Chocolate Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

I organized a trip to the beautiful Lyman Orchards, an hour away, in excitement for blueberry picking at the recommendation of one of my residents. On Friday, I had called and confirmed it was blueberry season on their automated system. The next day, waking up early on Saturday, we found out Friday had been the last day of blueberry season, and blueberry picking was closed!

Although bummed, we didn’t let that stop us. Blueberry picking turned into zucchini picking. Like 6 pound zucchini picking.  I had never seen zucchini plants, and never such monster squashes. Each squash was longer than my entire arm!

The concept of zucchini bread is pretty bizarre (as B says, no veggies in my bread/cake/muffins!), especially when you put the words “chocolate” and “zucchini” together. But B admitted this Chocolate Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread, adapted from Joy of Baking, was pretty good. So good you couldn’t even taste the vegetables. So good that B even upgraded it to calling it a brownie.

That’s probably the highest honor one can bestow on a zucchini bread.

Grating this beast of a squash was a nightmare. It took me 1 hour to grate just half of the zucchini, and half was enough for a triple batch of chocolate zucchini bread! The rate limiting factor was the number (and size) of loaf pans. I had one loaf pan…but the zucchini alone was 3-4x bigger than the pan.

This was the last thing I baked before our lovely 2 week vacation (more about that later!) – one batch was eaten in Connecticut, one batch was brought to California for B’s family, and one batch was brought to Texas for my family. Just sharing some Connecticut orchard (labor of) love with the rest of the US.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups shredded raw zucchini
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder, sifted
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup semi sweet or bittersweet chocolate chips
2 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a loaf pan (makes 1 loaf)

Grate the zucchini, using a medium sized grater. Set aside.

In a large bowl combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Fold in the chocolate chips, coating with the dry ingredients (prevents chips from sinking).

In another large bowl beat the eggs. Add the oil, sugar, and vanilla extract and beat until well blended. Fold in the grated zucchini and flour mixture, stirring just until combined. Pour batter into loaf pan and bake until the bread has risen and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 55 to 60 minutes (do not overbake). Cool for about 10 minutes, run a knife around the edges, then remove the bread from the pan. It’s best to cut when the bread has fully cooled. Enjoy!