This moist and fudgy double chocolate zucchini bread will raise a huge question. How on earth are there vegetables in THIS?!
Alternate titles for today’s recipe:
- Chocolate Cake Bread
- Chocolate Bread That is Actually Filled with Vegetables but Tastes Like Brownies
- Peanut Butter’s Soul Mate Bread
- Where’s All The Butter and Oil? Bread
- This Won’t Ruin My Diet? Bread
- Stop Talking I Need to Eat This!!! Bread
This chocolate zucchini bread is incredibly moist and fudge-like. Filled with shredded zucchini and no one will be any the wiser. Tastes like chocolate cake. It can be our little secret!
Besides the addition of a green veggie, this recipe has a slew of other notable ingredients. First of all, there is only 1/2 cup of sugar in the entire loaf. Chocolate chips provide further sweetening, while also creating melty pockets of chocolate throughout each slice. Another ingredient doing double duty is the Greek yogurt. Greek yogurt adds protein, while also tenderizing the bread.
A little espresso powder makes each slice incredibly rich– the bread doesn’t taste like coffee, rather, the espresso powder accentuates the chocolate flavor.
See recipe notes for double chocolate zucchini muffins & cupcakes.
More Zucchini Recipes
- Zucchini Bread
- Zucchini Muffins
- Chocolate Zucchini Cake
- Zucchini Crumb Cake
- Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cookies
- Zucchini Fritters (a favorite!)
Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours
- Yield: 1 loaf
- Category: Bread
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
My piece of advice? Make more than 1 loaf. This bread disappears! Recipe can easily be doubled or tripled or baked in batches.
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 cups (225g) shredded zucchini
- 1 cup (125g) all-purpose flour* (spoon & leveled)
- 1/2 cup (41g) natural unsweetened cocoa powder (not dutch process)*
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon instant coffee powder (or 1/4 teaspoon espresso powder)*
- 3/4 cup (135g) semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips*
- 2 large eggs
- 1/4 cup (60ml) canola or vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup (60g) plain Greek yogurt*
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar*
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Adjust the oven rack to the lower third position and preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Spray a 9×5 (or 8×4) loaf pan with nonstick spray. Set aside.
- Place the shredded zucchini on a couple paper towels to absorb some (but not all!) moisture. Press a paper towel on top as well. Set aside until step 4.
- In a large bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt, instant coffee, and chocolate chips together until combined. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, oil, yogurt, sugar, and vanilla together until completely combined. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and lightly whisk until combined. Using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, fold in the zucchini. Pour/spoon batter into prepared baking pan, scraping up every last drop. Trust me, you want it all!
- Bake for 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. My bread only took about 46 minutes, but do not be alarmed if yours takes longer. All ovens are different. Allow bread to cool completely in the pan set on a wire rack. Slice and serve when bread has completely cooled. Store leftover bread in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: Bread freezes well for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature before serving.
- Double Chocolate Zucchini Muffins: Preheat oven to 425°F (218°C) degrees and spray a 12-count pan with nonstick spray or line with cupcake liners. Prepare batter as directed above, fill each liner to the top with batter and bake the muffins for 5 minutes at 425°F (218°C). Then, keeping the muffins in the oven, lower the temperature to 350°F (177°C) and continue to bake for an additional 14-15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Makes 10-12 muffins.
- Chocolate Zucchini Bread Cupcakes (pictured above): Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C) and line a 12-count pan with cupcake liners. Prepare batter as directed above, fill each liner 2/3 full with batter and bake for 19-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool then frost with milk chocolate frosting and garnish with mini chocolate chips. Makes 12 cupcakes.
- Flour: Try using white whole wheat flour or a blend of whole wheat and all-purpose flour! I do not suggest using all whole wheat flour– the bread may be a little too dense.
- Cocoa Powder: Do you remember why you shouldn’t use dutch process cocoa? It’s because you need the acid in natural unsweetened cocoa powder to help activate the baking soda. Here is my lesson on baking powder vs baking soda.
