This time of year, I’m ALWAYS looking for new recipes to use up the mass amounts of extra zucchini from our garden.
We only have 2 plants, and I’ve already given a bunch of it away to neighbors and family members, but even still, we have lots and LOTS of zucchini!
The kids are having fun helping me pick the zucchini, and I’ve been using my food processor to shred boatloads of zucchini and then dividing it up in 2-cup portions for the freezer. I use those to make zucchini breads, cakes, muffins, etc. all year long.
Since Dave and I are both big chocolate lovers, I’ve been on the lookout for new zucchini recipes that uses chocolate chips. I know how much we all LOVE my chocolate chip banana bread recipe… so I figured chocolate chip zucchini bread would be pretty tasty as well.
I compiled a few different recipes to come up with this double chocolate zucchini bread recipe… and so far, it’s been a huge hit with our entire family.
If you’re looking for a new recipe to use up some extra zucchini, you’ll definitely want to give this one a try!
Recipe for Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Makes 2 regular loaves or 5 mini loaves
INGREDIENTS:
- 2.5 c. all-purpose flour
- 1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 t. baking soda
- 1 t. salt
- 3 eggs
- 1 c. vegetable oil (or unsweetened applesauce)
- 1.5 c. granulated sugar
- 1/2 c. brown sugar
- 1 T. vanilla extract
- 2 c. shredded zucchini
- 1 c. chocolate chips
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 325*F
Grease 2 loaf pans and set aside
In a large mixing bowl, mix all ingredients together (except chocolate chips) until dry ingredients are moistened. Try not to over-mix.
Stir in chocolate chips.
Pour batter into greased loaf pans
Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour, or until the middle is set
Cool on wire racks and store in a tightly sealed container
This bread is FABULOUS warm out of the oven; however, it’s also super tasty for several days after baking as well. And of course, it freezes really well too!
This recipe (along with my chocolate zucchini brownies) is one of my all-time favorite ways to use up the massive amounts of zucchini we have this time of year 🙂
What are your favorite ways to use zucchini?
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Michelle says
This looks so good – can’t wait to try it! I have several yellow squash right now. Do you think it would work to sub them for the zucchini?
Andrea says
hmmm… I think you could definitely try it with squash. I’ve personally not tried it with yellow squash, but the consistency is so similar to zucchini that I have to believe the results in baked goods would also be similar!
Debbie says
I wanted to try this recipe but got stumped on the 1/2 brown sugar ingredient. Is is suppose to be 1/2 cup brown sugar?
Andrea says
yup, 1/2 cup.
Melissa Q says
Wow, just tried this recipe to use up some extra zucchini (you know, before harvesting even *more*) and can I just say — it’s not “decadent”, it’s “dekker-dent”. Yum!
Andrea says
haha!! thanks 🙂
Katie says
Hi Andrea – question about using the frozen zucchini – when I’ve done that in the past, it is always “watery” when I thaw it… do you have a trick to either (a), stop that from happening (pat it with paper towels before you freeze, or let it dry out a bit, or….??), or (b), how do you deal with it then in the winter when you use the thawed zucchini to bake with? When I’ve used the thawed shredded zucchini, my baked goods always seem to come out too soggy… 🙁
Katie says
And PS, I have a zucchini bread recipe I love and I always add chocolate chips – but I am DEFINITELY going to try this recipe with the cocoa powder too! Looks delish! 🙂
Andrea says
Yes, it’s ALWAYS watery after you freeze it, but that’s totally fine. I’ve never had an issue using the water zucchini — but you could also try draining some of the water off if you feel your bread is too mushy.
Tracey says
While the double chocolate zucchini bread looks amazing, I love your tip of bagging up grated zucchini for using throughout the year….
Kylie says
Saw this just after reading your post. Here’s another good way to use up that zucchini!
Zucchini Crust Pizza!:
http://www.myhumblekitchen.com/2013/09/best-zucchini-recipe-ever-zucchini-crust-pizza/#sthash.vdYMSGXp.HQePSJO8.dpbs
Andrea says
Thanks Kylie — we’ve actually done that before and it’s pretty good!
Liane :) says
So glad you linked to that recipe. I love it when I find fun things that are not full of gluten and its friends! She included an option for alternative flour!
Actually these is sort of what I had in mind with my idea of zuke fritters. How about thin zuke pancakes, like crepes, that could double as tortillas or faux tacos. It’s so hard to find traditional foods in a gluten free form that are not full of junky flour replacements.
Thank you for the pizza!
Liane says
We use a spiral veggie gizmo to make “zoodles”. They tend to contain a lot of water so I like to sauté them briefly in a bit of olive oil. We combine them with the usual lasagna ingredients (sans pasta) to make a casserole, or add to a pot of gluten free pasta just before it is done.
I have not had much success with gluten free quick breads, but I wonder if the shreds could be used to make a zucchini pancake, not a sweet pancake but more like a fritter. Those are easy with coconut flour. I usually make them with pumpkin. The pumpkin color disguises the rather blah color of baked goods made without flour. I wonder if zoodle cakes would be green?
Sara says
Blueberry zucchini bread is the way to go. I love it and will eat it for breakfast. My niece is crazy for it. I use frozen blueberries (usually that I picked previously in the year).
Ingredients:
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup vegetable oil
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups white sugar
2 cups shredded zucchini
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 pint fresh blueberries
Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease 4 mini-loaf pans.
In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar. Fold in the zucchini. Beat in the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Gently fold in the blueberries. Transfer to the prepared mini-loaf pans.
2) Bake 50 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a knife inserted in the center of a loaf comes out clean. Depending on what type of pan you bake them in, your time may be shorter. Cool 20 minutes in pans, then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.
Andrea says
Thanks for the recipe… sounds yummy!
Trudy says
Just made it again this weekend….then the requests for the recipe come in…a big hit
Zucchini Cobbler:
Ingredients
10 cups Zucchini (peeled, seeded and sliced bite size)
(one large zucchini will be close to 10 cups)
2/3 cup Lemon Juice
½ cup sugar (Nutrasweet works well, too)
1 tsp. Cinnamon
¼ tsp Nutmeg
1 yellow cake mix (dry)(or 2 Jiffy mix size)
2/3 cup oleo or butter
½ cup chopped nuts
Simmer Zucchini in lemon juice until tender.
Add Sugar, Cinnamon and Nutmeg.
Pour zucchini mixture into 9×13 pan and cover with dry cake mix.
Melt oleo or butter and dribble over cake mix.
Sprinkle chopped nuts over top before baking.
Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.
Sara says
This sounds delicious and uses a lot of zucchini all at once! Good combo. 🙂
Andrea says
yes, I love that it uses a lot of zucchini and makes 2 large loaves.
Andrea says
Wow, that sounds amazing… and really simple! I actually made a “zucchini crisp” tonight and it tasted JUST like apple crisp! I didn’t tell Dave it was zucchini until he was half way through eating it and he was totally shocked. He honestly didn’t believe me at first!
Trudy says
Ina Garten has a “crisp” topping that I really love, I have been thinking lately about going there…glad it worked for you….will have to try it.