Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Every year my garden treats us to a plethora of zucchini. As a matter of fact, we have so much zucchini that we have to give it away. Which means that by the end of the season, every time I walk out of my house with grocery bags full of garden zucchini, the sound of slamming shutters and blinds by my neighbors can be heard up and down the street. Yes, by October, even the neighbors are over it.

But, I love zucchini bread, but I also like to cut calories when I can, as long as I can come up with a palatable solution. Many years ago I took a traditional recipe and completely revamped it. I recently was craving a chocolate fix and added cocoa powder to my recipe. After all, chocolate is full of surprising health benefits, and the result was delicious.

I do love the taste of the rich dark chocolate, but I’m a purist, so the amount of sugar in the recipe is still much lower than a traditional recipe, so you can enjoy guilt-free chocolate zucchini bread.

Ingredients: 

4 cups grated zucchini

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

3/4 cup vegetable oil

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp lemon peel

3 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup organic cacao powder

 Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, beat together zucchini, sugar, and egg. Add cooking oil and mix well.

In another bowl, stir together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, nutmeg, baking powder, and lemon peel. Stir dry ingredients into the zucchini mixture.

Spray an 8 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ x 2″ baking dish with nonstick cooking spray, and pour batter into pan. NOTE: The batter might seem a bit dry at first, but trust me, the bread ends up being incredibly moist, especially if you are using garden fresh zucchini. Bake for 60-70 minutes, until a toothpick or small knife inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean.

Cool of a cooling rack. When cool, remove from pan, wrap wrap with cling wrap and store in the refrigerator. But, you won’t need to store it for long, because it is that good! Enjoy!