Orange and poppy seed zucchini loaf with glaze

so in my 'to do' folder sitting on my recipe book shelf, there are a multitude of lemon and poppy seed recipes. the combination just really appeals to me - the tangy sweetness of lemons, the earthy bitterness of the poppy seeds, all rolled into a sweet delicious baked good! what's not to love?!?! lemon and poppy seed pancakes. lemon and poppy seed muffins. cake. biscuits. you name it... it's there! and when i decided i finally wanted to try such a combination, lo and behold i had no lemons. you wouldn't read about it! but rather than go to the supermarket for some overpriced and undersweet lemons, i decided to use what i had - oranges!

kicking about in the vegetable drawer i also had a zucchini that needed using. i've never been a lover of zucchini (or, when i was growing up in England, courgette) but in recent years have realised this is due to texture and not taste. when it's cooked badly it turns into soft gluggy mess that catches in the back of your throat and feels disgusting, but when cooked right (still working on this one) or just grated up and added into things the texture becomes a non-issue! i've baked cakes and loaves with zucchini before, it lends a beautiful softness without any major flavour, so i decided to throw that in as well.

2 cups plain flour (i used 1 1/2 cups plain and 1/2 wholemeal)

2 tsp baking powder

pinch salt

1 tbsp poppy seeds

1 whole egg and 1 egg white

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup sugar (i used raw, but you could use white or brown)

1 large navel orange, zested and juiced (i like things tangy, if you're not such an orange lover you could just zest half the orange)

1/2 cup low or non-fat Greek yoghurt

1 cup grated zucchini (approximate guess... i just grated 1 medium sized zucchini)

preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius. in a bowl whisk together the eggs until well combined and a uniform pale yellow colour, then add the oil and sugar and whisk to combine. Then add the orange zest and juice, and the yoghurt. whisk again to combine, and then lastly stir in the grated zucchini. in a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt and poppy seeds. add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. pour into loaf pan that is well greased and/or lined with baking paper and bake for approximately 50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean (i tend to check about 10 minutes before the stated time for most recipes as each oven is different so it might be worth checking around 40 minutes and then judge from there how much extra it needs). once removed from the oven allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire cooling rack.

now, i know i said that this loaf is glazed... and i just wanted to mention here that the loaf is delicious as is! however... if you want to make it more of a cake and less of a breakfast loaf, then simply whisk together 2 heaped tablespoons of pure icing sugar with some more orange zest (i used half an orange) and a squeeze of orange juice, enough to make your desire consistency (i kept mine reasonably runny, hence the need for the foil underneath to catch the drips!). super simple!

this loaf isn't super sweet, so you could use it for breakfast or brunch quite easily. i prefer my 'loaves' to be more on the bread side than the cake side, but feel free to tweak it to your tastes. experiment! be creative! tweak! and let me know how it turns out!