Earl Weak, UC Master Food Preserver Volunteer Online Program
The dried zucchini from last summer can once again be transformed for another creative use this holiday season. Zucchini can easily be made into flour.
This flour, also called “Amish flour” because it has long been used in Amish communities, is made by grinding dried zucchini. Zucchini flour was used in past years when there were flour shortages and rationing cards were used.
To make zucchini flour, grind dried zucchini to a flour consistency using a food processor or coffee mill. Simply pulse until your desired consistency is reached. To make it compatible with other recipes, it is recommended to make the consistency similar to wheat flour, which is ground to a particle size that passes through a sifter screen.
However, zucchini, unlike wheat, is low in starch and does not contain gluten proteins. Starch provides structure in bakery products and gluten is needed for making bread. Therefore, zucchini flour can replace up to 1/3 of the regular wheat flour in bakery recipes.
The holiday cookies shown in the picture are made with zucchini flour. Once you taste a zucchini flour cookie, it might open up additional interest in other uses for zucchini flour!
Holiday cookies are made of many different ingredients. Nuts and candied fruit are used in fruitcake style cookies. Raisins and other dried fruit can also be added. The attached picture shows fruitcake cookies made with about 1/3 zucchini flour.
Happy holidays and enjoy baking seasonal cookies, using delicious, unexpected ingredients!