This easy chocolate zucchini bread is so moist and deliciously chocolatey that you’ll need to keep reminding yourself that it contains vegetables. We use 1 ½ cups of grated zucchini in this incredible quick bread, and you would never know!
This chocolate zucchini bread tastes like a delicious slice of chocolate cake, not a quick bread packed with vegetables. It’s incredibly moist and fudgy, with the most deliciously rich, irresistible chocolate flavor.
Even though we add a bunch of zucchini to the batter, you really don’t taste it. Instead, the zucchini helps to keep the bread super moist and tender. For more zucchini bread recipes, see my classic zucchini bread.
Key Ingredients
- Zucchini: One medium zucchini does the trick for this recipe. It adds moisture to the chocolate zucchini bread, similar to how carrots keep our carrot cake moist. But unlike carrots, zucchini melts into the batter, almost disappearing.
- Flour: I use all-purpose flour for this recipe, but you can swap some or all for whole wheat flour.
- Cocoa Powder: I use unsweetened natural cocoa powder (not Dutch process). It reacts with the baking soda in the batter to create a tender, moist bread.
- Baking Soda and Baking Powder: The main leavener for this recipe is baking soda, which reacts with the cocoa powder. I also add a little bit of baking powder for extra lift.
- Oil: I love using oil in this quick bread recipe because it keeps the middle moist and tender, just like my blueberry muffins and apple bread.
- Sugar: I use a combination of granulated and brown sugar. The brown sugar adds a bit more moisture.
- Eggs: These add structure and flavor to the bread. If you don’t eat eggs, use two flax eggs.
- Vanilla and Salt: These make the bread even more delicious!
- Espresso Powder: Totally optional, but coffee does an amazing job of bringing out the richness of chocolate. You won’t taste coffee in the bread, it simply makes the bread taste more like chocolate. I also use it in my easy chocolate chip cookies.
- Chocolate Chips: I often stir a handful of chocolate chips into the batter, but you can leave them out if you prefer.
Easy Chocolate Zucchini Bread
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
You’d never guess there’s 1 ½ cup cups of raw zucchini in this easy chocolate zucchini bread recipe, but there is! It’s moist and fudgy in the middle and so rich and chocolatey! You do not need special equipment for this recipe, just a whisk and a couple of bowls.
You Will Need
1 ½ cup (180g) shredded raw zucchini
1 cup (130g) all-purpose flour
½ cup (40g) unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
½ cup (118ml) vegetable oil
½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
½ cup (100g) light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon espresso powder
¾ cup (135g) chocolate chips, optional
Directions
1Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Grease a 9×5-inch loaf pan with oil or nonstick spray. (For a taller loaf, use an 8×4-inch loaf pan.)
2Whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.
3In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, oil, granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs, espresso powder, and vanilla until blended.
4Toss the shredded zucchini with the dry ingredients.
5Add the flour mixture to the bowl with the wet ingredients in two batches, stirring between each addition. Stir in chocolate chips.
6Spoon the batter into the loaf pan and smooth the top.
7Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out with only a few small, moist crumbs, 45 to 65 minutes. Ovens vary, so check the bread at 45 minutes and go from there.
8Cool the loaf in the pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Then, remove the bread from the pan and place it on the wire rack to cool completely.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Storing: Place into an airtight container and store at room temperature for 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator.
- Espresso powder: While optional, the espresso powder brings out the chocolate flavor of the cocoa powder. You can substitute with 1 teaspoon of instant coffee granules.
- Baking tip: Place your loaf pan onto an insulated baking sheet or on top of two regular baking sheets stacked one on top of the other. This helps even baking and makes getting the loaf pan into and out of the oven easy.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates. We did include chocolate chips in the calculations.
This bread bakes up beautifully. I 4x the recipe and added about a cup of Greek yogurt and at least 3 cup of walnuts.
Delicious!!!!
So happy you enjoyed it, Rich!
This is a great recipe but I don’t have enough cocoa powder and I wanted to make 2 more loaves. Can baker’s chocolate be added to make up the difference? thanks
Hi Diana, You may need to experiment a little. I have only made this recipe with the cocoa.
Wow, you guys rock! I have never made chocolate zucchini bread before but for sure this is a recipe to be passed down. I didn’t have the espresso or chocolate chips and I added walnuts. I did what you suggested for the regular zucchini bread and sprinkled 1 TBSP of sugar on top and let it sit while I got everything else ready. So good, moist, yummy, almost like cake.thanks!
