Tonight's dinner is corn and poblano lasagna. Zucchini is a required ingredient, so before B got in the kitchen to tackle the prep for our evening meal, I snuck in and used what he didn't need to make some bread!

Before I share the recipe for this yumminess, may I ask you a question? Is the term "batter bread" redundant in the instance of the title of this post?

Maybe it's because I bake for a living, or maybe it's because I'm weird (I'll cop to either), but I always differentiate between a batter bread -- or quick bread, if you prefer -- and a traditional dough bread (with yeast).

B comes in the kitchen to ask what I'm making. My reply is, "Zucchini batter bread." He proceeds to tell me saying batter bread is unnecessary. Everyone knows zucchini bread is made with a batter. "Like banana nut bread," he says. I'm quite sure I responded with a you-have-no-idea-what-you're-talking-about look. But I simply stated, "Well, OK. But don't expect me to change how I say it based on this conversation." -- Thoughts?

The base recipe I used comes from Paula Deen. I did add one ingredient. (I just adore vanilla!) And since I make my own extract, I have the pure stuff right at my fingertips. It smells divine, and I love to see the brown vanilla bean flecks in the mixture.

Doesn't that look delicious? The loaf isn't overly sweet, in my opinion. A slice of this zucchini (batter!) bread would make a nice breakfast, snack, or dessert.  Just don't forget: everything's better with a pat of butter!

Vanilla Spiced Zucchini Batter Bread

Based on Paula Deen's recipe here, scaled down to make a single loaf.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 + 1/8 cups all-purpose flour (or, 1 5/8 cups)
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 3 tbsp water
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract (make your own!)
• 1 cup grated zucchini
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, nutmeg, baking soda, cinnamon, and sugar.
3. In a separate bowl, combine vanilla, vegetable oil, eggs, water, zucchini, and lemon juice.
4. Mix wet ingredients into dry. Fold in pecans. Pour batter into a greased standard loaf pan (I used an 8" x 3" pan).
5. Bake 50 minutes to 1 hour, using the toothpick test to check for doneness. (Mine was done in 54 minutes.)

Yield: 1 standard loaf

Shared at All Things Thursday, Fabulously Frugal Thursday, The HomeAcre Hop, Simple Lives Thursday, Thrifty Thursday, Thriving Thursday, and some of these fine hops.