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!!😂😂)
Hi Nagi, Made 24 muffins instead of a loaf. Doubled the ingredients. Used half AP flour and half whole wheat, added one teaspoon baking powder extra. Baked for 30 mins. So so so delicious and moist. Cannot taste the zucchini at all. Fudgy and did I say moist. Mmmmm. Awesome on-the-go healthy treat for my teenage kids. Thanks Nagi for yet another keeper.
Hi Nagi…This is an amazing recipe. Thanks for tip on mixing, I would have thought I did something wrong lol..lol.
I put on a rubber glove and mixed it that way ,it worked perfect…then I got lickn off the glove and put it in the recycle bin!!
Hi Nagi, I love following your recipes and everyone I have followed turned out amazing 🤩. I was wondering can you substitute the sugar for other sugars , and what would you recommend? Thank you
I have just finished making your chocolate zucchini bread. It is in the oven!! So exciting to try it. Thank you
You’ll love it Marisa!! N x
Nagi….can I substitute vanilla extract for the vanilla essence or does it give it too much vanilla flavor in this recipe? My son is begging me to make this and he HATES veggies. 🙂 Thank you!
Yes no problem at all! N x
Nagi, I made this recipe several times and everyone loved it. Now my daughter is on a low carb diet so I was wondering if I could make it with almond flour?
Hi Donna, unfortunately not as it has a completely different texture to regular flour – it will be too crumbly. N x
Super moist and chocolatey with the right amount sweetness. Really enjoyed this loaf.
Thanks Nagi!
Delicious! Can’t taste the zucchini at all! Amazing and probably the only way I’ll ever eat zucchini 😁
It keeps it SUPER moist doesn’t it Jane, I’m so glad you enjoyed it!! N x
hi can we bake these into muffins? any change in baking time if ever? thanks!
i made these as is and its so good and planning on having it as my kids snack at school 🙂
btw i looove your website ive been planning our family meals for the past 3 months trying all your recipes everyday and its amazinggg!!
Hi Stephanie,
You totally can make muffins out of almost any loaf recipe. Cook time will be reduced significantly. Depending on your oven and how wet your batter is it will probably take 20-25 minutes. Just keep an eye and you can always test with a tooth pick. (it should come out dry).
Cheers,
Holly
I skipped the choc chunks, no other change to recipe. Still perfect
Update! 🙂 Went and got a larger pan and sooooo glad I did! So moist, so chocolatey, so heavenly. 🙂 Thank you for another winner!
Very excited to make this for Mother’s Day! I don’t have a loaf pan that large – suggestions on using a smaller loaf pan or pans? Would another type of pan work? Thank you! Love, love, LOVE your recipes!
Hi Jennifer, it all depends on size as that will affect cook time. What kind of pans do you have? N x
Makes sense! I have a regular loaf pan (8.5 x 5 I think – too small, right?) but I do have an 8 x 8 or 7 1/2 by 11 x 2. Too shallow?
The perfect love child of the forbidden threesome… mud cake, brownies and chocolate layered cake. Fantastic! I used milk chocolate chunks and what a treat to come across those melty little flavour bombs. Nagi, you are an alchemist of the highest order.
I have quite a few zucchini from gardening whilst spending extra time at home due to Covid. I have made this bread twice and it is so so good. My three children love it.
O.M.G. This was divine!!! Sooooo fudgy, almost like a brownie only I can pretend it’s healthier because there’s some veggies in it 😉 I totally missed the substitution measurements for baking soda/bi-carb and ended up putting only 1.5 tsp of baking powder in and it still rose up just fine!
Yummy. Making it for the third time this year.
Super yummy! I made them as muffins rather than a loaf and just halved the cooking time and they came out perfect! Love your recipes. Thanks soooo much for so many great ideas!
This tasted absolutely amazing. My three zucchini non-loving man and boys devoured this cake even though they knew it had zucchini in it. I’ll make it again this weekend but will try with slightly less sugar as it was a bit too sweet for us.
I have made several chocolate zucchini recipes in the past and my family have requested I not make them again. I rarely make something my family don’t like, so when they’re not fans I listen! This time I prefaced my intention to bake with “this is a recipe from Nagi.” They agreed to try and were very pleased, will make again.