Five stars!
Made this today. Delicious chocolate taste and so moist. I will be making this my go to recipe. I love this site and am never disappointed when I make any number of recipes. Thanks
I made this recipe last week and we enjoyed it so much that I made it again today. 8/8/23 . I didn’t use instant coffee and it was perfect. Today I doubled the recipe; and used chocolate chip in the second loaf. We love zucchini muffins sweet or savory. I will be baking this again.
So delicious, this is my second loaf in the oven now, right after a double badge of your easy banana bread with chocolate chips. Both recipes are a big hit in my family. Thank you for sharing. Bye the Ay I also am a big fan of your hummus recipe. I have made this multiple times. It is a staple in my house, my grand daughter loves it too.
thank’s alot my kids love this bread
Hi Michele, This recipe does make a seriously moist zucchini bread which is rich enough to count as cake. You could try squeezeing excess liquid from the zucchini to see what happens. We do this for our Zucchini Bread with Almonds and it does turn out to have a fine crumb.
This is sooooo good. Thank you for posting this. I have made it several times already. It is so moist and delicious. Big hit with my family.
I made this today and used dark chocolate chips and it was amazing! Highly recommend!
Yummy! I loved this recipe! So moist. I tried a different one and it wasn’t nearly as moist! I will keep this one for sure!
This is so rich and moist and not one knew there is zucchini in it unless I told them. I have made it twice before (and plan on making it again soon) and everyone loves it 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
That is awesome Shawna, so glad everyone liked them!
~Joanne
Beautiful pictures! I am really inspired to try the recipe.
Keep up the great work!
Nancy
OMG! totally a keeper! my mom could not believe that zucchinis were the secret ingridient!
I’ve had this bookmarked forever and just made it this morning. The espresso powder is pure genius, and this recipe is going to be shared for sure! Glad my CSA gave me a zucchini that I needed to use up, and so glad I looked back at my enormous list of links! Thank you!!
OMG My husband LOVED LOVED it. He’s more of a chocholic than I am.
This is definitely going into the Sunday dinner menu.
Samantha
We are so glad that your husband loved the recipe. Your comment actually got us thinking of remaking it ourselves. Zucchini’s are in season right now 🙂
Pure perfection!! The whole house smelled of chocolate and we probably didn’t let it cool enough 🙂 but with the melted chocolate chips glaze (great idea, Becca) plus some freshly sliced strawberries from the garden, this was heavenly. Adding the instant coffee was brilliant!! Thanks so much!
Soooo glad you liked it and the idea of adding the chocolate glaze is a great idea!!
just finished baking this! i added 1/2 cup chocolate chips and then melted 1/4 cup chocolate chips and glazed the top of the loaf after it cooled – SO GOOD! : ) thanks for the fabulous recipe!
Becca – adding more chocolate!! Now we’re talking 🙂 Your idea of melting chocolate for a glaze on top is decadent, we might have to try that soon!
Thanks!
My loaf baked in under 30 minutes rather than 55. Turned out nice, added some chopped pecans, replaced vegetable oil with coconut oil and 1/3 of the flour w/ white whole wheat flour.
Amy, What great alterations to the recipe. We have never baked with coconut oil before, we definitely would like to give it a try! Plus, we loved the idea of pecans!
Saw this on DessertStalker and had to come by and check it out. I will have to try this as it looks delicious.
I love the simplicity of your blog. It’s something I’ve been looking for with mine but don’t know how to do the 3 columns. Ah well . . .
Glad I stopped by!
Zucchini bread + chocolate. How could you go wrong with two of the best things!
Definitely making it this weekend!
This sounds amazing! I love zucchini bread and I really think this will be great too. However, I have one question… are you supposed to use instant coffee or normal coffee grounds?
Hi Sandra,
We used instant coffee, you don’t need much, but it just adds so much depth to any chocolate recipe. We hope you enjoy it!!
~Joanne
Sounds like an odd combination that could really work!
This looks super moist and anything chocolate is PERFECT.
I’ll definitely be smelling up my house with this recipe!!!
Oh my… this looks absolutely divine.
I am in Heaven right now!! Chocolate AND zucchini? AMAZING!!
This looks so good! I never thought of CHOCOLATE zucchini bread. Was that Jo’s idea :-D?
I don’t want to toot my own horn or anything, but yes Heather it was definitely my idea 🙂
~Joanne