What’s tender, moist, chocolatey, perfect for breakfast and snacking, and uses up one of the overabundance of zucchini from your garden/farmer’s market?
DOUBLE CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI BREAD, that’s what.
We came home from our anniversary trip last weekend with, amongst other things, a car full of produce. We picked close to 20lbs of blueberries at Quonquont Farm, stocked up on pickling cukes at Thomas Farm (4 for $1 so obviously I bought way too many), then hit up Atlas Farm for heirloom tomatoes, a case of basil to turn into pesto, several cabbages for making sauerkraut and kimchi, and so much zucchini.
Obviously, my first choice was to make something chocolatey with all that zucchini, so here we are.
This double chocolate loaf just might be my all-time favorite way to eat zucchini bread; it’s made with olive oil and whole wheat flour for an added boost of nutrients, kept tender and moist from an entire shredded zucchini, is rich and dark from a half cup of cocoa powder in the batter; the top is studded with a craggy, mountainous top of chocolate chunks, which, in this summer heat, stay slightly soft and almost gooey on top of the bread for days.
Chocolate chunks on top of a loaf > chocolate chunks in a loaf. Don’t fight it.
After testing the recipe once with maple syrup as the sole sweetener and finding it sunken in and a little too moist inside, I swapped the maple syrup out for my favorite sugar cane product: sucanat, aka natural sugar cane (which is still light brown with hints of molasses flavor, thanks to a minimal refinement process), and the texture of this loaf is spot on. Still tender and moist, but not remotely wet. Coconut sugar or straight up unbleached/organic cane sugar works too, if you don’t have sucanat…but if you’ve never tried it, you really need to! Its our favorite sugar to use and I love that it’s less refined than traditional cane sugar. This is the one I buy (<–affiliate link), though I also see it on the shelves of most grocery stores, too.
I suppose technically you could make this for dessert, but let’s be honest here, I’m eating it for breakfast. Preferably slathered with some peanut or almond butter, with a latte on the side.
And, I think you should too.
This recipe is made in 1-bowl with 10 simple ingredients and can be out of the oven and in your stomach in under an hour. Plus, it tastes like a chocolate dream loaf, and, if needed, there are vegan and gluten-free options in the recipe notes!
So, grab yourself a zucchini and let’s do this thing!
If you make this recipe, let me know how it turns out! Leave a comment below or take a picture of your loaf and share it with me on Instagram! I love seeing my recipes in your kitchen!
- 1 medium zucchini
- 1 large egg
- 1/3 cup extra virgin oil (can sub melted coconut oil or butter, if desired)
- 1/2 cup sucanat*
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup white whole wheat flour**
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 cup roughly chopped dark chocolate, for topping
- 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a standard loaf pan with olive oil or butter and set aside.
- 2. Grate the zucchini on a box grater. You should have between 1 1/2- 2 cups of tightly packed zucchini, which is the ideal range for this loaf. If your zucchini yields more than 2 cups, tightly packed, toss the extra into a container and use it in your next smoothie-you won't taste it at all! Do not squeeze out excess moisture from zucchini, since the zucchini adds essential moisture to this loaf.
- 3. Whisk together egg, olive oil, sucanat, and vanilla in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Add all dry ingredients and the zucchini to the bowl, then stir just until fully combined. Batter will be very thick.
- 4. Spoon batter into greased loaf pan, then sprinkle with chopped chocolate. Use your fingers to gently press the chocolate into the batter, just so it's all stuck, but not so it's covered by batter.
- 5. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until loaf is risen and cooked though (a toothpick inserted into the center should come out mostly clean). If using the long, skinny 12" loaf pan linked in this post, start checking the loaf after 25 minutes. Let loaf cool in the pan for 15 minutes before loosening the sides with a knife and gently dumping it out onto a cooling rack to fully cool. Eat warm, or store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature and eat within 5 days.
- *Sucanat (which is an abbreviation of the words "sugar cane natural") is a less refined, still-brown sugar that has a subtle molasses flavor. It's our favorite form of cane sugar, but organic/unbleached cane sugar can be used instead, as can coconut sugar, if you'd like! I don't recommend a liquid sugar (maple, honey, etc) here as it makes this loaf excessively wet.
- **White whole wheat flour has the same nutrition profile as traditional whole wheat, but a much more mild flavor and texture. Tranditional whole wheat, regular all-purpose, or a combination of the two can be used instead, if desired.
- Make it Gluten-Free: swap an all-purpose GF blend (or use half oat flour and half almond flour) instead of the whole wheat.
- Make it Vegan: use a flax egg (1 T flaxseed meal + 3 T water) instead.