Zucchini Bars with Cinnamon Glaze

I'm not good with change. Sure, innovation and progress and blah blah blah.  But, if you've got a good thing, I think it should just stay a good thing. Some things do not need to change, right?

What I'm really trying to say is that my librarian, my favorite librarian, is leaving the library. She's the librarian that has been recommending books since before I became a mother, reading stories to all my kids since they were born, putting together a fantastic summer reading program for so many July's, and even letting her silly side out in the library's baby music classes. She made me feel like we have a "community" here. She's wonderful. And she's leaving.

I am so not okay with this.

So, as far as recipes go today, I'm sticking with reliably old fashioned, tried and true Cinnamon Glazed Zucchini Bars. Another recipe treasure from my Grandmother's church recipe packet because those old ladies knew how to handle their zucchini. Thank you Lucille Brower, margarine aside, for giving me something I can count on.

The Zucchini Bars are delicious and with five cups of zucchini, they're the perfect antidote to one of those really long and fat zucchinis that hid among the leaves and didn't get picked in a timely manner. The bars are soft, tender, moist - not really cake and not quite a brownie. This recipe also makes a big pan of zucchini bars, so you can share . . . maybe with your friendly neighborhood librarian if she isn't moving on to greener pastures.

I'm not bitter, really. Just sad. 

A note on the recipe: It calls for nuts, I think walnuts are best and pecans might work too. I think the bars really are best with the nuts - probably not optional. However, I'm a nut person and maybe because I'm a nut person, I only think they wouldn't be good without the nuts. I just can't imagine them without a little crunch.

If you aren't a nut person, well, I'm not saying don't try them, I'm just saying that if they don't have that special something, it's probably because they're missing the nuts. Kind of like our library without our favorite librarian. We'll still be going to the library every week, but it's going to be missing that special something.

Zucchini Bars with Cinnamon Glaze

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Ingredients

• ¾ cup butter, softened
• ½ cup packed brown sugar
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 ¾ cup flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• 5 cups shredded, unpeeled zucchini
• 1 cup shredded coconut
• ¾ cup chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans)

Frosting

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• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 ½ tablespoons milk
• 1 ½ tablespoons melted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a 15 x 11in baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl, cream butter until light and fluffy. Beat in the sugars. Add eggs one at a time, then beat in vanilla.
3. Stir in the flour and baking powder. Stir in zucchini, coconut, and nuts. Spread onto prepared baking pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool on a wire rack. Spread frosting over warm baked layer.
4. For the frosting, beat all ingredients in small bowl until smooth.