NO-BAKE PISTACHIO CHOCOLATE TRUFFLE CAKE: National Pistachio Day

Today is National Pistachio Day. Make this great Gluten-free No-Bake Pistachio Chocolate Truffle Cake! Recipe is from the American Pistachio Growers. There are many other great recipes on their site. When you have a particular food in mind, be sure to check Growers' and Producers' websites for recipes and info!

GLUTEN-FREE NO-BAKE PISTACHIO CHOCOLATE TRUFFLE CAKE

Ingredients:
Gluten free, non-stick cooking spray or melted butter
12 ounces dark chocolate
8 ounces heavy cream or full fat coconut milk (shake can before measuring)
3 Tbsp Kahlua
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup roasted, salted and shelled pistachios, coarsely chopped

Instructions: 
Spray 8 x 4 inch loaf pan with cooking spray or brush with butter.
Line pan with piece of parchment paper (to remove cake from pan)
Chop chocolate into small pieces.
Place chocolate in mixing bowl. Bring cream and Kahlua just to a boil over medium-high heat. Stir vanilla into hot cream and pour over chocolate. Let sit for 5 minutes. Stir until chocolate and cream are fully combined and mixture is smooth and glossy.
Pour into prepared pan, smooth out top, and sprinkle with chopped pistachios.
Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 4 hours or until firm.
Using parchment to help, remove cake from pan and slice with thin, hot knife (run knife under hot water then dry with towel.)

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI BREAD with Pistachios: National Zucchini Bread Day!

Oddly, today is National Zucchini Bread Day. That doesn't really make any sense since it's only April 25 and my zucchini hasn't even started to bloom. Maybe this holiday refers to zucchini growing Down Under? Of course you can buy zucchini in the market all year round, but it's a summer crop in the Northern Hemisphere. By mid-summer if you're growing zucchini here (even one plant!), you've probably run out of friends to hand zukes off to, and you're thinking of wrapping your zucchini up in a blanket, putting them in a basket and leaving them on the church steps, so you might want to save this recipe for the summer.

Unfortunately Zucchini Bread doesn't use up a lot of zucchini, but it's a tasty way of serving up your courgettes! Add chocolate and you're calling my name!

When I first started baking 'vegetable' breads, I used old coffee tins for baking pans, but that was a long time ago, and my beans now come in recyclable paper bags. I usually make my zucchini breads in Bundt pans. Of course conventional loaf pans work, too, since this is a quick bread.

Most recipes say to let the zucchini bread cool before serving. I don't follow that advice since by the time the aroma has filled my kitchen for an hour, I'm ready to devour this Chocolate Zucchini Bread and often do! Since you, too, may make short shrift of this Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread with Pistachios, you'll want to make two, so double the recipe, if you plan to share.

A few comments on zucchini. Depending on where you live, zucchini may be called courgettes or marrows (remember Hercule Poirot throwing the marrow over the fence in the opening of Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd) and sometimes summer squash (although in my neck of the woods summer squash is a totally different squash and a different color).

For your recipe pleasure, here's a link to recipes for different, but equally tasty Chocolate Zucchini Bread: Geeky Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread and Chocolate Chunk Zucchini Bread. As you know, you can never have too many recipes for Chocolate Zucchini Bread!

This Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread tastes great toasted with a little cream cheese or mascarpone! And, the secret ingredient --  Pistachios!

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI BREAD with Pistachios!

Ingredients
3 large eggs
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp pure Vanilla
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
6 Tbsp DARK Cocoa
2 cups zucchini, grated
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
dash of salt
1-1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2/3 cup chopped chocolate or dark chocolate chips
3/4 cup coarsely chopped pistachios
2 tsp flour

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°.
In large bowl, combine eggs, sugar, oil, and vanilla. Mix until well blended.
In small saucepan, melt 2 Tbsp butter, add 6 Tbsp cocoa and blend until smooth. Set aside to cool.
Peel and grate zucchini. Add zucchini and cooled cocoa mixture to the large mixing bowl and blend well.
In separate bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Add dry ingredients to batter. Stir only enough to blend in all dry ingredients.
In another bowl, coat broken up chocolate chunks (or chips) with 2 tsp flour.
Fold in flour-coated chocolate chunks and chopped pistachios to batter.
Spoon batter into two greased and floured 9x5x3 loaf pans or into greased bundt pan.
Bake 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.
Cool in pans for 5-10 minutes.
Remove from pans and continue to cool on wire rack.