- Coffee: This little bit of instant coffee or espresso powder accentuates the chocolate SO much. You can’t taste the coffee. But you do taste more chocolate. Always a good thing. Keeping this in mind, you can leave it out.
- Chocolate Chips: Don’t leave these out! They sweeten the bread and give the bread more chocolate flavor. The bread is a little bland without them.
- Yogurt: I use low fat plain Greek yogurt. You can use full fat, nonfat, or even vanilla flavor instead. Or even regular yogurt (non-Greek).
- Sugar: For a sweeter bread, use 3/4 cup sugar.
Keywords: chocolate zucchini bread
This recipe is adapted from an award-winning zucchini bread recipe. Have you tried it yet?!
This was delicious, don’t get me wrong, but not one I would consider ‘healthy’ since it has 235g of chocolate and sugar in it. The only difference really is swapping out some of the flour for zucchini but the inclusion of all the other ingredients negate that benefit.
★★★★
This recipe is great! I made muffins and they came out moist and super chocolatey!
★★★★★
Hi, I was wondering if coconut oil could be substituted for canola oil?
Hi Marianne, melted coconut oil should work fine here.
Delicious! Did not change recipe at all. :). Love heating it up in the microwave so the chocolate chips are all merry and add a scoop of vanilla ice cream, makes for a perfect dessert.
★★★★★
OMG the CHOCOLATE! Made the bread, made some muffins…. am making more muffins as we speak… great great recipe. Added some walnuts, for guy who loves them.
I never review recipes, but had to write one for this one. This bread, cake, dessert – whatever you want to call it – is fabulous! Just the right amount of sweet, chocolate and is perfectly moist. I have made it for different people (just in the last two weeks because I can’t stop thinking about it) and everyone has loved it. I made no substitutions to anything and it was perfect. I usually tweak recipes I find online, but have never had to tweak any of yours. Thank you for sharing your recipes with us! Keep them coming!
★★★★★
Great recipe for zucchini “bread”. Not sure I’d call it bread (I guess it is because it is in a loaf pan) because it is a great dessert. If you love dark chocolaty desserts, you’ll love this one. It is moist and especially great with the chocolate chip nuggets.
★★★★★
Question! I have to avoid dairy and I live in Guatemala, where it’s basically impossible to find vegan yogurt. Instead of yogurt, could I possibly use another form of oil instead such as coconut oil? Or coconut cream? What do you think? I’m mainly concerned about the consistency.
Hi Jasmine! We haven’t tested vegan substitutes. Something thicker like yogurt would work best.
Absolutely delicious!
★★★★★
WOW! I’ve been baking for55 years. I have 3 all time favs for go to choc cake for whatever use; ice cream cakes, basic choc.cake with an icing and this is my third!
I used a super fine grate on the side of my box grater, added 60% Ghiradelli large chips in the batter; baked as Sally suggested, 435 for the first 5 mins. and 350 for 14-15 more mins. I baked them for 14. Came out to cool, but right away sprinkled Neilson’s Chipits mini semi-sweet chips on top. They did melt and stick to the cupcake but the top of the Chipits retained their shape making them appear bakery worthy.
Thx Sally. Every single one of your recipes turns out wonderfully!
I made the cupcakes with gluten free flour and they turned out great! Do you you have suggested bake times for mini loafs of bread?
Thank you!
★★★★★
I used mini loaf pans today and they took about 28 minutes 🙂
★★★★★
This bread is delicious. My kids devour this, too. I especially like the notes and explanations you give throughout the recipes.
★★★★★
loved this recipe so much! made it with black cocoa — omg, it is amazing!!!
★★★★★
Making this recipe as muffins for the second time in a week. Everyone loves them!
★★★★★
Just checking if there suppose to be baking powder? Is crossed out. Please kindly clarify it.
Thank you
Hi Bozenna, yes, there is 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder in this recipe. If you click the ingredients and the box next to it, they will strike out the text. Bakers find this helpful to cross out ingredients they’ve already added — simply click it again and the strike through will be removed!
What is the calorie count in a slice? Thanks.