Hah! Once again, we’re kicking off the summer with a zucchini beast producing far more than we can eat. Fortunately, we have recipes like this one that use lots of zucchini, and we have friends and neighbors who happily accept the baked goods made from them. This chocolate zucchini bread, for example, uses 4 whole cups of freshly grated zucchini, for two loaves. That’s at least a day or two of produce from our plant. Why four cups when most zucchini bead recipes call for three? Because the result is even more moist. And if you are buried in garden zucchini, why not? A few notes about this recipe. Grated zucchini, from zucchini picked fresh from the garden, should be rather wet, which is what makes this bread so wonderfully moist.
Fresh In-Season Zucchini Works Best
We recommend only making zucchini bread with zucchinis bought (or grown) in season, summer and early fall, otherwise the zucchini you buy from the store is likely shipped from far away and is too dry by the time it gets to you. The zucchini from our garden is so heavy with moisture that we have to drain it over a sieve after grating it. If for some reason your grated zucchini is not moist, your zucchini bread will not be moist. In that case you may need to add some water to the recipe, or sprinkle some water over the grated zucchini until it feels moist.
Natural Unsweetened Versus Dutch Processed Cocoa
This recipe calls for regular, not Dutch-processed, unsweetened cocoa. This cocoa is slightly acidic (unlike the Dutch-processed which is neutral in acidity), and reacts with the alkaline baking soda in the recipe to provide some of the bread’s leavening. We used a Ghiradelli natural unsweetened cocoa powder for this recipe. The salt and the instant coffee are there to intensify the chocolate flavor. We are using almond extract, but you can easily use vanilla extract instead, just use about 4 times as much, so instead of 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract, use 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract. If you want, you can toss some chocolate chips into the batter. I’ve done that and don’t think it really adds anything to this zucchini bread, it’s chocolatey enough on its own. But for some people, you can never have enough chocolate, right? The recipe calls for 4 cups of grated zucchini, which will yield particularly moist loaves. I’ve made it with 3 cups, which was also very good, just not as sublime as with 4 cups. If for some reason your zucchini is on the dry side, hydrate the shredded zucchini by soaking it in water first, and then place in sieve. Add the melted butter, instant coffee granules, and almond extract and beat until smooth. Add the flour to the zucchini mixture in 3 additions, stirring to combine after each addition. Place into the oven. Bake for 50 minutes at 350°F, or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean and easily. Note that if you try to slice the chocolate zucchini bread before it has completely cooled, it will be rather crumbly. It’s also easiest to slice with a bread knife.
