When life gives you zucchini bake this chocolate zucchini bread and when life gives you carrots bake this carrot cake. If you are a member of Costco or other such membership warehouse clubs, you might have understood what I'm trying to tell. For those who haven't heard about Costco, it's a store which sells products at low prices but at very high volume, which is usually preferred by large families and businesses. To make it more clear, if you pay $3 for 2lbs of carrots in your regular grocery store, you would be paying the same for 10lbs in Costco. Of course it's a steal but what to do with the 5 kilos of carrots or 3 kilos of zucchini in a family of 3 adults and 1 kid? Then you might ask me, why do you buy it when you think that it's too much.
The reply would be "you haven't met my husband yet". However precise the list can be, he doesn't fail to surprise me each and every time he does the groceries. Either he forgets to buy something, or will buy something which I haven't mentioned or will get kilos of 1 item in the list, like the time he got carrots and zucchini. With a newborn at home it's not as easy as it used to be for me to go shopping. These days I have 2 columns in the list, one for vegetables/fruits to be bought and the other for vegetables not to be bought and another column for lot of instructions. Believe me or not I'm actually spending more time on writing the list than cooking because it has to be so specific otherwise I end up having a store of my own. The time he bought 10 pounds of carrots I literally started crying especially when he started justifying that I should consider this an opportunity to cook/bake something new and blog about it. I wonder if all husbands are bestowed with this unique trait.
So I was going through a couple of recipe sites to get some ideas and finally decided to bake a chocolate zucchini bread. I also tried a zucchini kheer (pudding) which came out very good. I'll blog about that in VegCorner. I tried this bread recipe with few changes to make it healthier. I'm a fan of whole wheat pastry flour and have found that it works best with chocolate/cocoa powder. So I switched the all purpose flour with whole wheat pastry flour, replaced some of the fat with unsweetened applesauce and reduced the quantity of chocolate chips by using the mini chips. All in all, it was one tasty bread and I was able to give this for my son's breakfast without thinking twice. The only change I would make the next time I bake this chocolate zucchini bread is using a smaller loaf pan instead of the 9x5 inch pan because the bread did not rise like the other quick breads I have baked so far.
Recipe
Chocolate Zucchini Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 and ½ cups Shredded Zucchini
- 1 cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
- ½ cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- ½ teaspoon Baking Powder
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- ¼ teaspoon Ground Allspice
- ¼ cup Oil
- ¼ cup Unsweetened Applesauce
- ½ cup Granulated White Sugar
- ½ cup Brown Sugar
- 6-8 tablespoons Buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- ¼ cup Semi sweet, mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F/180C for 15 minutes. Lightly grease an 8x4 inch loaf pan (See Note 1). I also lined it with a piece of parchment paper to enable easy removal of the loaf from the pan.
- Grate the zucchini and keep it aside. In a large mixing bowl combine flour, cocoa powder, leaveners, salt and spice.
- In another medium size bowl beat together the oil, applesauce, both the sugars, buttermilk and vanilla extract.
- Fold in the grated zucchini with the wet ingredients.
- To this add the flour mixture and beat it until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared loaf pan and bake it between 55-65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean. Mine was done in about 58 minutes.
- Transfer the pan from the oven and place it on a wire rack. Remove the bread from the pan after 10 minutes and let it cool completely before you can slice it. Leaving the bread to cool overnight is preferable.
My Notes
- I used a 9x5 inch pan and felt that the bread did not rise as expected because the recipe was too small for that size pan. That's why I have suggested to use an 8x4 pan instead. I'm not sure whether it's the pan size or the use of whole wheat pastry flour instead of all purpose flour.
- If you are a spice fan, go ahead and add about ½ a teaspoon of ground cinnamon as well to make this chocolate zucchini bread more aromatic.
linnyninja says
Wow this looks amazing... totally going to make these this afternoon:)
Adi says
Mmmmmmm...
Sarita says
Hello
Thanks for the great tasting recipes I added 2 tbsps of black chia seeds, 2 tbsps of ground roasted flax, used rice milk, apple cider vinegar raw for the vinegar substitute, 1/4 c. More cocoa, yes I doubled the recipe, used the mini muffin tins, used conventional oven 10 mins at 350. These freeze well and make tasty school snacks. Thanks for the vegan recipes .
