Zucchini Bread For Chocolate Lovers

We have reached the point in the summer where the zucchini are showing up in the garden every day. With the warm weather a small one only takes a few days to become a baseball bat size squash...so regular harvests, daily or every other day, are essential to have useable veg. My two four-inch growers pots ended up have three plants in each, so I have six plants. The yellow ones were more prolific at first, but now I'm getting green ones every day. It helps to have some recipes that use a squash or two and one of my favorites is this Chocolate Zucchini Bread...a sweet tea loaf that stays moist from the zucchini. Zucchini, especially small, young zucchini, really don't have much flavor, so often the recipients of my mini-loaves have no idea that part of the loaf is grated zucchini! Every once in a while you can see a bit of the green from the outer skin, but that's about it. This is a quick tea bread. If your overfill your pan as I did, you might get an uneven top (as in photo above) but it will still taste great.

I've made some changes to the original recipe, which is standard for me. I've added espresso powder to deepen the chocolate flavor. I sometimes use melted margarine instead of plain vegetable oil, for a slightly more buttery taste. The biggest change is that I have cut the sugar by 1/3. This bread has chocolate chips in it!...it doesn't need a big dose of sugar. Of course, I like semi-sweet chocolate, so a super sweet chocolate flavor isn't what I yearn for. If you like your chocolate sweeter, by all mean increase the sugar to 1 1/2 cups.

Another change is minor...When it's time to add the moist mixture to the dry mixture, I don't mix the zucchini into the moist mixture...I just dump it right into the dry mixture in the big bowl, pour the wet mixture on top, then use my Kitchen Aid mixer to combine them...mixing just until combined, no longer, then I add the chocolate chips and mix with the Kitchen Aid for only a few seconds to distribute them.

The original recipe also added 1/2 cup chopped nuts and 1/2 cup dried cherries. You can add either or both at the same time as the chocolate chips and enhance the loaf. Dried cranberries work well in place of the dried cherries. I've used both walnuts and pecans successfully but I suspect that hazelnuts or macadamia nuts would work well, too. I think almonds might be too crunchy, but you could try them, well chopped.

This recipe only uses 2 cups of shredded zucchini, so you may need to make it multiple times while those plants are producing zucchini like mad!

I'm fortunate to have found a four-pan mini-loaf baking pan at a thrift store, but disposable mini-pans are sold at many grocery stores and can be ordered online. The nice thing about mini-pans is that the breads bake more quickly and the small loaf makes a great gift for a neighbor, friend, or your local librarian.  If you use the mini-muffin pans, you can arrange them to make letters or numbers, frost with buttercream, and you have a unique 'cake' to celebrate a friend, a birthday or anniversary, or just to celebrate summer if you arrange them to spell sun!

CHOCOLATE  ZUCCHINI BREAD or MINI-CAKES with Chocolate Chips

based on a recipe by Tanita Davis & Robin Brande & Jama Rattigan

3 cups flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 ½ cups sugar
3 eggs or equivalent egg substitute
1/3 cup vegetable oil
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons plain yogurt
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups shredded zucchini (about 2-3 medium zucchini)
½ cup chocolate chips
½ cup chopped nuts  if using
½ cup chopped dried fruit  if using

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease two 9x5" loaf pans with canola spray. Alternatively, lightly grease 24 mini-muffin pans or 4 mini-loaf pans.

In a large bowl, combine flour, cocoa, soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix well. In a separate bowl, beat eggs (or egg substitute and water) with the sugar until well combined. Add oil, yogurt and vanilla. Beat to combine, then stir in zucchini. Add wet bowl to dry bowl and stir until just moistened. Stir in chocolate chips (and nuts and/or dried fruit if using).

Spoon evenly into pans. Bake 55-60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean if baking in loaf pans. If baking in mini-muffin pans, bake 15.  If baking in mini loaf pans, bake 25-30.Cool 10 minutes in pans, then turn onto racks. This bread is yummy when eaten still warm...the chips are melty and the fragrance is full chocolate!