Chocolate zucchini bread that’s incredibly moist, not too sweet, and packed with chocolate chips. The grated zucchini dissolves as it bakes – leaving you with a delicious chocolate loaf that’s deliciously tender. 
You can think of this chocolate zucchini bread as the most deliciously tender chocolate loaf you’ve ever tried. It’s dense, moist, and chocolate-y without tasting too much like dessert. If you love banan bread or carrot loaf – then this is exactly the recipe you need to try.
Zucchini Bread – What Makes it So Good???
If you’re not familiar with baking with zucchini – here’s the rundown:
- It adds moisture to baked goods making them tender, moist, and perfectly soft.
- As it bakes, it breaks down/disintegrates – so there’s no pieces or chunks left.
- It’s the perfect way to use up fresh garden zucchini
- Zucchini is basically flavorless – so in this chocolate zucchini bread you don’t taste it at all. Just delicious chocolate goodness.
For this chocolate zucchini bread, you’ll notice that we’re using cocoa powder for the chocolate flavor. In some recipes I don’t specify using Dutch process or natural cocoa powder. However, I found that the loaf rose much better when I used natural cocoa powder in the recipe. 
As well – like any loaf/bread recipe, the batter will be thick. This means you need to be very careful not to over mix it. Mixing the batter too much can lead to a tough, dry zucchini bread. A few lumps in the batter is totally normal and totally ok.
Tips for Baking Zucchini Bread
With any recipe made in a loaf pan – the baking time can always be a little tricky. Oven times can vary anywhere from 10-20%, so if your bake time is 50 minutes, that’s a lot of variation between ovens. So – here are my tips:
- To prevent over browning, use a light colored loaf pan.
- Bake the loaf on the middle rack of your oven.
- If it looks like the top is browning too much but the inside isn’t anywhere near done yet, tent a piece of aluminum foil over top and continue baking.
- When the loaf is done, if you touch the top with your fingers it should feel slightly firm/springy. An inserted toothpick should come out clean or with melted chocolate chips.
- I baked my loaf in an 8 ½ by 4 ½ inch loaf pan. Using a larger loaf pan will decrease the baking time.
Moist, chocolate filled, not too sweet, and totally tender – this chocolate zucchini bread just might be the best way to get in your veggies 😉 
Got even more zucchini? Try these other recipes:
- Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread – a lightly spiced loaf filled with chocolate chips
- Zucchini Banana Bread – for a tender loaf recipe that’s the best of both worlds
- Zucchini Cake – easy, cinnamon filled, and topped with cream cheese frosting
Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups grated zucchini*
- 1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter , melted
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Line the bottom of an 8 ½ by 4 ½ inch loaf pan with parchment paper, then grease and flour the sides.
- Gently blot the grated zucchini with a paper towel to remove excess water.
- In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.
- In a large bowl whisk together the melted butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla extract until there are no chunks of sugar.
- Gently fold the flour mixture into the oil mixture.
- Once almost combined, stir in the grated zucchini.
- Fold in the chocolate chips.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake for 45-55 minutes until the top is firm to the touch and an inserted toothpick comes out clean (except for melted chocolate chips).
- Cool fully before cutting into slices.
Notes
You say to mix oil into the recipe but no oil is listed in the ingredient list?
My apologies – that should have said melted butter. I’ve adjusted it now
These turned out great and my toddlers loved them! They don’t have to know about the zucchini! Even my teenager who turned her nose up at the thought of vegetables in her chocolate came back for seconds!! My only modification was swapping oil for the melted butter (due to dairy intolerance) and baking them as mini muffins. I will definitely make them again! Thanks!
This was a great recipe! I also changed it to muffins. I added the calories and it is a bit higher than I like – has anyone tried to reduce the butter or sugar?
I substituted trivia brown sugar blend, and white whole wheat flour, to reduce calories and boost the nutritional value. I also used coconut oil because I wanted it to be nondairy
Do you have to ring out the zucchini after grating? I am just not sure how dry the zucchini needs to be…..Thank you 🙂
You don’t need to ring it out per se, but you need to blot it with paper towel to remove the excess liquid. It doesn’t need to be bone dry, but you don’t want to include any pools of liquid that can be left in your measuring cup, or whatever you grated the zucchini on.
Hands down the very best chocolate zucchini bread that I ever tasted.
I did add a little espresso powder to the batter.
It is a keeper.
Do you need to let it cool in the pans,before removing.
I would let it cool in the pan for at least 30 minutes – otherwise, it can lose its shape. You can speed up the process by placing it in the fridge on a wire rack.
I just made this today with a few adjustments and I doubled the recipe to make 2 loaves .
I used more cocoa powder as I didn’t have chocolate chips . I substituted the melted butter for coconut oil . I omitted the vanilla and added ground cinnamon and ground cloves . I added some grated carrots for sweetness as I didn’t have brown sugar so I used 1/2 the amount of white granulated sugar . It turned out delicious and moist and not overly sweet but sweet enough . I will definitely make this again .