Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread or Muffins

Bake up a batch of double chocolate zucchini bread with cocoa powder and chocolate chips. You don’t have to tell your family there’s zucchini in this chocolatey bread!

I don’t mean to brag (actually, yes, I'm totally bragging), but I got my kids to eat their vegetables.

How, you ask?

Well, I made a big batch of this dark chocolate chip bread. The zucchini practically melts into the fudge-like batter.

There, it hides out like a vegetable ninja and no one is the wiser. They devour these moist delicious zucchini chocolate bites and they win, I win - we all win!!

So why all the zucchini hoopla?

I planted my first garden this year and it’s been a smashing success! The kids pull carrots before they even become baby carrots, but they do it happily. And my tomatoes are going gangbusters! If yours are too, you’ll want to read my post about what to make with extra tomatoes.

If you've ever had a garden you know that right in line with tomato and cucumber time is zucchini time. My local gardening friends are all trying to find homes for their overabundance of produce. While I didn’t plant any zucchini this year, it turns out I didn’t need to!

My friend Emily has approximately one billion zucchini growing in her garden. She brings zucchini, cucumbers, fresh eggs and other goodies to the local farmers market. Lucky me, she shared zucchini with me so I was glad to put them to use in these double chocolate zucchini bread!

How to make double chocolate zucchini bread

This bread isn’t just zucchini bread with chocolate chips. Oh, no. That would be so….normal.

What we're talking about here is a zucchini recipe that has chocolate chips and cocoa powder. This dynamic duo pairs with the moist zucchini and the tangy, creaminess of yogurt to make every bite a rich, decadent treat. 

With vegetables, of course.

I like to shred the zucchini using the shredder attachment on my food processor. If you really want to get stealthy on sneaking in your veggies, you can use a smaller shredded attachment on your handheld grater. 

For the most part, the zucchini cooks down and is unrecognizable. But if you have very picky eaters (and you know who you are), then smaller is better. Especially if people freak out when they see the teensiest bit of green.

But like I said, for the most part, it's inconspicuous.

After you've shredded your zucchini, place it between two paper towels or a clean dish towel. You're basically making a zucchini sandwich to remove the excess moisture. You don’t have to press it or anything, just let it sit for ten minutes or so while it absorbs the moisture.

Ingredients for Moist Chocolate Zucchini Bread

We're going with super simple ingredients. Nothing fancy here! You'll need:

• Sugar - the plain old white kind
• plain Greek yogurt - you could also use plain yogurt. My preference is whole milk/full fat yogurt
• Vegetable oil - coconut oil is wonderful also
• Vanilla - the real deal - always!
• Eggs
• Flour - all purpose flour. You could use a 50/50 blend of all purpose and whole wheat if you'd like
• Cocoa powder - the regular kind, not Dutch processed
• Baking soda and baking powder - for leavening
• Shredded zucchini - green or yellow work great
• Dark chocolate chips - you can use semi sweet or even milk chocolate if you like it sweeter

From here, it’s really a basic quick bread or muffin recipe!

Mix together your wet ingredients (yogurt, oil, vanilla and eggs) plus your sugar. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and baking powder, salt and chocolate chips.

Add the wet ingredients to your dry ingredients and stir just until combined. Then, gently fold in the zucchini until it’s mixed.

Zucchini Bread Tips

• Let the batter rest for at least 20 minutes. I’m no food scientist, but I did discover that you’ll have a prettier top to your bread or muffins if you let it rest before going right into the oven.

• Speaking of which, you can also make these bread recipe as muffins. You can make this recipe as two loaves of bread, or about 24 muffins. Both are delicious and fun to make!

• I like using dark chocolate for this recipe. It makes the zucchini bread a little more sophisticated, I guess. Even Luke, our 5 year old likes the dark chocolate. But if you’re looking for a sweeter chocolate zucchini bread you can substitute semi sweet or milk chocolate chips.

• Save a few chocolate chips to sprinkle on top before baking!

• You can freeze your double chocolate zucchini bread for three months. Wrap it in plastic wrap before freezing. For easy thawing you can wrap individual slices and pull them for lunches or snacks!

I guess in closing, I should mention a recent development. As I was editing photos for this post, my oldest daughter, Ava,  said with a knowing smile, “I know what you did here, mom.”

Okay, so maybe I’m not as sneaky as I thought I was. But she still ate them, so it’s a win, right?

Other easy bread recipes

• Hawaiian Banana Bread with Coconut and Pineapple
• Carrot Bread
• Easy Banana Bread Muffins
• Mini Blueberry Muffins

Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Deanne Frieders

Bake up a batch of double chocolate zucchini bread with cocoa powder and chocolate chips. You don’t have to tell your family there’s zucchini in this chocolatey bread!

4.67 from 9 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr 55 minutes mins

Resting time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 2 hours hrs 25 minutes mins

Course Bread and Muffin Recipes

Cuisine American

Servings 18 slices

Calories 252 kcal

Ingredients

  

.5x1x2x

• 1 and ½ cups sugar
• ½ cup plain Greek yogurt
• 2 teaspoon vanilla
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs at room temperature
• 2 and ½ cup all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 and ½ cup dark chocolate chips reserve several for topping
• 2 cups shredded zucchini

Instructions

 

• Combine your wet ingredients (yogurt, oil, vanilla and eggs) plus your sugar until well mixed.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and baking powder, salt and chocolate chips.
• Add the wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir just until combined. Then, gently fold in the zucchini until it’s mixed.
• Let the batter rest for 20 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Grease two 8.5" x 4.5" or 9" x 5" loaf pans. Divide the mixture evenly into both pans. Sprinkle a few chocolate chips on top. If you forget, it's not a big deal, it just makes it look extra yummy!
• Bake for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of each loaf comes out clean.
• Cool completely before slicing and enjoying!

Notes

• Let the batter rest for at least 20 minutes. I’m no food scientist, but I did discover that you’ll have a prettier top to your bread or muffins if you let it rest before going right into the oven.
• Speaking of which, you can also make these bread recipe as muffins. You can make this recipe as two loaves of bread, or about 24 muffins. Both are delicious and fun to make!
• I like using dark chocolate for this recipe. If you’re looking for a sweeter chocolate zucchini bread you can substitute semi sweet or milk chocolate chips.
• Save a few chocolate chips to sprinkle on top before baking.
• You can freeze your double chocolate zucchini bread for three months. Wrap it in plastic wrap before freezing. For easy thawing you can wrap individual slices and pull them for lunches or snacks.
• Makes 8x5 loaves or approximately 24 muffins.

Nutrition

Serving: 1gramsCalories: 252kcalCarbohydrates: 40gProtein: 5gFat: 9gSaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 19mgSodium: 152mgFiber: 2gSugar: 22g

This Farm Girl Cooks is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories and other nutritional values can vary quite a bit depending on which brands were used.

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