A tender yet hearty marbled chocolate zucchini bread will make you forget that it contains vegetables. This is definitely a kid-approved recipe that will make them beg for another slice!
How is it the fall already? Didn’t summer just start? As the weather starts to get cooler, I see more Halloween and holiday decorations out and about. Although I love fall (in fact, it’s my favorite season), I’m not quite ready to give up all the wonderful produce and fruits from the summer quite yet.
I was never a fan of zucchini when I was a child. My mom sauteed it, and I just was not fond of the texture. As I became an adult, I was finally introduced to zucchini bread and other baked goods that involved this crazy squash.
I didn’t want my Addie to have an aversion to zucchini like I did, so I’ve baked a lot of zucchini recipes for her – mostly involving chocolate. As a result, my daughter is a big fan of zucchini.
When we received 4 gorgeous zucchini in a recent CSA delivery, I knew I had to make something fantastic. The idea of a marbled zucchini bread came to me, and before I realized it, this bread was baking in the oven.
I had to volunteer at Addie’s Chinese school during the time this bread was in the oven. When Addie and her dad showed up to school a little while later, they said that they had already taste-tested the bread and that it was pretty epic. I was able to sneak a few bites when I got home and had to agree with their assessment. The bread was dense, full of chocolate flavor (hello, chocolate chips!) and was not a bit dry. And it held up several days after baking.
Since I used yellow zucchini, it was masked better than their green cousins. This is definitely a kid-approved recipe that we’ll be baking again. I have 2 more zucchini, so I may have to bake another loaf soon.
Marbled chocolate zucchini bread
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 and 1/3 cups granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 and 1/2 cups grated zucchini
- 1/3 cup water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 and 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 2 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Generously grease a standard 9"x5" loaf pan and set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix together the applesauce with the sugar until well combined. Add in the eggs and beat well. Add the zucchini, water and vanilla extract and mix well.
- Fold in the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and pumpkin pie spice (you may want to mix these together in a separate bowl in case you aren't confident in your mixing skills and want to make sure all the ingredients are blended well). Pour 1/3 to 1/2 of the batter into a separate bowl.
- Add the cocoa powder to one of the bowls and mix well. Fold in the chocolate chips.
At this point, you have 3 choices on how to assemble your bread:
- You can either create two distinct layers and pour one layer into your prepared baking pan and then add the second layer directly on top.
- You can create several layers by alternating the batters by adding them on top of one another.
- You can create a marbled effect by putting the light batter down first, then dolloping the chocolate layer and swirling with a knife or toothpick.
- Bake the bread in your preheated oven for approximately 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow the bread to cool completely before serving.