Chocolate zucchini bread is the perfect way to use up any extra zucchini you have laying around. And I bet you’ll make it a priority to have extra zucchini after tasting this recipe! 😉
The other day I met my parents for dinner at a local Mexican restaurant for some chips, salsa, and margaritas. Also chicken fajitas, because duh.
That morning I had baked a couple loaves of this chocolate zucchini bread recipe and I knew that if I kept both loaves in my house, I would eat both loaves. By myself. In one day.
So, I stuck a loaf of bread in my purse and smuggled it into the restaurant like a weirdo and passed it off to my mom.
This zucchini bread is so heavy, I thought my purse straps were going to break. But that’s just because it’s packed full of good stuff – loads of freshly grated zucchini, cocoa powder, eggs, flour, and obviously some sugar. This stuff is GOOD.
Rich, dense, and hey – there’s veggies involved. 🙂
Ingredient Notes:
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Bread – You’ll prepare the chocolate zucchini bread batter with a mix of sugar, oil, eggs, vanilla extract, flour, cocoa powder, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
Zucchini – This recipe is perfect for using up any extra zucchini. I’d recommend peeling the zucchini first before shredding it with a grater or food processor if you really want it to disappear into the bread. If green flecks don’t bother you, leave the peel on.
Chocolate Chips – This zucchini bread is packed full of chocolate flavor with the cocoa powder and lots of milk chocolate chips! Or use some peanut butter chips to turn this into chocolate peanut butter zucchini bread!
What Readers are Saying!
“This is the absolute best bread ever! Thank you so much I just keep baking loads of it and sharing.” – Penny
Helpful Tools:
Food Processor – For shredding the zucchini! A food processor is probably the quickest and easiest way to do this.
Box Grater – If you don’t have a food processor, a box grater will also work well for shredding the zucchini!
Loaf Pans – I use these ceramic loaf pans mostly just because I think they’re pretty. Metal or glass work as well, though you may need to adjust the baking time a bit.
How to Make Zucchini Bread:
Shred: To make the best zucchini bread, I think it’s important to start by peeling your zucchini and then shredding it. You can use your food processor or a box grater for shredding. Either work!
Batter: We’re going to use a neutral oil in this recipe (vegetable or canola both work well) in place of butter. This will make for a nice moist bread.
You’ll beat together your oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla and then add in the dry ingredients including the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and soda.
Zucchini: The batter is THICK. Don’t be scared and don’t add more liquid. Keep in mind that zucchini is a pretty watery vegetable and it’s going to release a lot of liquid as it bakes.
Stir your grated zucchini into the batter. You’ll notice the batter thinning out a bit as you stir. Spoon the batter evenly between two loaf pans.
Chocolate Chips: When you’ve prepared the chocolate zucchini bread batter and spooned it evenly believe the two loaf pans, you can start sprinkling lots of chocolate chips onto the batter for even more chocolatey flavor!
Bake: Pop your loaves of bread in a hot oven for about 50 minutes. Let the loaves cool completely before slicing.
How To Tell When Zucchini Bread Is Done:
This can be tricky because you certainly don’t want to over-bake your bread, but if you under-bake, it will fall in the center and not taste or look so great.
I use the time in the recipe as a guide and start checking my bread with a toothpick 5 minutes before the recipe calls for.
Because this recipe has chocolate chips on top, just be sure to poke your toothpick down in a place that isn’t covered by chocolate chips.
Your toothpick should have a a few moist crumbs attached, but should not have any raw/wet batter on it.
How To Store Zucchini Bread:
Tightly wrapped zucchini bread will last on the counter for 1-2 days.
If you’d like to store the zucchini bread for longer than that, I’d recommend freezing it. Slice your bread into nicely sized portions and wrap tightly. Freeze individually wrapped sliced in a freezer bag for up to 6 months.
To thaw your frozen zucchini bread, let the slices sit on the counter to come to room temperature and enjoy.
FAQs:
Zucchini is mostly water, so it’ll add moisture when baking. It’ll also add some texture and even a bit of nutrition to this chocolate bread!
