Zucchini-Banana Bread with Walnuts and Raisins

My friend, Harriet, sent me this recipe.  It's a low-fat Zucchini Bread recipe from a great blog called... Holy Cow! Vegan Recipes.  For the link to the recipe, click HERE.  I made some changes to recipe and it turned out great.  Here's my version:

Zucchini- Banana Bread with Walnuts and Raisins

DRY INGREDIENTS:

In a bowl, combine the following dry ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 cups whole wheat or whole wheat pastry flour (I had whole wheat pastry flour on hand)

1 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. kosher salt

3 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. allspice

1 tsp. ground cloves

1 cup lightly toasted walnuts

1 cup raisins

WET INGREDIENTS:

In another bowl, mix together...

3 tbsp. ground flaxseed meal and 9 tbsp. water (this is the egg replacer)

Add and mix...

4 tbsp. vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups sugar

Then whisk in...

2 small bananas, well mashed (my two small bananas made a heaping 3/4 cup)

1 tbsp. vanilla

2 1/2 cups grated zucchini (2 small or 1 medium-sized zucchini)

Add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients. Don't over mix because, if you over mix, you develop the gluten in the flour and the result is tough bread (the original recipe suggests whisking in 1/3 of the flour at a time... I did not read the instructions well and dumped the flour in all at once... and it turned out fine). Grease and flour two loaf pans.  Bake in a pre-heated 325 degree Fahrenheit oven for 60 to 70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cool on a rack for about 15 minutes, then slide a knife around the edges to un-mold. Place loaves, right side up, on a rack to cool.

The original recipe calls for applesauce. When I originally read the recipe, I was happy because I knew I had all the ingredients for the recipe at home. When I was assembling my ingredients today, I found there was... something... growing in my applesauce in the refrigerator!  Uhhhh.... gross!  I winged it and used the over-ripe bananas on my counter in place of the applesauce... and lo and behold... this bread turned out great.  My husband and I have been together for 20 years and I have NEVER known him to eat zucchini bread.  Today, before I brought this bread to my Thursday knitting group, I told my husband I was worried I had undercooked it.  He told me the bread looked funny... like it had a bunch of "whole-grain-stuff" in it, but before I knew it, he grabbed part of a slice and gobbled it down.  He informed me that it was fine but that I had cut it before it had cooled sufficiently.  I found this hilarious because my husband has never baked anything in his life, but suddenly... he was an authority.  I brought one of the two loaves of bread to the girls at the knit shop and they said it smelled and tasted great!  Tonight, my husband helped himself to two slices for dessert.  I just about fell over from shock!  How 'bout that!  This bread MUST be pretty darn good!