Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Adding chocolate to your zucchini-related baked goods is hardly a novel concept, but it's a delicious one. Plus, I bet you haven't seen a recipe that amps up the nutrition by adding flax and cacao nibs, have you? This chocolate zucchini bread does just that. 

We made this bread—and a companion bread that was gluten free, with Chinese Five spice—from the zucchini cars the boys made for the Zucchini 500 race the Easton Farmers' Market ran a couple of weeks ago. The zukes were hanging on, wheels on, in my fridge, and I needed to redeploy them before they lost all their moisture. If you are using especially large ones, like I was (Des picked the monster truck category, what can I say?), pull out the seeds as you grate the zucchini. They're as big as my pinkie nail and I don't think anyone wants a seed that sizable in this otherwise dark and delicious bread. 

Chocolate zucchini bread: Ready to rock! 

Ingredients

• 1 cup plus 2 T all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder (I used the dark stuff/Dutch process)
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
• 2 T. ground flax meal 
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 tsp. coffee extract
• 2 cups grated zucchini
• 1/3 cup cacao nibs
• 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips
• 2/3 cup chopped walnuts
• Turbinado or other coarse brown sugar for sprinkling on top

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350°F and butter and flour a 5 inch by 9 inch loaf pan. 

Whisk together the flour through ground flax in a medium bowl. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil, sugars and extracts until no lumps remain. Fold the egg-sugar mixture into the flour mixture. Add the grated zucchini until it's all incorporated. Fold in the nibs, chips and walnuts. Sprinkle the top with the turbinado sugar, if desired. 

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick/cake tester inserted in the middle comes out fairly clean; a few moist crumbs are okay. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for at least 1/2 hour. Using a knife to loosen the cake (if need be) around the edges, remove from the pan and let it cool completely before slicing. 

Look! Look at how moist!