Dark Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread Recipe

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One of my favorite ways to use up an abundance of zucchini is to make this dark chocolate chip zucchini bread recipe.

The zucchini and the coconut oil in the bread make the texture rich and moist, and the chocolate is so decadent and delicious that is seems more like a chocolate bread than a zucchini bread, so it’s a great recipe for converting vegetable-haters and picky eaters too!

I decided to call this recipe a dark chocolate chip zucchini bread because it doesn’t really look like your typical zucchini bread recipe. You can’t hardly see the zucchini at all (even though there are two cups of it in there), and the color is quite dark, almost a bit like the color of chocolate cake.

I found this recipe in with my grandmother’s collection of old recipes, and I believe it was one of my great aunt’s recipes. The original recipe calls for raisins and nuts, so you could certainly use those in the recipe if you like, but my mother and I have always substituted chocolate chips in the recipe due to our incurable chocolate addiction!

One word of caution before we get to the recipe: As tempting as it may be to add more zucchini to the recipe if you have extra, I can tell you from experience that it will not end well.

One time I added extra, and I thought it would be fine since it wouldn’t effect the taste or texture to add a bit more, but I hadn’t thought about the fact that the bread would continue to rise some as it baked and it ended up overflowing the pan and making an absolute mess in the oven. When I started to smell that horrible burnt sugar smell, I opened the door and found globs of burnt batter stuck all over the bottom of the oven and smoke pouring out (which set off the smoke detectors and sent my dog into a complete panic.)

So, even if you have extra zucchini and you don’t want to waste it, please don’t add it to the batter unless you want to deal with an oven disaster!

Except for that possible occurrence, though, this chocolate chip zucchini bread recipe is a great one that I make every summer and one that I would definitely recommend it to any fellow chocolate lovers!

(Update August 2021: I adjusted the amounts of the ingredients in this recipe slightly to make it less likely that the batter will overflow the pan, especially if you end up using a rounded cup of zucchini instead of a flatter cupful. The basic recipe is the same, I just adjusted the amounts of ingredients down a bit.)

Dark Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread Recipe

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup coconut oil (I used an expeller pressed refined coconut oil for the milder flavor)
• 1 1/3 cups sugar (I used this organic cane sugar)
• 1 1/2 cups grated zucchini
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cups flour (I used organic unbleached all-purpose flour)
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 – 2 tsp cinnamon (For a subtle cinnamon flavor you can use 1 1/2 tsp, and for a stronger cinnamon flavor you can use 2 tsp.)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs, and then stir in the oil, sugar, grated zucchini, and the vanilla.
3. In a separate large mixing bowl, add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt, mixing well to combine.
4. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture, stirring well to combine (but being careful not to overmix either).
5. Fold in the chocolate chips.
6. Grease and flour a 9×5 inch loaf pan and pour bread batter into pan.
7. Bake at 375 degrees for 55 -60 minutes, or until he center springs back when touched and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (But all of the chocolate chips can make toothpick testing a bit tricky!)
8. Let bread cool completely and then drizzle on the dark chocolate glaze if desired.

Dark Chocolate Glaze Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 2 cups powdered sugar (I used an organic powdered cane sugar)
• 4 Tbs cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 4 Tbs water

Directions:

1. Mix together the powdered sugar and the cocoa powder until well combined.
2. Add the vanilla and then add the water slowly one tablespoon at a time, stirring well, until the glaze reaches the right consistency for drizzling.
3. Drizzle glaze liberally over bread and enjoy!

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The information in this post is not to be taken as medical advice and is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease.