When we were kids, we had a huge garden and zucchini was always in abundance, so zucchini bread was always something we had around. You wouldn't think to make a bread with it, but it really is delicious! I've cut down on the calories by substituting with some healthier ingredients, so it only seems sinful, but really its a healthy snack or breakfast and a great way to get the kids to eat their zucchini!
In a large bowl, start with 2 cups all-purpose flour and add to it 1/2 teaspoon of each, baking soda and baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon of salt.
In a smaller bowl, mix together sugar, eggs and vegetable oil. Notice there's no butter??
And the secret ingredient, some Greek yogurt, yes yogurt. I've been on a Greek yogurt kick lately and finding some great recipes to use it with. I saw a similar recipe in Food & Wine Magazine and made a few minor adjustments. You'll be amazed at how moist this bread is!
Whisk together the wet ingredients (plus the sugar) until smooth and creamy.
Stir into the dry ingredients and mix well.
I easily grated 2 good sized zucchini in the food processor. You can use as little or a lot of zucchini in this recipe, I like to use a lot, so I used 2, which came out to almost 3 cups.
OK, I didn't say this was fat-free, but it is still pretty healthy by using dark chocolate chips! We cut down on the amount of sugar since we are adding chocolate, so it evens out. Stir in the dark chocolate chips.
Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray. I decided to make a few mini muffins for my mini-me, they're perfect size for her, you can just pour the entire mix into the loaf pan.
Sprinkle Pumpkin Pie Blend over the top of the bread.
And a little bit of sugar to form a nice crust while baking. Pop it in a 325 degree(f) oven for about an hour and 10 minutes, stick a toothpick in and if it comes out clean, then pull the bread out. If its still sticky, then keep it in for a few more minutes, until the stick comes out clean.
Whoa!! If you could smell the house right now.........Now is when you need to exercise a little restraint. It needs to cool for about 10 minutes, before you take it out of the pan and eat the whole thing.
But.....if you decided to make mini muffins, then you wouldn't need to wait...notice there are only 6......Ha I swear I didn't all 6, but I did eat 3 :)
Look at that! You can see the chocolate and little bits of zucchini throughout the bread. And it has a beautiful crust on the top. You won't believe how moist this bread is, seriously!
How cute are these muffins? Don't too attached to them, they end up in your belly pretty quick :)
RECIPE
CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI BREAD
Prep Time: 10 Minutes | Cook Time: 1 Hour, 10 Minutes | Difficulty: Easy | Servings: 1 Loaf |
Ingredients:
Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees(f). Spray loaf pan with cooking spray.
In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
In a smaller bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs, vegetable oil and Greek yogurt until smooth and creamy.
Combine wet ingredients with dry ingredients, then fold in zucchini and chocolate chips.
Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
Sprinkle top with Pumpkin Pie Blend and sugar.
Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Stick a toothpick or sharp knife in the center of bread, if it comes out clean, pull bread out. If still sticky, continue to bake for a couple minutes until stick comes out clean.
Let rest for 10 minutes, then pop out of loaf pan.
Comments will be approved before showing up.