CRAZY PISTACHIO CAKE WITH NUTTY FROSTING: National Pistachio Day!

Here's a Retro advertisement for Crazy Pistachio Cake with Nutty Frosting. Sure reflects these crazy nutty times. Happy Pistachio Day!

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI BREAD WITH PISTACHIOS: National Pistachio Day!

Today is National Pistachio Day! I posted this recipe for Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread with Pistachios last summer when my zucchini plants were taking over the garden. I can get zucchini at the market (not the farmers' market) any time of year, so I can make this Zucchini Bread to Celebrate the day. This zucchini bread is tasty hot out of the oven or toasted the next day with fresh unsalted butter, cream cheese, or mascarpone.

The Secret Ingredient: Pistachios! Pistachios add taste and texture to this wonderful moist zucchini bread.

Pistachios' clam-like seeds pop open when they are ripe and the exposed seed has a brownish pink skin–which in turn reveals a pale creamy green flesh inside. Pistachios are members of the Anacardiaceae family, which includes sumacs and poison ivy.  (This makes it perfect for my other blog: www.mysteryfanfare.com) Like these scary relatives, pistachio plants (and seeds) can contain the oily irritant urushiol—so pistachios sometimes trigger allergies and rashes, however, dieticians assert that the seed is one of the healthier sources of protein and oils. Traditionally pistachio nuts were dyed red to hide the blemishes made by handpicking, however this false color is no longer necessary.

Please use natural pistachios in the following recipe. No red dye #3!

Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread with Pistachios

Ingredients
3 large eggs
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp pure Vanilla
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
6 Tbsp DARK Cocoa
2 cups zucchini, grated
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
Pinch of salt
1-1/2 tsp cinnamon
2/3 cup chopped chocolate chunks or dark chocolate chips
3/4 cup coarsely chopped pistachios
2 tsp flour

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°.
In large bowl, combine eggs, sugar, oil, and vanilla. Mix until well blended.
In small saucepan, melt 2 Tbsp butter, add 6 Tbsp cocoa and blend tuntil smooth. Set aside to cool.
Peel and grate zucchini. Add zucchini and cooled cocoa mixture to the large mixing bowl and blend well.
In separate bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Add dry ingredients to the batter. Stir only enough to blend in all the dry ingredients.
In another bowl, coat broken up chocolate chunks (or chips) with 2 tsp flour.
Fold in flour-coated chocolate chunks and chopped pistachios to batter.
Spoon batter into two greased and floured 9x5x3 loaf pans or into a greased bundt pan.
Bake 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.
Cool in pans for 5-10 minutes.
Remove from pans and continue to cool on a wire rack.

GLUTEN-FREE NO-BAKE PISTACHIO CHOCOLATE TRUFFLE CAKE: National Pistachio Day

Monday was National Pistachio Day, but it's never to late to celebrate. Make this Gluten-free No-Bake Pistachio Chocolate Truffle Cake! Recipe is from the American Pistachio Growers. There are many other great recipes on their site. When you have a particular food in mind, be sure to check Growers' and Producers' websites for recipes and info!

GLUTEN-FREE NO-BAKE PISTACHIO CHOCOLATE TRUFFLE CAKE

Ingredients:
Gluten free, non-stick cooking spray or melted butter
12 ounces dark chocolate
8 ounces heavy cream or full fat coconut milk (shake can before measuring)
3 Tbsp Kahlua
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup roasted, salted and shelled pistachios, coarsely chopped

Instructions: 
Spray 8 x 4 inch loaf pan with cooking spray or brush with butter.
Line pan with piece of parchment paper (to remove cake from pan)
Chop chocolate into small pieces.
Place chocolate in mixing bowl. Bring cream and Kahlua just to a boil over medium-high heat. Stir vanilla into hot cream and pour over chocolate. Let sit for 5 minutes. Stir until chocolate and cream are fully combined and mixture is smooth and glossy.
Pour into prepared pan, smooth out top, and sprinkle with chopped pistachios.
Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 4 hours or until firm.
Using parchment to help, remove cake from pan and slice with thin, hot knife (run knife under hot water then dry with towel.)

