Dark Chocolate Zucchini Bread {Sweetened with Honey}
This moist dark chocolate zucchini bread is sweetened only with honey and made with whole grain flour. Find your next favorite bread recipe on the Best Bread Recipes page.
Yes, I’ve still got zucchini (someone needs to tell my garden it’s almost November…) and what better way to celebrate that than with a loaf of zucchini bread? Well, I can think of one – make it chocolate. Okay, dark chocolate. Oh yeah. I’m so there.
You know, I’ve mentioned a lot over the past few years about dark chocolate, usually in a jokey way, but there are a couple of really good things that have come from our love affair with the dark stuff- one, it has helped our whole family to appreciate things with less sugar, which I never thought would happen. But after a couple of years of regularly eating a small piece of dark chocolate after each meal, we don’t even like the overly sweet milk “chocolate” candy we used to (I have to put it in quotations, because really, I can hardly taste the chocolate in that type of candy anymore!).
And two, since we like things less sweet now, it’s spurred me on to add less sugar to all kinds of things including cookies (like Flourless Coconut Almond Bars), breads (Orange Rhubarb Muffins contain only 1/3 cup), and cakes (Mini Chocolate Truffle Cakes call for a few tablespoons) as well as condiments like Ketchup sweetened with honey and lowering the sugar in our Addictive Tomato Chutney recipe. And if I can substitute refined sugar with honey or maple syrup I’m even happier, as it is a more real food. I also like adding honey because it’s naturally sweeter than refined sugar and so I can usually cut the sweetener in half when substituting honey.
Of course, it doesn’t work with all things and calls for some recipe testing for sure, but it works wonderfully in things like this dark chocolate zucchini bread that we don’t want to be too sweet anyway (fyi: using honey in baked goods causes them to brown faster, though, so the cooking time needs to be adjusted as well). And when I’m adding other sweet things like the chocolate chips here or dried fruit, you hardly notice that the sugar has been lessened, which I love.
The other thing I love about this bread is how easy it is: prep the pans, shred the zucchini, put it and the wet ingredients in a bowl to mix, add the dry ingredients, mix and pour into the prepped pans. Fifteen minutes work and two loaves of chocolatey goodness are cooking in the oven. Who said baking had to be hard?
And if you don’t have zucchini? Cry. Kidding. I’ve put 4 loaves of this in the freezer which will be good for the next couple of months and I won’t make it again until we have garden zucchini next year. You of course can buy zucchini any time of the year, but we try to eat seasonally, viewing each season’s specific recipes as something to look forward to – kind of like our great-grandmothers did.
Oh, I also subbed 1-1/4 cup of the flour with oat flour, leaving just 1 cup of whole wheat pastry flour, just because. I’m pretty sure it would work with all oat flour, making the loaves gluten-free, but I’m not 100% until I do another test (if you try it before I do, let us know!).
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Dark Chocolate Zucchini Bread Sweetened with Honey
Ingredients
- 3 cups shredded zucchini
- 1 cup honey
- 2/3 cup melted coconut oil or butter or oil like light olive or sunflower
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 4 eggs
- 2 ¼ cups whole wheat pastry flour can use spelt or 1 ¼ cup oat flour
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder + extra for dusting pans
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup dark chocolate or semi sweet chocolate chips divided
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 8-inch loaf pans and lightly coat with cocoa powder (I recommend adding a piece of parchment paper to line the bottom and up the long sides, coating that with the cocoa, as the very middle bottoms tend to stick, even with the coating).
- To the bowl of a large mixer, add the zucchini and next four ingredients. Stir well.
- Add the remaining ingredients, except the chocolate chips, mixing until you have a smooth batter.
- Fold in 2/3 cup of the chocolate chips.
- Pour batter into prepared pans, dividing evenly and making sure that the chocolate pieces are evenly dispersed (they tend to fall to the bottom of the bowl). Sprinkle the remaining 1/3 c. chocolate chips evenly between the two loaves.
- Bake for 40-43 minutes until puffed and centers look done (you can do a toothpick test, but the chocolate pieces will be melty, so be aware that it won't come out completely clean).
- Cool 5-10 minutes in the pans, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely before slicing.
Notes
Nutrition
Sometimes carrots can be subbed for zucchini, but I’ve never heard of chocolate carrot bread…hmm, think it would be good?
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Delicious, another great recipe Jami!!!
Glad you enjoyed this, Sheilah – thanks for leaving a starred review!
This recipe is amazing! I do make one adjustment…I use apple sauce instead of oil. I made these for everyone at work last year and they loved them. One person has a gluten allergy so I used oat flour (I didn’t have any on hand so I just ground up oats in my Vitamix!). This year, they kept asking me for more so I just recently made another batch. I make muffins (recipe makes 24) since it’s easier to give out at work (or to freeze). I bake them on 375 for 20 minutes and they come out perfect. I’ve even used different chips in the recipe including peanut butter chips. I just LOVE chocolate and peanut butter together! Thank you for creating such a guilt free delicious recipe!!
This is great, Jenn – how fun that you gift it to others!!
