Chocolate Zucchini Bread – zucchini? What zucchini? Can’t taste it, can’t see it. All I see is the fudgiest, moistest, most decadent chocolate bread you will ever have. Full stop, period!
CHOCOLATE Zucchini Bread?? Are you MAD??
If you’re new to this whole Chocolate Zucchini Bread concept, here’s all you need to know: it is a “thing”.
Probably initially born as a way to use up an abundance of zucchini when they’re in season, dolled up to entice little people (and big people who are as fussy about greens as little people).
But then once people realised how ridiculously FUDGY zucchini makes it, the idea stuck.
And now it’s a “thing”
And we are very, very glad it is.
Because zucchini is the secret ingredient that makes this the fudgiest, richest, most insanely moist chocolate bread you will ever have in your entire life. And you cannot taste zucchini in it at all!!
Here’s what you need
When you cut into it and see the glistening, moist inside with drippy pockets of chocolate, it’s truly hard to believe there’s three whole zucchinis in this.
It can even take more. I find that the Chocolate Zucchini Bread starts getting a mild “this isn’t just chocolate!” flavour to it (iethe zucchini, but no normal human would guess that) but in terms of integrity of the crumb, rise etc., you can almost double the quantity of zucchini without compromising the recipe!!
Best chocolate?
I chose to use chocolate blocks which I would cut into some small and some large pieces because I wanted the wow! factor of little pockets of melty chocolate when I cut into it. For convenience, you can absolutely use chocolate chips instead, or in fact skip the chocolate all together!
The making part (super SUPER easy)
Usually when I cook with grated zucchini, like Crispy Zucchini Fritters, I salt the zucchini to draw out excess moisture followed by grabbing handfuls to squeeze out the excess liquid.
With this recipe, there is no need to do the salting step – just grate and squeeze. Get out what you can – you don’t need superhuman strength – because the residual liquid in the zucchini makes this chocolate zucchini bread super moist!
What it tastes like
It’s like fudgy brownies – in loaf form. It’s like Chocolate Fudge Cake – but fudgier. It slices like normal quick breads but it’s way more decadent!
Spot the Zucchini!
Can’t taste it.
Can barely see it – you’d have to inspect real close to spot a strand of what possibly could be a bit of zucchini…
Frankly, all I see is an outrageous chocolatey looking cake with drippy molten bits of chocolate. Any nutritional benefit from the zucchini is a freebie bonus!
But let’s be realistic.
Don’t make Chocolate Zucchini Bread to use up excess zucchinis.
Or to squeeze extra veggies into your diet.
Nope.
Just make this because you want to indulge in the most amazing chocolate bread you will ever make. Because I promise you, I have made plenty of chocolate breads in my lifetime and this is by far the most moist, and most chocolatey, and as crazy at it sounds, it’s because of the zucchini.
But if it makes you feel better to cling onto the concept of nutritional value as a basis on which you can justify making it for afternoon tea today, or to entice your “healthy” friends into having a slice, who am I to stop you? 🤷🏻♀️😂 – Nagi x
More amazing Zucchini recipes
Cheesy Zucchini Bread (No Yeast) – garlicky, cheesy goodness! (What zucchini??)
Crispy Zucchini Fritters – you’ll love how crispy these parmesan flavour fritters are!
Greek Zucchini Tots (Mini Fritters) – baked zucchini tots!
Super Low Cal Healthy Creamy Vegetable Soup – zucchini is the secret ingredient to an almost zero cal creamy soup!
Healthy Creamy Zucchini Soup – you’ll love how silky creamy this is
Watch how to make it
The most incredible Chocolate Zucchini Bread ever!
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Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Ingredients
- 3 cups grated zucchini (2 large or 3 small) (Note 1)
- 1 3/4 cups (260g) flour, plain/all purpose
- 1/3 cup (40g) unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably dutch processed (Note 2)
- 1.5 tsp baking soda (bi-carbonate) (Note 3)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp vanilla essence
- 1 1/4 cup (275g) white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 100g / 7 tbsp unsalted butter , melted
- 300g / 10 oz dark chocolate , coarsely chopped (keep some larger chunks!) (Note 4)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C/350F (160C fan).
- Grease and line a large loaf pan (mine is 28 x 15 x 6.5cm / 11 x 6 x 2.5″).
- Grab handfuls of zucchini and squeeze out excess liquid, then place in colander to drain while you prepare the batter. (Note 4)
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs and sugar. Then add butter and vanilla, and whisk until fully incorporated.
