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!!😂😂)
Followed recipe, but instead used 70g butter, 170g sugar and 110g chopped dark chocolate block. I found it perfectly sweet and chocolatey, even with the reduced sugar. Absolutely delicious with a cup of tea.
I’d really like to try this, but I only have a 9″ x 5″ and an 8″ x 4″ loaf pan. What do you suggest? Thank you!
Very fudgy and delicious. I used 1 cup sugar and 200g dark chocolate (less than recipe) and it worked perfect.
Wow. So delicious and my kitchen smells amazing
Seriously so good! It is a little dense and fudgy and just downright delicious! This is a dream to make too – so quick and easy to mix with my Danish dough whisk!
Is it still turning well with less amount of sugar?
This was delicious, I think I over cooked it slightly but was really good and you wouldn’t know there was zucchini in it.
Hands down the BEST way to eat Zucchini!!! The only chocolate I had in the house was a box of Lindt balls, so I cut them into quarters and mixed them in…….yum!!
Thanks Nagi for another great tasting recipe! It was nice warm, but even fudgier and better after refridgeration. Will make again.
I’ve made this twice now. The second time, I split the batter into 2x 9in round cake pans and baked them for about 30 minutes. I sandwiched them together with your stabilized chantilly cream recipe with 3 Tbsp Dutch cocoa powder added to make chocolate cream.
AMAZING. I was informed (by more than one person!) that it was the best cake they’d ever had.
So you know it was good. Better. The BEST. (and yes, they were astounded to find out it had zucchini in it!).
Top notch!
My daughter and I made this yesterday. AMAZING!!
Absolutely delicious! Made this with my 2.5 year old and, boy, cooking with a toddler is hard work and SO messy (RIP to the egg that he smashed), but he enjoyed helping and eating half the batter in the process.
I didn’t have the pan size specified in the recipe, so I made it in two pans – a 19 x 8.5cm loaf pan and a 17 x 7.5cm loaf pan (both base measurements) and they still turned out great. The smaller pan cooked in 45 mins and the larger one in 1 hour (covered after 45 mins as per the recipe). Both were moist and a proper loaf cake size and delicious!
I made this with gluten free flour. Excellent. It was very moist but light and bursting with chocolatey goodness. Particularly good warmed up with a scoop of vanilla bean icecream for dessert!!
Hi Nagi, I have a diabetic daughter any suggestions on the sugar sub? I have erythritol and monk fruit and honey. Not sure how much to use. Please advise. BTW love Dozer, we have Goldens too !
I’m sorry Wendh but I haven’t done any testing with any of those in this recipe! N x
Hey Nagi, made this and it turned out great but how do you store it? In the fridge or outside in a box?
Hi Nagi! Big flan of your recipes and blog. just wanted to know if i could sub carrots for the zucchini? ive made zucchini chocolate loaf and i wanted to try it with carrots!
Amazing! I added an extra cup of zucchini, and still no one guessed that there was any zucchini in the recipe! I poured the batter in a brownie tin and cooked for 25 minutes and they made perfect, moist fudgey brownies.
Could espresso powder be used in place of cocoa?
Hi Betsie – no I don’t think that will work sorry. N x
Made a half batch as muffins, I had to use a lot of self control to only eat one. (Cooked for 25 ish minutes, made 10 muffins.)
Hello Nagi. Well, you did it again – another delicious recipe! Thank you so much. I made this zucchini bread this afternoon and your instructions were bang on. It turned out beautifully; super moist and scrumptious! My husband loved it and so did I. Thanks again.
If you’re not experienced in using cups for measuring, beware to not to put in a too big of an amount of zucchini. I used this Dutch website to find information about the amount of zucchini in grams when you need 3 cups, in the end I put in about 560 grams. I think this was a bit too much. I needed at least 30 minutes extra baking time! Despite the zucchini stress and extra time in the oven, a delicious recipe. Will definitely try it again, but with less veggies maybe 🙂
No I’m mistaken, I’ve put in 650 grams. With my calculator I had to put in even more, like 750! I’ve read some older comments where someone states 1 cup of zucchini is about 180 grams. That sounds like a safer choice.
Hi Julie…just lightly grate the zucchini into the cups. The weight will vary due to water content of the zucchini. I am glad it turned out well in the end! N x
Hi Nagi, love how moist this cake is and was wondering if I could adjust this to make it spelt, walnut and zucchini? (Yes like the Brickfield’s cake)
Good idea! I haven’t tested it though. Let me know how you go! N x