Fudgy Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Chocolate Zucchini Bread is moist, tender, and very fudgy. Made with unsweetened cocoa powder and chocolate chips, you can’t even taste the zucchini! However, they make the texture of this bread incredibly tender, rich, and irresistible.
Chocolate and zucchini just go hand in hand, we absolutely love this combo for a quick snack, sweet breakfast, or healthier dessert. Choose between this delicious quick bread recipe, Chocolate Zucchini Muffins, or Zucchini Chocolate Cake. All these easy and tasty recipes freeze well, so you can enjoy the leftovers later.
Best Chocolate Zucchini Bread Recipe
If you are trying to sneak in more vegetables into your diet or your kid’s meals, and failing, mixing them with chocolate may be the solution. This quick bread will trick even the worst picky eaters into eating some zucchini and even ask for seconds.
The bread is irresistibly fudgy and very chocolaty, almost like biting into a brownie, so dense and rich. Actually, all that great texture is thanks to the shredded zucchini. Also, the best part is that you can’t taste it, but it gives the recipe the most amazing, tender, and moist crumb.
I like to add lots of chocolate chips to it and also some walnuts, for a nice crunch. This recipe is the perfect coffee snack, and the best excuse to have chocolate for breakfast. I love that it freezes well, so if I need to hide it from myself, into the freezer it goes. Also, this is a great recipe to make and gift, just wrap it nicely and you will be the best hostess!
Ingredients Needed:
- All-purpose flour: Actually we do not use a lot of flour to make this bread, hence the denser and rich texture. Do not be alarmed if it doesn’t rise much.
- Unsweetened cocoa powder: I will repeat this many times, make sure to use unsweetened high-quality cocoa powder.
- Brown sugar: Absolutely a must in this recipe, the molasses from the sugar adds extra moisture to the recipe.
- Baking powder
- Sea salt
- Unsalted melted butter: Many recipes ask for oil, use can replace the butter with canola or coconut oil, however, we prefer the denser texture the butter produces.
- Canola or vegetable oil: As you can see we use a combination of butter and oil, hence the brownie-like texture of this quick dessert.
- Eggs: Also, make sure these are at room temperature.
- Vanilla extract
- Zucchini: Shredded and make sure to remember to not remove the excess water.
- Chocolate chips: use your favorite chocolate chips in here.
- Walnuts: While these are optional, they do add a nice crunch.
How do you make Chocolate Zucchini Bread from scratch:
- Prep the working area: First start by preparing all the ingredients to have them on hand. Also, preheat the oven and make sure to grease the loaf pan.
- Dry ingredients: Next, in a large bowl combine the dry ingredients, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Whisk them until combined, or if you have time is better to sift them.
- Wet ingredients: Afterward, in another bowl, beat the brown sugar with butter, oil, eggs, and vanilla extract.
- Combine: After that, combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients. Also, add the shredded zucchini and stir in the chocolate chips.
- Bake: Finally, transfer the batter into the prepared pan and bake the bread for about 50 minutes.
- Cool: Once done baking, let it cool in the pan for 15 minutes, and after that remove it and place it on a cooling rack.
- Serve: Lastly, slice it and serve warm or room temperature, you can also warm up slices in the microwave and it tastes delicious with some butter.
Recipe Variations:
- Gluten-Free: Make it gluten-free by using gluten-free flour.
- Chocolate Chips: Alternatively, use milk, dark, or semi-sweet baking chips. Also, white or peanut butter chips work well.
- Nuts: Either use or skip the nuts, walnuts, pecans, chopped peanut, and almonds taste great in this recipe.
- Peanut butter: Add a few dollops of melted peanut butter into the batter and make swirls.
- Dried fruits: Another option is to stir in dried fruits like raisins or cranberries.
- Fresh fruits: However, you can also use fresh fruits, stir in some blueberries or blackberries.
- Oil: Use vegetable or canola oil, olive oil works well if you like the flavors. Also, coconut oil is another alternative.
