You know what the nice thing about zucchini is?

Ummmmm....

Well, for one thing, you don't have to peel it.

And it's got a pretty neutral flavor, so it doesn't clash with the tomatoes on your shish-kebab, or the onions and Parmesan in your frittata.

Plus it grows really, really easily.

And very, very fast.

To say nothing of extremely large.

Put it all together, and you have every home gardener's "favorite" time of the year:

The annual Zucchini Attack, a.k.a. Season of the Unfettered Mammoth Squash.

Luckily, there are plenty of ways to think about zucchini, other than as the biggest garden pest ever.

In fact, we offer over 2 dozen recipes for your fresh-picked zukes at our online recipe site - including our most-Pinned recipe ever, Baked Zucchini Sticks and Sweet Onion Dip.

The following recipe takes advantage of zucchini's aforementioned neutral flavor, plus its soft texture, to create nicely dense, dark-chocolate bread. Semisweet chips create soft little pools of fudge that complement the bread's nicely moist texture very well, thank you.

Are you ready to back off dissing your zukes, and put them to tasty use?

Try our Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread. And our Parmesan-scented Zucchini-Cheese Pancakes. And Chocolate Zucchini Cake.

But let's go with the bread first, OK?

Preheat the oven to 350°F; lightly grease an 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf pan.

Did you know that by clicking anywhere on this block of pictures, you can enlarge them to full size? Go ahead, give it a try; it'll work for any of our gridded photos.

Mix the following in a large bowl, beating until smooth:

2 large eggs
1/3 cup (113g) honey
1/2 cup (99g) vegetable oil
1/2 cup (106g) brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Add the following, stirring to combine:

1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon espresso powder, optional
1/3 cup (28g) King Arthur All-Purpose Baking Cocoa or Dutch-process cocoa
1 2/3 cups (202g) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

Stir in 1 cup (170g) chocolate chips, and 2 cups (242 to 300g) shredded, unpeeled zucchini, gently pressed into the cup; this will be about 1 medium-small (8" or so) zuke.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake the bread for 65 to 75 minutes, until the loaf tests done.

A toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center will come out clean, save for perhaps a light smear of chocolate from the melted chips.

Remove the bread from the oven, and let it cool for 10 to 15 minutes before loosening the edges...

...and turning it out of the pan onto a rack.

Cool completely before slicing; store well-wrapped, at room temperature.

A smear of Nutella wouldn't be amiss...

Read, bake, and review (please) our recipe for Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread.

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About PJ Hamel

PJ Hamel grew up in New England, graduated from Brown University, and was an award-winning Maine journalist (favorite topics: sports and food) before joining King Arthur Flour in 1990. Hired to write the newly launched Baker’s Catalogue, PJ became the small but growing company’s sixth employee.&nbsp...
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Comments

JT

July 24, 2017 at 9:22am

I never know if the recipes I see with shredded zucchini (or carrot for that matter) needs to be squeezed of excess water before being added to the recipe. Does the zucchini need to be drained before adding to the batter?
The Baker's Hotline

July 24, 2017 at 3:08pm

Hi JT, good question. The zucchini should be shredded and then gently pressed, which means slightly drained. You want the zucchini to still be moist to the touch, but there should be excess liquid that collects in the bottom of the bowl after shredded. (Discard this liquid before adding it to the rest of the ingredients.) 2 cups of zucchini should weigh about 12 ounces, if that helps give you a point of reference. Happy baking! Kye@KAF
The Baker's Hotline

June 6, 2017 at 12:35pm

Good question, Sherry. Other bakers often wonder about using self-rising flour in recipe that call for all-purpose, so we decided to do some testing and compile our findings into one blog post, which you can read here. We've found that in order to substitute self-rising flour, a recipe should call for at least about ½ teaspoon of baking power per cup of flour at minimum. Since the Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread recipe only uses 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder total, it's not a good opportunity to make the swap or else you'll have far too much leavener in your bread. If you're looking for ways to use up your self-rising flour, consider making one of these tasty recipes. Happy baking! Kye@KAF

The Baker's Hotline

April 25, 2017 at 4:36pm

Linda, in some cases you can use brewed coffee instead of the liquid in the recipe. Since this recipe doesn't have any added liquid to it, you may want to consider leaving it out or you can try using instant coffee powder instead. Sometimes the granules in instant coffee don't dissolve as evenly and don't produce as robust a flavor as espresso powder, but you're welcome to give it a shot if you like! Kye@KAF
Linda

April 12, 2017 at 8:42pm

You mentioned Dutch processed cocoa. I have heard that antiocident power is greatly reduced in Dutch processed. Do you think of o used Hershey's baking cocoa powder it would change the flavor that badly, or the resulting loaf?

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