, cocoa, and flour, mixing until well combined.

Stir in the zucchini, chocolate chips and white chocolate chips.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake the bread for 65 to 75 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove the bread from the oven, and let it cool for 10 to 15 minutes before turning it out of the pan onto a rack. Cool completely. Drizzle with glaze.

For the glaze, combine the ingredients in a small bowl. Stir until smooth. Drizzle over bread.

The glaze is totally optional, but it sure does look nice.

So fudgy and good!

Now check out what everyone else is making with Chocolate and Vanilla!

Blue Moon Ice Cream

Holidays, such as July 4th, always make me a little nostalgic, so naturally I go looking for some childhood memories...mainly food. One of my favorite food memories involves an ice cream flavor that may be the dessert equivalent  of mystery meat. No Kidding. I googled this stuff and it's described as tasting like everything from pineapple to marshmallows to Fruit Loops. If you've ever lived in Michigan or Wisconsin, you will know this ice cream is called Blue Moon. If you grew up anywhere else, you probably won't know what I'm talking about....

Recently, a new soda fountain opened up in St. Paul. Of course, I had to check it out and, lo and behold, they sold Blue Moon ice cream. I hadn't tasted Blue Moon since I was about ten, so I asked for a taste. Holy Smokes! It was spot on! For the record, they described the taste as the milk left over from your bowl of Fruit Loops...not a bad comparison. I had to see what I could do to make it at home.

I found a few recipes on the Internet that looked promising. One in particular, from Food.com,  sounded like it might be right, so I started with that and put my own spin on it. 

Blue Moon Ice Cream

Printable Recipe

2 eggs

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon raspberry extract

1 teaspoon lemon extract

1 packet of Duncan Hines® Frosting Creations™ Cotton Candy Flavor Mix (or sub 1 tablespoon vanilla pudding mix)

1/2 teaspoon blue food coloring

1 1/2 cups whole milk

1 cup heavy cream

In a small bowl, beat together the eggs and the sugar with a hand mixer until thickened and lemon colored, about 2 minutes. Stir in the vanilla, raspberry, and lemon extracts, the flavor mix, and the food coloring; set aside.

 

I found the Cotton Candy flavored Frosting Creations at the store...it sounded like it might just fit in to this recipe. As a bonus, it's blue! Since I used eggs in this recipe though, it wasn't blue enough...it had a slight green tinge, so I still added some blue food coloring.

Place the milk and the cream in a medium sized saucepan. Heat over medium/low heat until the mixture just comes to a simmer. Slowly whisk the egg mixture into the hot cream and continue to heat until it comes to a boil, whisking constantly. Reduce the heat and simmer for another two minutes. Remove from heat and chill for at least 2 hours or overnight.

Pour the chilled cream into an ice cream maker and churn according to directions, about 30 minutes.  If a firmer consistency is desired, transfer the ice cream into an airtight container and freeze for several hours.

Oh, yes! This is pretty darn close. Next time I'll try the vanilla pudding mix to see if there is a difference. 

What special food did you make for the 4th of July?