- Pour egg mixture into flour bowl and stir with wooden spoon until flour is just incorporated – batter will be thick!
- Add zucchini and chocolate and stir to mix through – it will be very thick at first but it will loosen into a thick, spreadable batter (see video).
- Scrape into loaf pan, bake 45 minutes. Cover with foil and bake a further 20 minutes or until skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean (except for melted chocolate streaks!)
- Stand in loaf pan for 15 minutes before removing. Cool on rack for a further 10 minutes before slicing.
- Extra amazing served warm – you get melty chocolate bits and it’s extra fudgy in the middle!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
This is how Dozer gets lectured for doing something naughty…….
….and this is how he responds…. rolling around with laughter. 😖
(OK, he’s asking for a tummy rub, but it looks like he’s laughing!!😂😂)
This was delicious!
Second time making this! Absolutely fantastic. Have halved the recipe as well and it worked great!
I can’t believe this has zucchini in it! Looks so decadent and delicious.
Just made this and wow, it’s lovely. Chocolatey and moist, and the cook times worked just right for me. Will definitely make this again.
So rich and delicious. Make this for my school choir – it blows their minds as they search through for the zucchini! 😂 I often make it with 2/3s or half the chocolate – works just as well and I prefer it.
Love this recipe! My kids loved it and finished the entire loaf in a day.
How would you adapt the baking time for a Bundt cake pan?
Just made this with gluten free flour (well and good) and Cadbury milk choc chips. I added and extra quarter of a teaspoon of baking powder and left it in the oven for an extra 10 minutes uncovered at the end as it seemed a bit too wobbly probably due to the gf flour.
It is absolutely delicious. We ate too much and now I need a nap. I will definitely be adding this to my “bring a plate” list. Even my picky 4 year old who usually only eats the icing on the cake, ate the entire piece I gave him.
I was planning on making these for afternoon tea when my parents rang & said they’d be an hour early but not staying long. Made muffins instead (25 min) & a mini loaf tin (30 min) Everyone loved them including my very sceptical husband who said he wouldn’t eat them with vegetables in it! After no more sweet treats coming his way he tried one & admitted it was fantastic!!!
I had two leftover zucchini after making the rest for a side dish at dinner. Had no idea what to do with just two zucchini. Holy mackerel I decided to try this recipe. Now I’m always going to buy extra zucchini. It was so moist so chocolatey so tender and so easy. Nagi is the best.
I would love this recipe in cupcake form? Thanks🌺
I made this out of curiosity and imperfect zucchinis were on special at Harris Farm. Omg so delicious.
This is seriously seriously delicious. The first time I made it as instructed, the second time I reduced the sugar by half a cup for my kids, (I also halved the chocolate chips and I actually found the sweetness was perfect this way, without affecting the loaf much at all.
Nagi has done it again 😭 This is so delicious!! I made mini muffin versions and baked for 25 mins. Such a fantastic recipe. I had about 1/2 a cup of zucchini left over and chucked it in, couldn’t taste it at all. Just a moist and delicious mini muffin
Thoughts on adding beetroot? I’ve had beetroot chocolate cake before and it was delicious!
Amazing – only used 200 g of chocolate and it was still
Enough
Lots of
Compliments and my son who doesn’t like
Zucchini asked me to make it again !
Also halved the recipe
To make muffins – perfect for lunch boxes . Thanks Nagi
Looks and smells amazing! Does anyone know how long this will keep for? I can’t see it written anywhere.
The best loaf ever! It’s way too dangerous – so delicious and easy to make! You can don’t have to measure the zucchini exactly – a bit more – all good!
This is really good. Turned out even better than expected. It did take 2 hours to cook but I was using ceramic so maybe that’s why?
For the chocolate I got it from aldi so it was cheaper. I got two 180g blocks. One dark, one milk. I did the maths and 300g was roughly 14 rows (each row being about 22g). So I used 8 rows of dark and 6 rows of milk.
It turned out so good. Reminds me of a brownie. I actually preferred it cold.
Can’t taste the zucchini at all.
So, I have made this a few times now and it is a definite favourite. My 9 yo daughter only knows it as “Chocolate bread” and it is one of her very favourite things to have. She told me today that after letting her friends have some at school, they couldn’t believe that it wasn’t chocolate mud cake!
Amazing! Love it!!!! Thanks for sharing