Whole Wheat Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Is it possible that traveling in the US for two weeks is ten million times more exhausting than traveling in SE Asia for four months? I conclude that YES, it is WAAAAY more exhausting! Fun, yes, but exhausting. We had a whirlwind wedding tour that took us to Seattle, then a redeye to New York for the next wedding 18 hours after the first, then back to Oregon for a fun weekend in the Columbia River Gorge. Beaut.i.ful. I love this country! We had way too much fun seeing our friends and family {hence exhaustion}, and visiting some places {NYC!} we haven't been in a while. Now that wedding season is over, for us, we're getting down to business! I have to wait until next week, but then we'll finally be in one place for more than a week and I am sooo so so looking forward to it.

Getting down to business for me means COOKING! Obviously. Get ready for an onslaught of zucchini and tomato recipes, because my mom's garden has turned into a veritable farm — I think she needs to start a CSA! So, I'm up my my ears in deliciously fresh produce, all of which you'll be accosted with. GET READY! This recipe was basically made out of necessity: I was taking a morning walk in the garden to find some food for breakfast and discovered multiple MASSIVE zucchinis that had been overlooked. You know the type — huge, green, hiding under shady leaves. Anywho. They aren't exactly the kind you sauté up for a tasty treat, but they ARE perfect for shredding and baking! Hurray! So this recipe used about half of one zucchini {seriously, it was huge}. You'll see the other half appear on the blog soon...

Today we start the tour de zucchini with whole wheat chocolate zucchini bread! Health food! I'm serious. I used 100% whole wheat flour {white whole wheat from Bob!}, which turned out wonderfully! And of course I used tons of chocolate chips. I can't even remember the last time I baked with chocolate chips {ummm six months ago?}, so I was GUNG HO! And now I've googled "gung ho" and learned about it's origins. Wikipedia for the win! Back to the chocolate: this is pretty much a healthy brownie. It's dense. It's fudgy. It's easy to throw together and guaranteed to disappear quickly.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Zucchini Bread

★★★★★ 5 from 1 reviews

• Author: by Mary
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 60 mins
• Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
• Yield: 1 loaf 1x

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Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

• 2 cups shredded, unpeeled zucchini
• 1 ⅔ cup white whole wheat flour
• ⅓ cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 large eggs
• ¼ cup milk
• ½ cup melted butter
• ⅔ cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 ½ cup semisweet chocolate chips

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Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350F and butter an 9x5 loaf pan.
2. Wrap the shredded zucchini in cheesecloth and squeeze as much liquid out as you can. Set aside.
3. Whisk together the flour, cocoa, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.
4. Whisk together the eggs, milk, melted butter, brown sugar, and vanilla extract. Add the zucchini and dry ingredients, then fold in the chocolate chips.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 55-60 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.
6. Let the loaf cool for 15 minutes in the pan before removing it. Serve warm or cooled!

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Notes

Depending on your flour, you may need more or less liquid. The batter should be quite thick, but still wet.