Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Last Updated August 30, 2024

IMG_3532.jpg

It’s zucchini season!

Don’t ask me why, but I am always surprised when summer rolls around and so do all the mountains of ripe zucchini…I associate zucchini with fall and winter dishes. Why? No idea. Especially when I look back over my childhood, and my mom almost always had zucchini growing in her garden (they would get huge and there would be so many, who wants zucchini???) Ah, the things we take for granted! Summer dinners would often see zucchini battered in flour and fried up over the griddle.

Now that I live in Italy, I always see the zucchini blossoms battered and fried. It’s a favorite appetizer in restaurants come summer. In fact, more often than not zucchini are sold with the blossoms still attached. Or you can buy just the blossoms. I rarely batter and fry things at home and haven’t bothered to discover other ways of using them, so I have to be careful because the blossoms go moldy much quicker than the zucchini itself! The zucchini are also quite small and light in color, at least compared to the monster dark green baseball bats that used to grow in my mom’s garden.

With the abundance of zucchini around, or any produce, I tend to start looking for new ways to cook them or improving current recipes. While I love zucchini in a stir-fry, with pasta, in risotto, pan-fried like my mama’s, etc., I wanted something different. Zucchini bread came to mind. But not just classic zucchini bread. I wanted chocolate zucchini bread. Double chocolate zucchini bread.

Thus this recipe was born, and if you’re at the point where you’re getting sick of all the zucchini, this is the recipe for you. You won’t even know there is zucchini in it. It’s chocolatey, fudgy, not overly sweet, and just exactly what I was wanting.

Aside from having vegetables in it, it doesn’t have much oil, using half yogurt or applesauce instead, keeping the calories and fat content down. If you’re concerned about cholesterol, you can also use egg whites instead of the whole egg! See notes below recipe for more ideas to customize this bread to your tastes and needs.

Use up sourdough discard

Another great thing about this recipe? You can use up some sourdough discard that may be lurking in your fridge. No need to feed it or for it to be active at all, just make sure it hasn’t gone bad! Sometimes my discard sits up to 2-3 weeks in my fridge before I get to it. The longer it sits the more sour it will taste/smell, but even using a 3 week old discard I couldn’t have told you there was any in this zucchini bread! It can help bulk up recipes like this and add a little fermented nutrition!

This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase using these links, Jennyblogs may receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you. This helps to support Jennyblogs. For further information see the privacy policy. Grazie!

Recipe adapted from my mama’s classic zucchini bread


Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Makes 1 loaf

IMG_3541.jpg

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup / 100g sugar

  • 1/4 cup / 56g oil

  • 1/4 cup / 60g plain yogurt or applesauce

  • 1 egg or 2 egg whites

  • 1 tsp / 5g vanilla extract

  • about 1/2 cup / 100g sourdough discard, optional

  • 1 1/2 cups / 250g grated zucchini (about 2 medium)

  • 1 cup / 120g all-purpose flour

  • 1/2 cup / 50g cocoa powder

  • 1 tsp baking soda

  • 1/2 tsp salt

  • 1/4 tsp baking powder

  • 1 cup / 170g chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F / 177°C. Grease 1 9x5inch / 23x13cm bread pan or line with parchment paper.

  1. In a large bowl, beat together sugar, oil, yogurt, egg, vanilla, and sourdough discard, if using. Stir in zucchini.

  2. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, and baking powder.

  3. Fold dry ingredients and chocolate chips into wet ingredients until just combined. Reserve a handful of chocolate chips for sprinkling on top, if you wish.

  4. Pour into prepared bread pan, sprinkle with remaining chocolate chips, and bake in preheated oven for 40-45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean. A few moist crumbs clinging to the toothpick is a good sign the bread is done but still moist! Allow to bread to cool before removing from pan and serving.

Jenny’s Notes:

  • If you desire a sweeter bread, you can up the sugar to 1 cup / 200g.

  • I know not everyone has plain yogurt on hand, so if you have French Vanilla or another flavor you wouldn’t mind mixing with chocolate, use that! Flavored yogurt has added sugar, so if that is important to you to keep the sugar down, simply reduce the sugar from 1/2 cup / 100g to a scant 1/2 cup / 80-90g.

  • Zucchini quantity can be played with! My mom’s original recipe calls for 1 cup, but here I’ve increased it to 1 1/2 cups. If you can’t detect the veggies, why not add more so you get maximum nutrition? On that note, measuring grated, sliced, or cubed veggies by weight is always a bit tricky. From my research, the average medium zucchini weighs about 5oz or 140g, so if you’re buying zucchini specifically for this recipe, you’ll probably want to get 2, making a bit more than 1 1/2 cups, but that’s ok! I would use it all. Or just get one zucchini that’s a bit bigger. However you please, as I said it’s flexible! And I just way over-analyzed that for you. You’re welcome.

Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Yield 1 loaf
Author
Prep time
20 Min
Cook time
45 Min
Total time
1 H & 5 M

Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Fudgy, chocolatey zucchini bread loaded with chocolate chips. A sneaky way to get in more vegetables and you can even use up some sourdough discard with this recipe!
Cook modePrevent screen from turning off

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F / 177°C. Grease 1 9x5inch / 23x13cm bread pan or line with parchment paper.
  2. In a large bowl, beat together sugar, oil, yogurt, egg, vanilla, and sourdough discard, if using. Stir in zucchini.
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, and baking powder.
  4. Fold dry ingredients and chocolate chips into wet ingredients until just combined. Reserve a handful of chocolate chips for sprinkling on top, if you wish.
  5. Pour into prepared bread pan, sprinkle with remaining chocolate chips, and bake in preheated oven for 40-45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean. A few moist crumbs clinging to the toothpick is a good sign the bread is done but still moist! Allow to bread to cool before removing from pan and serving.

Notes

If you desire a sweeter bread, you can up the sugar to 1 cup / 200g.I know not everyone has plain yogurt on hand, so if you have French Vanilla or another flavor you wouldn’t mind mixing with chocolate, use that! Flavored yogurt has added sugar, so if that is important to you to keep the sugar down, simply reduce the sugar from 1/2 cup / 100g to a scant 1/2 cup / 80-90g. Zucchini quantity can be played with! My mom’s original recipe calls for 1 cup, but here I’ve increased it to 1 1/2 cups. If you can’t detect the veggies, why not add more so you get maximum nutrition? On that note, measuring grated, sliced, or cubed veggies by weight is always a bit tricky. From my research, the average medium zucchini weighs about 5oz or 140g, so if you’re buying zucchini specifically for this recipe, you’ll probably want to get 2, making a bit more than 1 1/2 cups, but that’s ok! I would use it all. Or just get one zucchini that’s a bit bigger. However you please, as I said it’s flexible! And I just way over-analyzed that for you. You’re welcome.

Nutrition Facts

Calories

277.93

Fat

13.31 g

Sat. Fat

4.04 g

Carbs

38.03 g

Fiber

2.86 g

Net carbs

35.17 g

Sugar

22.45 g

Protein

4.65 g

Sodium

291.43 mg

Cholesterol

21.07 mg

Nutritional information is approximate; based on roughly 9 slices from 1 loaf. Does not include using sourdough discard.

zucchini bread, quick bread, sourdough discard, low fat recipe, double chocolate zucchini bread
bread, dessert
American
Did you make this recipe?
Tag @jennyblogsandbakes on instagram and hashtag it #jennyblogs
A zucchini lurking in the background, for proof there truly is zucchini in this bread

A zucchini lurking in the background, for proof there truly is zucchini in this bread