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When it’s zucchini season you need to make this Chocolate Zucchini Bread! It’s an easy quick bread recipe with chocolate, grated zucchini, and chocolate chips. It’s also freezer-friendly!
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Best Easy Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Have you ever thought to turn zucchini bread chocolate? This is a seriously easy chocolate bread that is the best way to use up all the zucchini. It always seems like by the end of the summer we are up to our ears with zucchini – well, this choc zucchini bread is one of my favorite ways to use it.
Of course, zucchini is available all year so you don’t have to wait to try this recipe, but if it happens to be summer and you’ve got a bounty of this veggie in your fridge, easy chocolate zucchini bread is about to be your new best friend.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- This is a quick bread: It’s a one-bowl chocolate zucchini bread recipe that is ready in no time at all. And it’s DOUBLE Chocolate Zucchini Bread!
- It bakes up moist, soft, and loaded with chocolate. And, no, you can’t taste the shredded zucchini – it melts into the bread adding tons of moisture. You don’t have to worry about a dry quick bread with this one.
- I love this recipe because it freezes great. Make a loaf and freeze the whole thing for later or slice it and freeze the individual pieces. They thaw in no time for an easy sweet treat when you get a chocolate craving.
Ingredients Needed
- Vegetable oil: I prefer using a neutral oil in this quick bread.
- Sugars: I like to use a combination of brown sugar and granulated sugar to keep the bread moist.
- Unsweetened cocoa powder: Regular is best, not dutch process.
- All-purpose flour: Be sure to measure flour correctly.
- Shredded zucchini: Shred it yourself – there is no need to ring it out.
- Chocolate chips: Use regular or mini chips! Or trade out the chips for chopped nuts, or use half and half.
Recipe Swap: Gluten Free Bread
Oh, and there’s one more thing to love about this recipe – you can make it gluten-free chocolate zucchini bread. Use your favorite 1:1 gluten-free flour!
How to make Chocolate Zucchini Bread
- Combine the oil, both kinds of sugar, egg, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl.
- Add the cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder and mix to combine.
- Stir in the flour.
- Then fold in the zucchini and the chocolate chips and mix.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and sprinkle chocolate chips over the top. Bake the bread for 45 to 55 minutes.
- Cool the chocolate zucchini bread for at least ten minutes before slicing it.
Other Variations
- Add some strawberries or raspberries to make a chocolate version of my blueberry zucchini bread.
- You can easily turn this into 12 zucchini muffins by lining muffin pans with liners.
- Still have some zucchini left over? Make zucchini brownies!
FAQs
You know the zucchini bread is done once you insert a toothpick in the center of the bread and it comes out with just a few moist crumbs.
The best cocoa for this recipe is unsweetened cocoa powder. I haven’t tested it with Dutch-process cocoa powder.
You can shred it with a box grater or in a food processor fitted with a grating disc attachment.
The culprit may be your baking soda and/or baking powder if it’s expired so check the expiration date. If either are expired your bread won’t rise properly as it bakes. It could also be the way you mixed the batter. If you mix the batter too hard and fast, air bubbles get trapped in it. When the bread bakes those air pockets pop causing your bread to collapse. To avoid this, don’t use a mixer at high speed or, better yet, mix the batter with a spoon or spatula. It could also be the pan – I like to use an 8×4” loaf pan for this recipe because the bread gets a nice dome. You can use a 9×5” loaf pan, but the bread will have a flatter top.
Yes it will make approximately 12 muffins. Bake time approximately 15-20 minutes.
Chocolate Zucchini Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- ½ cup (118ml) vegetable oil
- ¾ cup (150g) packed brown sugar
- ¼ cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup (40g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 cup (124g) all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups (152g) shredded zucchini
- 1 cup (170g) chocolate chips (plus more for topping)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 8×4-inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- Add oil, brown sugar, granulated sugar, egg and vanilla to a large bowl. Stir to mix.
- Add cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cocoa to the mixture and stir to combine.
- Stir in flour, then fold in zucchini. Stir in chocolate chips.
- Pour batter into prepared pan and sprinkle with additional chocolate chips. Bake until a toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs from the center of the bread, about 45-55 minutes.
- Cool at least 10 minutes before slicing. Store covered at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Recipe Video
Recipe Notes
- This recipe hasn’t been tested with dutch process cooca, so use regular unsweetened cocoa powder.
- Swap chocolate chips with chopped nuts, or add ½ cup chopped nuts in addition to the chocolate chips in the bread.
- If you use a 9×5-inch loaf pan the bread will be flatter and not as domed, but it works just fine.
- Freezing instructions: Wrap tightly in plastic and freeze for up to 3 months, or freeze slices in sandwich bags for grab and go.
Recipe Nutrition
Other Quick Breads & Muffins
So, let’s load up on all the zucchini, shall we? You’ll want plenty on hand so you can make this easy chocolate zucchini bread recipe. It won’t disappoint!
Last Updated on January 28, 2023
Very good! Chocolatey goodness. Added cherries and pecans and used non-gluten flour. All worked well and I will make it again!
Fantastic chocolatey goodness. Super moist. Is it a bread or a dessert? Works either way. Huge hit with my family!
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