Cucumber Bread with Peanut Lime Frosting

Doesn't that sound like an amazing Thai salad? I'll admit, the inspiration is that rich devil, pad thai, which has easily become one of my very favourite meals. Before this little adventure, I'd never made cucumber bread before, and I'm not sure I loved the recipe I found, so I'm not going to share it here. Perhaps one day I'll perfect it, but today is not that day. You can easily use your favourite zucchini bread recipe and substitute in cucumber for the zucchini. If we were like every other family in the world, we'd have zucchini coming out our ears right now, but we're not. Our zucchini have produced modestly and steadily, although I'm still caught off guard when one of the kids hauls in a giant specimen. Why couldn't I find that when I looked every day for the last week? Why couldn't I have plucked it from its plant when it was but a young and tender sprout instead of the Wagnerian behemoth being dragged by multiple children through out back door? Alas, our curse is not zucchini, but cucumber. We planted a veritable field of it, only to realize that no one in our house really grooves on it. Sure we love a little cucumber dressing with falafel, which we never eat, but other than scattered in lame salads and in a few batches of fridge pickles, ours is merely the home where good cucumbers go to die.

So, in an attempt to remedy that situation, I leaped headfirst into my first batch of cucumber bread. I made it sound awful, but it wasn't. It just wasn't quite perfect for going with the frosting; I think leaving out the cinnamon would have let that fresh cucumber taste really shine with the peanut and lime as it should have. So, here's the recipe I created that truly is worth every last calorie, and it need not be limited to cucumber bread. I daresay this would dress up any vegetable cake masquerading as a "bread:" cucumber, zucchini, pumpkin, carrot. I believe that it would even make a delightful topping for an actual cake, perhaps a white or strawberry flavoured one. Well, definitely a white one, anyway. After refrigerating, its nature is akin to a savory spread, and is a little dab of heaven on earth. You can always return it to its previous spreadable frosting state by whipping it with your mixer and maybe a dab of milk. Here it is:

Peanut Lime Frosting

*I didn't measure exactly as I made this, but went rather by taste. I suggest you do the same by conservatively adding ingredients, then adding a little more of whatever you think it needs.

1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup coconut milk

1 tsp sesame oil

zest and juice of 1 medium to large lime

1 tsp dark soy sauce* (yup, you read right)

1/4 tsp salt

3-4 cups powdered sugar

Combine butter and peanut butter in a medium bowl and beat until combined and fluffy. Add coconut milk, oil, lime juice and zest, soy sauce, and salt, and mix well. Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time until desired consistency is reached (I used close to 4 cups.) Use immediately, or refrigerate and rewhip to soften when needed. It's quite an amazing spread when served chilled and just soft enough to smear over a crust of bread.

*I've not substituted in regular soy sauce, so I can't testify to the viability of a substitution here. You could always leave it out if you're too afraid (you chicken!)

Inauguration aka Fudge Squares

With my growing interest in finding and sharing recipes, I am christening a new blog dedicated solely to my food adventures and experiences.  To make this an official and wonderful blog from the get-go, I am including my favorite new dessert.  Well, it's the oldest dessert with which I have experience, but I recently added a little something to it to make it over the top incredible and so rich you have to share with several friends.

Fudge Squares with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1 cup butter, melted
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup cocoa
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp vanilla

Oven: 375˚

Combine butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla in a large bowl and beat with a wooden spoon until well combined.  Combine flour and cocoa in a separate bowl, then sift into butter mixture.  Continue stirring until well-combined.  Line a 9 x 13 pan with parchment paper, allowing sides to hang over, then spread batter evenly into pan.  Bake 20-25 until just set.  Allow to cool in pan 5-10 minutes, the invert on cooling rack and cool completely.  When cooled, frost and serve.

Frosting:

• 4 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2-1 3/4 cups  powdered sugar
• 1 Tbsp milk or cream

In a medium bowl combine cream cheese and peanut butter; use a mixer to mix until smooth.  Add vanilla, milk or cream, and powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, and beat until spreading consistency.  Spread on cooled Fudge Squares.

NOTES:

1. I found that chilling these after frosting them yields a thick, solid, fudge-like version of the brownie to which I have become quite partial.  
2. You can easily double these for a crowd and cook them in a sheet pan for 30-35 minutes.
3. The Fudge Squares exist easily without the frosting, but I prefer to add a cup of chopped walnuts in this case.