Yum! Chocolate Zucchini Bread! It's delicious, chocolatey, moist and full of flavor. It is quick and easy to make- the hardest part is waiting while it bakes! We love these as a snack or dessert!
This bread is great year round, but is especially popular in the late summer and early fall when zucchini is in season. For other zucchini recipes, check out our Roasted Zucchini, Zucchini Fritters, and Zucchini Pizza
For other fun bread recipes, try our tasty homemade Banana Bread.
Ingredients
Below is a list of ingredients needed for this recipe. Follow our tips on each ingredient for best results.
- Sugar, Brown Sugar, Butter and Eggs - we tested the recipe repeatedly until we had the perfect amount of these ingredients for the best texture and flavor.
- Vanilla - I always use pure vanilla, but you could get away with imitation in this recipe as vanilla is not a highlighted flavor.
- Four - We used regular, all-purpose flour in this recipe.
- Cocoa Powder - This recipe was tested over and over again to get the perfect amount of chocolate flavor.
- Baking Powder and Baking Soda - We also tested the recipe to ensure the perfect rise and texture with these ingredients.
- Cinnamon - It's just a hint of cinnamon and brings out the other flavors and goes so well with the zucchini.
- Salt - We used regular table salt.
- Zucchini - We tested this recipe until we reached the perfect amount of zucchini. We wanted to use as much as we could without it overwhelming the other elements.
How to Make Chocolate Zucchini Bread
I start these similarly to how I start cookies. Preheat the oven then combine the softened butter and sugar in a bowl and beat on high until creamed together. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat on high for 1 more minute, until light and fluffy. In a separate bowl, add all dry ingredients and whisk lightly to combine. Finely grate the zucchini and add to wet ingredients and stir until just barely combined. Add the dry ingredients and stir just until combined. Be careful not to over mix! Put in a greased loaf pan and bake at 350* F for 40 minutes.
Variations and Substitutions
We love switching things up when we're in the kitchen. Try any of these variations for something a little different.
- Lower sugar and butter Chocolate Zucchini Bread - reduce butter to 6 Tablespoons, and sugars to ⅓ cup white sugar and ⅓ cup brown sugar. Increase grated zucchini to 1 ½ cups.
- Extra Zucchini - Add an extra ¾ cup of zucchini for 2 cups total added zucchini. Just make sure to squeeze the water out of 1 cup of the zucchini.
- Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread - Add ½ cup semi sweet chocolate chips or chocolate chunks at the end.
- Dark Chocolate - add an extra 2 Tablespoons cocoa powder, and reduce the flour by 2 Tablespoons to make ⅞ cup flour.
- Chocolate Zucchini Cake - Double the recipe and bake in a 9X9 pan then cover with your favorite chocolate frosting or even better- we recommend chocolate ganache. (find our favorite ganache recipe on our copycat Cosmic Brownies)
Top Tips
If you like more of the zucchini texture, feel free to grate the zucchini with a medium sized grater. We prefer the subtle texture of finely grated zucchini.
When you add the zucchini to the wet ingredients it can look a little gross. It's okay, just keep going.
hese freeze beautifully and are absolutely fabulous thawed frozen.
I never peel my zucchini, but if you want to, you certainly can.
Be careful not to over bake the zucchini bread or it will be dry and crumbly instead of moist and tender. It's done when the top is matte and an inserted toothpick comes out clean or with a few crumbs.
Recipe
The BEST Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Ingredients
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup butter softened
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup flour
- ⅓ cup cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ cups finely grated zucchini
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350*F.
- Combine the softened butter and sugar in a bowl and beat on high until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
- Add the eggs and vanilla and beat on high for 1 more minute.
- In a separate bowl, add all dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt) and whisk lightly to combine.
- Finely grate the zucchini and add to wet ingredients and stir until just barely combined.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir just until combined. Be careful not to over mix! See photo above to check consistency.
- Put in a greased 9x5 loaf pan and bake at 350* F for 40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Sue says
Oh My Gosh! This is soooooo good! I made 2 loaves last Saturday, planning to take it to work on Tuesday. Well, I ate half of a loaf before . I have made many of the recipes from this blog and taken them to work. I use my co-workers as my "guinea pigs" and they are very happy.
JC says
This was really good. Chocolate zucchini bread I've had in the past has been a little oily and heavy, but this was light and fluffy. Very good.
Sammi says
This chocolate zucchini bread really is THE best! Perfectly sweet, perfectly chocolatey.