Thank you for the review and your adaptations – I’m going to try the oat flour for my GF mom. 🙂
OMG Jami, I made this chocolate Zucchini bread today as I was looking for a healthier alternative. I used Oat Flour and it turned out amazing. I will be making this over and over again. The chocolate flavour is very chocolatey which I love. Thank you for a great recipe.
Yay – so glad you like this, Vanessa! And great to know it worked with oat flour – I’ll have to try that, too.
absolutely adored this recipe, took a nibble and can’t wait to have more after dinner 🙂 i used a gigantic garden zucchini that ended up excreting quite a bit of liquid.. i was preparing myself for some pudding instead of loaf but with some extra time in the oven it pulled through incredibly moist and delicious… may consider next time draining a bit of the liquid but very excited with how this turned out.. thank you for the creation :D!
Oh, good, I’m so glad that worked for you, Ruth!
I did these as freezer muffins 375 degrees for 30 minutes. They turned out great! It was fun to use the Freezer Zucchini Muffins and cook two kinds at once. My grown sons and husband really like them both.
Ooo, thanks for that great tip – that would be fun to have both kinds. 🙂
I love this bread so much, and keep sharing the recipe with others. Seriously so good, chocolatey, and moist! What is your method for freezing something like this?
Thrilled you love this so much, Theresa! I either freeze the loaf whole or cut into slices and freeze them individually on a lined cookie sheet before placing them in a freezer baggie for long term. That way the pieces don’t stick together and you can pull out just a few slices as you want them.
This is literally the best zucchini bread recipe ever!!! My mama even made it with carob (she’s sensitive to chocolate) and adored it=)
Can you freeze the dough like your zucchini muffins? (Which are wonderful by the way!
Glad you like those, Carol!
I’ve never tried freezing this dough, though. I freeze the whole loaves.
You could try and let me know. 🙂
This bread is soooo good. For flour I used King Arthur 100% whole grain whole wheat flour and instead of chocolate chips, I used cocoa liqueur nibs. Yummm. I’ve made it twice, and both times the top center did not get fully cooked even though the rest was perfectly done. Any suggestions? Thanks for the recipe!!!
Ooo, that sounds wonderful with the cocoa liqueur nibs! I’d leave the loaf in for another 5 minutes to get the center done – so glad you like this recipe!
I had been making this all summer and enjoying it. Thankfully, I froze some shredded zucchini and this cold, very wet English morning, while everyone is still fast asleep I’ve made a zucchini chocolate cake and a loaf of bread. The house smells glorious, chocolate and new bread! I’m sure the smells will filter upstairs soon. Thank you for the recipe Jami. It’s much loved in the Pullum household.
I love this so much, Julie – even your description of your English morning (it’s not that different from many of our Western Oregon mornings, ha!). Can I ask when you use your frozen zucchini in recipes like this, so you drain or not drain? I do it both ways and I can’t settle on which is best. 🙂
Have you tried making these into cupcakes/muffins? I’ve made so many of your desserts and have not had a fail yet. Thank you for the awesome content!
Wow, I’m so happy to know this, Natalya – thank you!
As for this recipe, I actually haven’t, though it should be easy. I just don’t know how many this would make – I’d probably start with a half recipe which I’m guessing should make between 10-12 muffins. And then like all muffins, you’d only bake them for about 15 minutes or until the toothpick test is clean. Let me know if you try this!
Your recipe sounds delicious!!!
I don’t have a pastry flour or oatmeal flour can I use regular baking flour? And how much?
Thanks, we think so! Yes, the same amount – just substitute regular flour for the listed flours.
Wow really delicious. My oven is not working, made this in my nuwave oven with the extender ring. I used a 9×9 in metal square cake pan. Baked on 100 percent power for 20 minutes then checked it and baked it an additional 20 minutes.
It was so good, very moist and a chocolate lovers treat.
This is a heirloom recipe and will be pasted down. Thank You!
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You’re so welcome, Kay – I’m so glad it worked with your oven!
I just made it. It is delicious. Do you happen to have a version of this chocolate zucchini bread that makes one loaf instead of two? Thanks!
I’m glad you like it! You can cut the recipe in half, but this freezes great for months!
This zucchini bread tastes great. It’s moist, has a rich chocolate flavor and is super healthy! This is my new sweet treat since my doctor put me on this diet where I can’t have regular sugar, flour, etc.
Thank you so much for posting this recipe!
Yay! It’s wonderful to find real-food options that remind us “treats” can be healthy, isn’t it? 🙂
Can you tell me the amount of carbs and sugar in this recipe? We are trying to keep our diet low in carbs and sugar. Thank you!
I don’t right now provide nutrition info, though I can tell you that this bread is mostly carbs. 🙂 Here is a place you can find out the nutrition numbers of any recipe: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/recipe/calculator
Thank you so much for your quick response. This should be a big help. Have a blessed day and may God bless you and your family!
This bread is phenomenal! I’ve used Namaste G-F flour each time (I’ve made it four times already) and it turns out moist and full of flavor. Thanks for sharing!
That is so great to know, Erika – thanks for sharing that!
Soooo delicious! I just made a batch with 100% oat flour and they are amazing! Just sweet enough to highlight the lusciously chocolatey-goodness.
Yeah!! I thought it would be, Kate – thanks for testing it out for us. 😉