We do prefer to peel zucchini before adding it to baked goods, but it’s definitely not necessary. The peel will leave little green flecks in your bread, so if you don’t mind that, leave the peel on!
That will depend a lot on the spices and flavorings used in the bread. Zucchini Bread is generally a sweet, mild bread and really doesn’t taste like zucchini at all. This chocolate zucchini bread just tastes like a big loaf of rich and sweet chocolate bread.
I hope you’ll give this recipe a try and let me know you like it. Y’all just LOVED my chocolate banana bread recipe, so I have a feeling this one will be a hit too. Be sure to give this sweet bread recipe a try too – it makes cute little gifts!
MORE ZUCCHINI RECIPES!
- Zucchini Carrot Bread
- Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread
- Zucchini Pineapple Bread
- Chocolate Zucchini Cake
- Zucchini Pizza Boats
- Air Fryer Zucchini Chips
- Zucchini Tomato Tarts
If you like this recipe, please leave a comment and be sure to rate the recipe below! 🙂
Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Ingredients
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cup canola oil
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 cups peeled and shredded zucchini
- 1 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray 2 9×5 inch loaf pans with non-stick spray.
- Add the sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla to a large mixing bowl and beat until well combined.
- Stir together the flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and baking powder. Gradually beat into the sugar mixture until just combined. Batter will be very thick.
- Add the zucchini to the batter and stir to combine.
- Spoon the batter evenly between the two prepared baking loaves and sprinkle with chocolate chips.
- Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a tester comes out with just a few moist crumbs.
- Cool for 10 minutes before removing bread from the pan. Cool completely before cutting and serving.
Anna Maria says
This recipe was great. Made a delicious and moist chocolate zucchini bread. Made it twice and both times it was fabulous. I bookmarked this website for future use. Thanks for the recipe!
Karly says
So happy to hear this turned out well for you! Thanks for the review. 🙂
Connie says
I made this recipe a while back and LOVED it. I lost it and tried others but they could not and did not compare! Just picked 4 zucchini, shreded and making a couple loaves this afternoon.
I’ve emailed myself the recipe so as not to lose it again. ?
Karly says
Oh, I love to hear that! So glad you found the recipe again. 🙂
Sonia says
I liked the recipe. Chocolate anything is my favorite! I made this bread hoping for a super moist bread. It was rich and very chocolaty which I appreciate, but it was dry. I even added extra zucchini in Hope’s that it would help in the process of the moistness, but it didn’t. Don’t know what went wrong.
Karly says
Ah, sorry to hear that. Make sure you’re measuring your dry ingredients properly (spoon and level) and don’t overbake. 🙂
Olivia says
I’ve tried this recipe twice and loved it more the first time. I had a huge zucchini and saved the leftover shreddings in the freezer. I’m not sure what I did (or didn’t do) second time around, but it also came out underbaked (my fault). The flavor profile was just bland. Maybe my cocoa powder had gone old? Zucchini lost its flavor after being frozen? Kosher salt? Unsure, but I wish I could’ve gone back to my first version, because it was seriously amazing!
Karly says
Well, that’s strange! I’d give it another try and see how it does. Maybe you missed an ingredient? 🙂
Elynor White says
I made this last year for Thanksgiving and it was a hit. It was requested that I make it again this year. Love the chocolate and cinnamon together. Rich chocolaty taste without being overly sweet.
PAMELA ROMINES says
This recipe deserves 10 stars! The batter was a breeze to throw together (thanks to the food processor), and it baked up beautifully. Parchment paper helped keep it from sticking to the pan, which I do with all quick breads. The result was a remarkably moist extra special treat! The flavor was incredibly balanced-rich, sweet (but not too sweet), and delightfully decadent! After comparing a couple recipes, I ended up replacing half the oil with melted margarine, used good quality sugar free chocolate chips- which were surprisingly delicious, and added 1 cup of drained crushed pineapple. I could eat an entire loaf; thankfully it made 2! 😉
Karly says
Pineapple sounds like such a good addition! Glad it was a hit! 🙂
Tamara says
Such a wonderful recipe. I’m not a baker but I made this and it was so easy. And delicious!! Thanks for sharing!
Karly says
So glad it was a hit!