Sarita
Madhuram says
You're welcome Sarita.
Rupa Lakshminarayan says
Hi Madhu
I compared your recipe list with the "joy of baking" website from where you said you got the original recipe
baking powder per you = 1/2 tsp
baking powder per joy website = 1/4 tsp
why the difference when all other things are the same
thanks
- Rupa
Madhuram says
The original recipe uses 2 eggs which I have replaced with applesauce, buttermilk and increased the quantity of baking powder. Usually while using pureed fruit as an egg substitute it is suggested to increase the quantity of baking powder (not too much though because it will become bitter) to compensate for the dense texture the pureed fruit gives.
Kim says
Oh, and it rose quite nicely in an 8 x 4 pan. I am not used to seeing eggless recipes rise like that! I have an egg allergy, and your site has helped me enjoy my favorite yummies! Thanks again!
Madhuram says
Thanks for giving it a shot Kim.
Kim says
I have been eyeballing this recipe since you posted it, and I finally made it today. It is soooooo delicious! I can't stop eating it! I added a little flaxmeal and squeezed my zucchini just a little. It was so moist! I think I probably could have squeezed a little more juice out of the zucchini to make it a little drier...I can use this recipe to satisfy my craving for brownies in a much healthier way! Thanks for posting!!!!
Denise says
can you tell me what I can use instead of buttermilk? I don't have any on hand. Also, would it be okay to use sweetened cocoa? Would I use less sugar?
Erin says
Hi Denise,
I never have buttermilk on hand, so when I made this recipe I added a little bit of white vinegar to the milk and let it sit for a couple minutes.
Erin says
Hello! I tried out this recipe last night and decided to make it into muffins. I used a large muffin tin and the recipe made 8 servings, and only took 20 minutes to bake to perfection! Thank you for the great recipe!
Madhuram says
You're welcome Erin. Its good to know that it works out in muffins tins as well.
Pushpa Bhargava says
Really it was a yummy combination.. I wanna taste it...
So,
Sandhya says
Madhuram
I absolutely love your website. I have now made the zuchinni and banana bread and the blueberry muffins several times - we love them. I am trying this one tonight. I will let you know how it goesThank you so much for giving us so many great recipes. My son has several food allergies which is what led me to your site. Thank you.
Madhuram says
You're welcome Sandhya. I'm happy that your son can enjoy these baked goods.
Anuradha says
Hi Madhu,
I tried this receipe. The taste is good. But the texture is like brownie and not like bread. The inner part is moist. I used a 8*4 pan and left it cool down all over night. But stil when I cut it the knife is not clear. I bought the whole wheat pastry in loose and not in a packet. I thought this may be the reason. Where and what brand whole wheat pastry flour do you buy?
spice says
Hi dear, first of all congrats for your new born, I don't think I've visited U in a long time....now when U talk about husband doing grocerries I totally agree with U....me too always write what not to buy because he's like a kid in a candy store when he's in the fresh produce section(a secret me too same but I justify all my purchases...lol..)another thing in my case b eready to get atleast 10 phone calls from griocerry store that sometime I feel why did I send him for grocerries......so enjoy your experiments with zuchini/carrots and whatever else life(read husband) gives U(read buys for U)....bread looks good....
jayasree says
Hi madhura
Can u help me one of my question. I had tasted so many pastries ii
in india. I like pastries very much than cakes. My question is
what is the difference between cake and pastry. Can u post any pas
pastry in your site for pastry lovers like me.
Madhuram says
Jayashree, pastries can be a general term and it also includes cakes, tarts etc. I think you would have tasted desserts using pastry dough, which is a dough made with all purpose flour, butter/shortening etc. This dough is the base for many things like pies, danishes, tarts etc. This dough can be used for savory (like our Indian vegetable puffs) and sweets too. This rolled out dough is called puff pastry and is available in the frozen desserts section in almost all supermarkets. I'll try to post some recipes using them too.
NSG says
hey! Happy new year (though very late)
have been to India.. good to see you back in action 🙂
This bread looks awesome and very inviting!
renu says
I baked this today for Valentine's..came out so good. Thank you!