- Skip the butter: Actually, the butter quantity can be replaced with oil.
- Coffee: Add about 1 tablespoon of instant coffee or espresso powder, it will enhance the fudgy flavor!
How to store leftover bread:
- Store: After baking, let the bread fully cool, and store it at room temperature, wrapped in plastic for 2-3 days, or place it in an airtight container and store in the fridge for 4-5 days.
- Freeze: Alternatively, freeze leftovers for later. First, let it completely cool and after that wrap the chocolate zucchini bread in plastic wrap. Afterward, wrap it tightly in aluminum foil and place it in a freezer-safe Ziploc bag. Finally, freeze it for up to 3 months.
- Thaw: When ready to serve, plan in advance and thaw it in the fridge overnight. Unwrap, slice, and serve.
More quick bread recipes:
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you squeeze water out of zucchini for bread?
It all depends on the recipe, in some cases, you should squeeze out excess water from grated zucchini before adding it to the batter. However to do that, first, let the shredded zucchini rest for 10 minutes and after that, using your hands squeeze as much water as possible.
But in this recipe, we do not remove the access water, we use that moisture to create the dense and rich texture of this bread.
How do you grate zucchini for bread?
- Don’t peel the zucchini, it melts into the bread, so peeling is just unnecessary.
- Wash the zucchini well under warm water, use a vegetable brush to remove dirt.
- Cut both ends off of the zucchini.
- Set a standup box grater on a plate or cutting board on the counter and shred the zucchini by continuously running it over the large holes of the grater.
Can you taste the zucchini in desserts?
No, you don’t. What it does when added into baked goods, it packs a lot of moisture, so it will make the cake very tender, and you should not worry, your cake will not taste like a veggie.
Recipe Tips:
- Chocolate is one of the main ingredients here, so make sure you use quality cocoa powder, as this is basically how the bread will taste. The same applies to the chocolate chips, use high-quality ones.
- Also, I like to use larger chocolate chips, as they don’t fully melt when baked and are amazing when you bite into them!
- Always measure the zucchini, this way you are making sure you are using enough.
- Choose smaller zucchini, larger ones tend to be dry, tougher, and have a bitter taste.
- The chopped walnuts are optional, you can skip them if you don’t like walnuts or just prefer not to use them.
- This bread also tastes amazing with peanut butter chocolate chips!
- The Chocolate Zucchini Bread is very dense, so it will not rise a lot in the oven, that is ok.
- Watch the bread closely after 45-50 minutes of baking, to make sure you won’t overbake it. I like to check on it at the 50-minute mark and if it still needs more baking, check on it every 5-7 minutes until done. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean or just with some melted chocolate on, but not raw batter.
- Loaf Pan – a huge fan of their products, always great quality!
Watch Recipe Video:
Best Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter melted
- 1/4 olive oil or canola oil
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups packed shredded zucchini about 1 medium zucchini (do NOT press to remove excess water)
- 1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips divided
- 1/2 cup walnuts chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Grease a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with nonstick baking spray (I like the one with flour) and set aside.
- In a medium bowl combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and sea salt, whisk to combine or if you have time, it is better to sift all the ingredients. Set aside.
- Add to a large bowl: brown sugar, melted butter, oil, eggs, and vanilla extract. Using a whisk stir the ingredients until fully combined and the mixture is smooth and shiny.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and gently fold in with a spatula, careful not to overmix.
- Add the shredded zucchini and walnuts. Stir to combine.
- Add 1 cup of chocolate chips and stir to combine.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of chocolate chips on top.
- Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out mostly clean, with no raw batter onto it. Start checking on the bread at the 50-minute mark, and if still needs to bake more, check on it every 5 minutes.
- Once fully baked, remove the pan from the oven and place it on a wire cooling rack. Let the bread cool in the pan for 15 minutes. For easy removal, run a knife around the edges of the bread and gently remove it from the pan onto a wire cooling rack, let it stand until slightly warm.
- Cut into slices and serve. Enjoy!
Nutrition
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