PISTACHIO BROWNIES: National Pistachio Day!

Today is National Pistachio Day! I love pistachios.

We used to eat lots of red-dyed pistachios when I was a kid. Our mouths and teeth would be stained red for awhile. Red Dye #1? We didn't worry about how it might effect us, nor did our parents. However, I did a bit of searching, and if you're so inclined,  you can still buy them at Oh Nuts. I also found out why they were dyed red. Most pistachios when I was young were imported from the Middle East where traditional methods of harvesting left stains on the shells. The producers would dye the shell red or green to cover up the stains. Today, about 98% of pistachios sold in the U.S. are grown in California, where they use a mechanized harvesting process that means that the nuts are picked, hulled and dried before the shell has a chance to become stained. No need to dye them! Luckily, all natural pistachios are readily available. Of course, as I mentioned, if you still want red dyed pistachios, Oh Nuts sells them. They are called Californa Red Colored Roasted Salted Pistachios. And, FYI: Pistachios are very nutritious. One serving provides more fiber than a 1/2 cup of spinach or broccoli. 

I've posted many Brownie recipes over the years, but thought I'd post this one for Chewy Pistachio Brownies that's slightly adapted from the American Pistachio Growers website.

Chewy Pistachio Brownies

Ingredients: 

1/2 cup DARK cocoa
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup shelled natural American pistachios, chopped
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
Pinch of salt
1 large egg
1/4 cup milk
Chocolate Glaze (recipe follows)

Chocolate Glaze:
Combine 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips with 2 tablespoons butter in glass measuring cup. Microwave on high for 1 minute. Stir to blend, adding 1 Tbsp powdered sugar.

Directions

In mixing bowl, combine cocoa, sugar, flour, baking powder, chocolate chips, and 1/2 cup chopped pistachios. Add melted butter, egg, and milk; mix just until ingredients are blended.
Scrape batter into oiled 9-inch square baking pan.
Bake in preheated 350° F. oven, 23 to 25 minutes or until center is baked. Do not overbake.
Cool slightly; spread with Chocolate Glaze.
Sprinkle with remaining pistachios.

And, for your nostalgic viewing pleasure:

GLUTEN-FREE NO-BAKE PISTACHIO CHOCOLATE TRUFFLE CAKE: National Pistachio Day

Today is National Pistachio Day and what better way to celebrate than with this Gluten-free No-Bake Pistachio Chocolate Truffle Cake? Recipe is from the American Pistachio Growers. There are many other great recipes on their site. When you have a particular food in mind, as I do on 'food 'holidays', be sure to check Growers' and Producers' websites for recipes and info!

GLUTEN-FREE NO-BAKE PISTACHIO CHOCOLATE TRUFFLE CAKE

Ingredients:
Gluten free, non-stick cooking spray or melted butter
12 ounces dark chocolate
8 ounces heavy cream or full fat coconut milk (shake can before measuring)
3 Tbsp Kahlua
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup roasted, salted and shelled pistachios, coarsely chopped

Instructions: 
Spray 8 x 4 inch loaf pan with cooking spray or brush with butter.
Line pan with piece of parchment paper (to remove cake from pan)
Chop chocolate into small pieces.
Place chocolate in mixing bowl. Bring cream and Kahlua just to a boil over medium-high heat. Stir vanilla into hot cream and pour over chocolate. Let sit for 5 minutes. Stir until chocolate and cream are fully combined and mixture is smooth and glossy.
Pour into prepared pan, smooth out top, and sprinkle with chopped pistachios.
Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 4 hours or until firm.
Using parchment to help, remove cake from pan and slice with thin, hot knife (run knife under hot water then dry with towel.)

