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!!😂😂)
I’ve made this loaf several times, it’s bullet proof! I tried once to give one to the neighbour, couldn’t get past my husband at the front door….
Make it exactly as directed, sooooo good!
My colleague made this recipe and brought it in for the team. It was moist, delicious, and rich. Extra points for the amount of chunky chocolate chip pieces there were. I am now adding this to my favourites list to try.
The grandchildren loved this. Wonderful chewy outside and deliciously gooey on the inside.
Thanks Nagi
I made this gluten and dairy free by swapping the flour to gf (white wings as it’s what I had) and using Whittaker’s Dark Ghana. I’m giving it 5 stars as it easily converts. For my taste, in future, I would use the Aldi dark chocolate instead as the Dark Ghana was intense but did well with some flora dairy free cream to tone it down. If you have access to the Whittakers oat chocolate but not an Aldi that would work well too,
Did you use Flora plant cream instead of butter? I’ve had to go DF while breastfeeding my daughter and I’m still getting the hang of things
Do you think i could replace the butter for sunflower oil for dairy free
Could I use gluten free flour for this recipe? Have friends need to be gf.
Can you freeze this recipe
Has anybody made this with sugar substitute?
Has anyone substituted the butter with olive oil? I am dairy free and think this would work well.
Omg this is unbelievable. Moist,chocolaty and so yummy. Very rich so only need a small piece but who am I kidding 🤣
I’m now going to have to grow some zucchini
This recipe is delicious. My 7 yo son described it as “the best cake I’ve ever eaten” and that’s after I substituted half whole meal flour and monk fruit sugar instead of regular sugar. So moist and tasty! I made a double batch because I had some enormous zucchinis from the garden to use up.
Can I use giant zucchini for this and would you recommend to remove the inside and skin? Or what do you suggest?
I had too much mix for my tin so made a few muffins… Already eaten before the cake is done!
Definitely my kids’ favourite way to eat the excess zucchini from our garden….
This was the most amazing use of zuchinni my husband grows them and I have so many in summer. Cannot wait for the rest of my family to try this bread it is amazing
This is my first time commenting on a recipe I found online. I only use the internet for necessities and recipes but I had to give you the PROPS you deserve. The bread was amazing! Your words were, and I quote “The most incredible Chocolate Zucchini Bread ever!” and that is an understatement in my opinion.
I used Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips instead, and even with only half a bag, the bread was still the best I’ve ever had. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. I hope you have a wonderful holiday season.”
So chocolatey! Wonderful recipe, works really well as a loaf and can also convert to muffins for school lunches
Hi Amber, how long do you put them in the oven for muffins?
Made on repeat in our house – particularly when zucchini’s are going crazy in the garden. Friends are always surprised when I tell them there is zucchini in there. Excellent toasted with butter.
A house favourite and a great way to use up our bountiful zucchini haul from the garden every summer. My fussy 5 year old requests for it every week to bring in his lunchbox to daycare 🤤
Could I use good quality chipits instead ?
A very forgiving recipe! I made quite a few changes as I didn’t check the pantry first (oops) and they still came out wonderfully moist and delicious.
I halved the recipe and made muffins (25min instead of 65min), wholemeal flour instead of plain, honey instead of sugar (reduced to 75% as it’s sweeter) and I only had ~120g dark choc chips left so that’s all I used.
The wholemeal made it tasted a bit more “healthy” so I wouldn’t repeat but still very yummy 🙂
So moist & chocolatey without being overly sweet! A fudgy, dessert-like recipe that is perfect to use up zucchini bounty!! We all loved it, esp the chocoholics in the family 🙂