Zucchini Bread

Method

1. season12 min
   shreds salted, rested, squeezed ONCE
   the grated zucchini tossed with 1/2 tsp salt and left ten minutes, then gathered in a towel for one moderate squeeze — the calibrated middle of the water war: enough pressed out to save the crumb's center, enough left in to keep the name honest. The skins stay on; the green flecks are the point
2. whisk2 min
   flour + soda + powder + cinnamon + nutmeg + remaining salt — soda for the browning, powder for the lift, the quick-bread standard pair
3. whisk3 min
   wet: eggs + oil + both sugars + vanilla
   until thick and uniform — the oil-based batter that keeps quick breads moist for days, the same bet carrot cake makes and for the same reason
4. fold3 min
   dry into wet, zucchini and walnuts last, minimal strokes
   combined to the last streak, shreds and nuts folded through — a shaggy, thick batter is right; a pourable one means the squeeze was skipped
5. bake60 min
   350°F, greased 9x5 loaf, tester clean at the center
   the long low bake all that moisture demands — the top cracks like every good quick bread, the tester goes into the crack's deepest point, and foil tents the top if it browns ahead of the middle; underbaked-center zucchini bread is the second most common failure after the unsqueezed kind
6. rest15 min
   10 in the pan, then on a rack
   before slicing — and like its cousin the banana bread, it is genuinely better wrapped overnight, when the crumb settles from cakey to dense-moist and the cinnamon finds its level