Double Chocolate Pistachio Brownies: National Pistachio Day!

Today is Pistachio Day! I love pistachios.

We used to eat lots of red-dyed pistachios when I was a kid. Our mouths and teeth would be stained red for awhile. Red Dye #5? We didn't worry about how it might effect us, nor did our parents. Here's why they were dyed red. Most pistachios when I was young were imported from the Middle East where traditional methods of harvesting left stains on the shells. The producers would dye the shell red or green to cover up the stains. Today, about 98% of pistachios sold in the U.S. are grown in California, where they use a mechanized harvesting process that means that the nuts are picked, hulled and dried before the shell has a chance to become stained. No need to dye them! Luckily, all-natural pistachios are readily available. Of course, if you want red dyed pistachios, Oh Nuts sells them. They are California Red Colored Roasted Salted Pistachios. If you're into nostalgia. And, FYI: Pistachios are very nutritional. One serving provides more fiber than a 1/2 cup of spinach or broccoli. 

I've posted many brownie recipes over the years, but thought I'd post this one for Double Chocolate Pistachio Brownies that's slightly adapted from the American Pistachio Growers website.

Double Chocolate Pistachio Brownies

Ingredients: 

1/2 cup DARK cocoa
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup shelled natural American pistachios, chopped
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
Pinch of salt
1 large egg
1/4 cup milk
Chocolate Glaze (recipe follows)

Chocolate Glaze:
Combine 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips with 2 tablespoons butter in glass measuring cup. Microwave on high for 1 minute. Stir to blend, adding 1 Tbsp powdered sugar.

Directions

In mixing bowl, combine cocoa, sugar, flour, baking powder, chocolate chips, and 1/2 cup chopped pistachios. Add melted butter, egg, and milk; mix just until ingredients are blended.
Scrape batter into oiled 9-inch square baking pan.
Bake in preheated 350° F. oven, 23 to 25 minutes or until center is baked. Do not overbake.
Cool slightly; spread with Chocolate Glaze.
Sprinkle with remaining pistachios.

And, for your nostalgic viewing pleasure:

Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread with Pistachios: Zucchini Bread Day

Oddly, today is National Zucchini Bread Day. That doesn't really make any sense since it's only April 25. Maybe this refers to zucchini growing Down Under? Of course you can buy zucchini all year round, but it's a summer crop in the Northern Hemisphere. So, by mid-summer if you're growing zucchini (even one plant!), you've probably run out of friends to hand zukes off to, and you're thinking of wrapping your zucchini up in a blanket, putting them in a basket and leaving them on the church steps. Consequently, you might want to save this recipe for the summer.

Unfortunately Zucchini Bread doesn't use up a lot of zucchini, but it's a tasty way of serving up your courgettes! Add chocolate and you're calling my name!

When I first started baking 'vegetable' breads, I used old coffee tins for baking pans, but that was a long time ago, and my beans now come in recyclable paper bags. So I usually make my zucchini breads in bundt pans. Of course conventional loaf pans work, too, since this is a quick bread.

Most recipes say to let the zucchini bread cool before serving. I don't follow that advice since by the time the aroma has filled my kitchen for an hour, I'm ready to devour this Chocolate Zucchini Bread and often do! Since you, too, might make short shrift of this Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread with Pistachios, you'll want to make two, so double the recipe, if you plan to share.

A few comments on zucchini. Depending on where you live, zucchini may be called courgettes or marrows (remember Hercule Poirot throwing the marrow over the fence in the opening of Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd?) and sometimes summer squash (although in my neck of the woods summer squash is a totally different squash and a different color).

For your recipe pleasure, here are two links to recipes for different, but equally tasty Chocolate Zucchini Bread: Geeky Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread and Chcocolate Chunk Zucchini Bread. As you know, you can never have too many recipes for Chocolate Zucchini Bread to enjoy!

This Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread tastes great toasted with a little cream cheese or mascarpone! And, the secret ingredient: Pistachios!

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI BREAD with Pistachios!

Ingredients
3 large eggs
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp Madagascar Vanilla
2 Tbsp sweet butter
6 Tbsp DARK Cocoa
2 cups zucchini, grated
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
dash of salt
1-1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2/3 cup chopped chocolate chunks or dark chocolate chips
3/4 cup coarsely chopped pistachios
2 tsp flour

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°.
In large bowl, combine eggs, sugar, oil, and vanilla. Mix until well blended.
In small saucepan, melt 2 Tbsp butter, add 6 Tbsp cocoa and blend tuntil smooth. Set aside to cool.
Peel and grate zucchini. Add zucchini and cooled cocoa mixture to the large mixing bowl and blend well.
In separate bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Add dry ingredients to the batter. Stir only enough to blend in all the dry ingredients.
In another bowl, coat broken up chocolate chunks (or chips) with 2 tsp. flour.
Fold in flour-coated chocolate chunks and chopped pistachios to the batter.
Spoon batter into two greased and floured 9x5x3 loaf pans or into a greased bundt pan.
Bake 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.
Cool in pans for 5-10 minutes.
Remove from pans and continue to cool on a wire rack.

Chocolate Pistachio Fudge: National Pistachio Day

Today is National Pistachio Day. Pistachio Day is also January 26.  I posted all kinds of fun Pistachio Facts on that date, as well as a recipe for Pistachio Brownies. So many days and ways to celebrate this green nut! I love the combination of chocolate and pistachios for texture, color and taste. One of the easiest and most delicious recipes comes from Nigella Lawson. Here's a link to her short video (3 minutes): Nigella Lawson makes Chocolate Pistachio Fudge. This fudge recipe is simple to prepare and looks and tastes great! Don't want to watch the video? I've adapted her recipe. It's a snap!

Chocolate Pistachio Fudge

Ingredients
12 ounces 70 percent dark chocolate, chopped or 12 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
Pinch salt
1 cup shelled pistachios (I use about 1/2 cup)

Directions
Melt chopped chocolate, condensed milk, and salt in heavy saucepan on low heat.
Put nuts into freezer bag and bash with rolling pin, until broken up into both big and small pieces.
Add nuts to melted chocolate and condensed milk and stir well to mix.
Pour mixture into 9-inch square pan, smoothing top. (I butter the pan slightly)
Let fudge cool and then refrigerate until set. You can then cut into small pieces approximately 3/4 by 1 3/4 inches or cutting 8 by 8 lines in the pan to give 64 pieces.
Once cut you can keep fudge in the freezer. No need to thaw just eat straight away.

Of course this recipe also works with other nuts. Pecans, Walnuts--I've tried them all.

Variations:
Don't add pistachios to chocolate mixture. Just crush pistachios and sprinkle on top for more crunch.
Make truffles from semi-set chocolate fudge. Make into balls and roll in cocoa or more chopped pistachios! Yum. Chocolate Pistachio Truffles.

Celebrate Pistachios today!

Chewy Pistachio Brownies: National Pistachio Day

Today is National Pistachio Day! I love that green nut and used to eat them by the bucketful as a kid. Chocolate and Pistachios are a great match! I've posted many recipes in the past, but for today's holiday I think this recipe for Chewy Pistachio Brownies is top notch. I always say that Associations and Food sites have great recipes. This recipe is adapted from the American Pistachio Growers website. You can never have enough Brownie recipes, and pistachios are a great alternative to walnuts. Totally different flavor!

Fun Pistachio Facts 
Pistachios are one of the oldest flowering nut trees, and are one of the only two nuts mentioned in the Bible (Genesis 43:11). Humans have eaten pistachio nuts for at least 9,000 years.
In the first century A.D., Emperor Vitellius introduced Rome to the pistachio. Apicius, Rome's Julia Child of the first century, includes pistachios in his classical cookbook.
The Queen of Sheba loved pistachios. she demanded that the entire region’s pistachio harvest be set aside for her.
The Pistachio is known as the 'smiling nut" in Iran and the happy nut in China.
Pistachios owe their green and purple hue to antioxidants.
Pistachios are a good source of protein, fiber, magnesium, thiamin, and phosphorous. Pistachios are an excellent source of vitamin B6, copper, and manganese.
Almost 90% of the fat found in pistachios is the healthy mono- and polyunsaturated fats.
Pistachios are good for the heart.

Chewy Pistachio Brownies 

Ingredients
1/2 cup Cocoa
1 cup Sugar
3/4 cup Flour
1/2 teaspoon Baking powder
1 cup Semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup Shelled natural American pistachios, chopped
6 tablespoons Butter, melted
1 Large Egg

Directions
In mixing bowl, combine cocoa, sugar, flour, baking powder, chocolate chips, and 1/2 cup chopped pistachios. Add melted butter, egg, and milk. Mix just until ingredients are blended. Scrape batter into oiled 9-inch square baking pan.
Bake in preheated 350° F. oven, 23 to 25 minutes or until center is baked. Do not overbake. 

Chocolatey Chewy Pistachio Brownies

Today is National Pistachio Day! Although I've posted many chocolate and pistachio recipes over the years, I went to the 'source' for this new  (to me) recipe for Pistachio Brownies. The source being the American Pistachio Growers website. Read about the history of pistachios HERE.

You'll love this recipe to celebrate the day! I would leave off the frosting. The brownies are great without it! However, I posted the frosting recipe, just in case.

Chocolatey Chewy Pistachio Brownies

Ingredients
1/2 cup cocoa
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup dark chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup shelled natural American pistachios, chopped
6 Tbsp sweet butter, melted
1 large egg
1/4 cup milk

Directions
In mixing bowl, combine cocoa, sugar, flour, baking powder, chocolate and 1/2 cup chopped pistachios. Add melted butter, egg and milk; mix just until ingredients are blended.
Scrape batter into oiled 9-inch square baking pan.
Bake in preheated 350° F. oven, 23 to 25 minutes or until center is baked. Do not overbake.
Cool slightly; spread with Chocolate Glaze. Sprinkle with remaining pistachios.

Milk Chocolate Glaze
Combine 1/2 cup chopped dark chocolate with 2 tablespoons butter in glass measuring cup.
Microwave on high for 1 minute.
Stir to blend, adding 1 Tbsp powdered sugar.

Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread with Pistachios

Oddly, today is National Zucchini Bread Day. That doesn't really make any sense since it's only April 25. Maybe this refers to zucchini growing Down Under? Oh yes, you can buy zucchini all year round, but it's a summer crop in the Northern Hemisphere. So, by mid-summer if you're growing zucchini (even one plant!), you've probably run out of friends to hand zukes off to, and you're thinking of wrapping them up in a blanket, putting them a basket and leaving them on the church steps. So you might want to save this recipe for the summer.

To be fair, Zucchini Bread doesn't use up a lot of zucchini, but it's a tasty way of serving up your courgettes! Add chocolate and you're calling my name!

When I first started baking 'vegetable' breads, I used old coffee tins for baking pans, but that was a long time ago. Now, I usually make my zucchini breads in bundt pans, and I'm always amazed by the new bundt pan shapes. Of course conventional loaf pans work, too, since this is a quick bread. Most recipes say to let the zucchini bread cool before serving. I don't follow that advice since by the time the aroma has filled my kitchen for an hour, I'm ready to devour this Chocolate Zucchini Bread and often do! Since you, too, might make short shrift of this Chocolate Zucchini Bread, you'll want to make two or double the recipe, so others get a chance to taste.

A few comments on zucchini. Depending on where you live, zucchini is also called courgettes or marrows (remember Hercule Poirot throwing the marrow over the fence in the opening of Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Acroyd?) and sometimes summer squash (although in my neck of the woods summer squash is a totally different squash and a different color).

