chocolate zucchini bread

This bread. Oh! This bread! I've made this bread a thousand times. The page in my cookbook is slightly floured and smeared with chocolate and has many notes written in the margins. (This one. It's great.) I've made it to eat with ice cream. I've made it for work friends where it got divvied up on the break room table. I've made it for new-mama friends, where we ate it on the floor and tried to keep the wee babes from kicking it with their uncoordinated newborn feet. I've made it for family. I've made it just because.

The recipe is fantastic - it makes two loaves, so you can have one to devour right away and one to share with friends. (Or stash in the freezer for a later chocolate emergency.) I love recipes that make two loaves. It's no more effort but twice the reward! I've tweaked it a bit for my personal preferences and, as I am wont to do, to make it just a trifle healthier. Just a trifle. I've cut down on the oil and sugar and added just the teeniest bit of whole wheat flour. We use locally grown and milled whole wheat (yum!) that tends to be a bit on the coarse side, so you may be able to get away with adding a bit more if you use regular old store bought whole wheat. (As most do!)

It's a great way to use up any wayward zucchinis that have become a little long in the tooth. Or buy one especially for this recipe - you won't regret it!

chocolate zucchini bread
adapted from The Classic Zucchini Cookbook

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups grated zucchini (approximately 1 medium zucchini)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Lightly grease, or spray with non-stick spray, two 5x9 inch loaf pans.

Combine sugar, eggs and oil in a large bowl or the bowl of a mixer. Beat until well blended, then stir in zucchini and vanilla.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Add the flour mixture to the zucchini mixture and stir to combine.

Add chocolate chips and stir until relatively evenly distributed. Pour batter into prepared pans and bake for 50-60 minutes or until a tester inserted in the middle of a loaf comes out clean.

Cool breads in their pans on wire racks for ten minutes, then turn out onto racks and cool completely.