Chocolate zucchini bread. But wait – there’s more…

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Two of my neighbors very nicely gave me several zucchinis at the end of the summer, which I shredded and froze.   Now all this zucchini has been mocking me for months and waiting for me to bake something.  I had made some regular zucchini bread at Christmas time, but I really wanted something a little different so I started googling recipes.  I found two I wanted to try – chocolate zucchini bread and banana zucchini bread.  I’ll post one today and the other tomorrow.  You know, just to build up the suspense.  : )

I highly recommend the chocolate zucchini bread that I found at Joy of Baking.  It is so rich and yummy and you can see the little pockets of chocolate where the chocolate chips melted.  Plus, it has the added benefit of completely tricking my kids into eating zucchini, which they would never do on a normal day.  I realize the health benefits are probably not all that great once you add in all the other ingredients, but still – my kids ate zucchini!

Recipe:  Chocolate Zucchini Bread

1 1/2 c. shredded, raw zucchini

1 c. all-purpose flour (I actually used 1/2 c. all-purpose flour and 1/2 c. whole wheat flour)

1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp. ground allspice

1/2 c. canola oil or safflower oil

1/2 c. granulated white sugar

1/2 c. light brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3/4 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used mini chocolate chips)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place rack in the center of the oven.  Grease, or spray with nonstick vegetable spray, a 9x5x3″ loaf pan.  Set aside.

Grate the zucchini using a medium sized grater.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and allspice.  Set aside.

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the oil, sugars, eggs, and vanilla extract until well blended – about 2 minutes.  Fold in the grated zucchini.  Add the flour mixture, beating just until combined.  Then fold in the chocolate chips.  Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake until the bread has risen and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 55-65 minutes.  Place on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes, then remove the bread from the pan and cool completely.