For your recipe pleasure, here are two links to recipes for different, but equally tasty Chocolate Zucchini Bread: Geeky Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread and Chcocolate Chunk Zucchini Bread. As you know, you can never have too many recipes for Chocolate Zucchini Bread to enjoy!

This Chocolate Zucchini Bread tastes great toasted with a little cream cheese or mascarpone! And, the secret ingredient: Pistachios!

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI BREAD with Pistachios!

Ingredients
3 large eggs
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp Madagascar Vanilla
2 Tbsp sweet butter
6 Tbsp DARK Cocoa
2 cups zucchini, grated
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
dash of salt
1-1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2/3 cup chopped chocolate chunks or dark chocolate chips
3/4 cup coarsely chopped pistachios
2 tsp. flour

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°.
In large bowl, combine eggs, sugar, oil, and vanilla. Mix until well blended.
In small saucepan, melt 2 Tbsp butter, add 6 Tbsp cocoa and blend tuntil smooth. Set aside to cool.
Peel and grate zucchini. Add zucchini and cooled cocoa mixture to the large mixing bowl and blend well.
In separate bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Add dry ingredients to the batter. Stir only enough to blend in all the dry ingredients.
In another bowl, coat broken up chocolate chunks (or chips) with 2 tsp. flour.
Fold in flour-coated chocolate chunks and chopped pistachios to the batter.
Spoon batter into two greased and floured 9x5x3 loaf pans or into a greased bundt pan.
Bake 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.
Cool in pans for 5-10 minutes.
Remove from pans and continue to cool on a wire rack.

Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread with Pistachios: National Pistachio Day

Today is National Pistachio Day! I posted this recipe for Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread with Pistachios last summer when my zucchini plants were taking over the garden. I can get zucchini at the market (not the farmers' market), so I can make this Zucchini Bread to Celebrate the day. This bread is tasty hot out of the oven or toasted the next day with fresh sweet butter, cream cheese or mascarpone.

The Secret Ingredient: Pistachios! Pistachios add taste and texture to this wonderful moist zucchini bread.

A bit of information from ferrebeekeeper (a wonderful blog about art, nature and gardening anecdotes):

Pistachios' clam-like seeds pop open when they are ripe and the exposed seed has a brownish pink skin–which in turn reveals a pale creamy green flesh inside. Pistachios are members of the Anacardiaceae family, which includes sumacs and poison ivy.  (this makes it perfect for my other blog: www.mysteryfanfare.com) Like these scary relatives, pistachio plants (and seeds) can contain the oily irritant urushiol—so pistachios sometimes trigger allergies and rashes, however, dieticians assert that the seed is one of the healthier sources of protein and oils. Traditionally pistachio nuts were dyed red to hide the blemishes made by handpicking, however this false color is no longer necessary.

Please use natural pistachios in the following recipe. No red dye #3!

Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread with Pistachios!

Ingredients
3 large eggs
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp Madagascar Vanilla
2 Tbsp sweet butter
6 Tbsp DARK Cocoa
2 cups zucchini, grated
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
Pinch of salt
1-1/2 tsp cinnamon
2/3 cup chopped chocolate chunks or dark chocolate chips
3/4 cup coarsely chopped pistachios
2 tsp flour

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°.
In large bowl, combine eggs, sugar, oil, and vanilla. Mix until well blended.
In small saucepan, melt 2 Tbsp butter, add 6 Tbsp cocoa and blend tuntil smooth. Set aside to cool.
Peel and grate zucchini. Add zucchini and cooled cocoa mixture to the large mixing bowl and blend well.
In separate bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Add dry ingredients to the batter. Stir only enough to blend in all the dry ingredients.
In another bowl, coat broken up chocolate chunks (or chips) with 2 tsp flour.
Fold in flour-coated chocolate chunks and chopped pistachios to batter.
Spoon batter into two greased and floured 9x5x3 loaf pans or into a greased bundt pan.
Bake 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.
Cool in pans for 5-10 minutes.
Remove from pans and continue to cool on a wire rack.

US Pistachios: How they're Harvested.




Hat Tip @FriendsEatNYC for YouTube Pistachio Harvesting Video