Chocolate Zucchini Bread

You'll love this chocolate zucchini bread recipe! Packed with shredded zucchini and gooey chocolate chips, it's moist, fudgy, and delicious.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

This double chocolate zucchini bread is moist, fudgy, and delicious. In the summertime, it’s my favorite way to satisfy a chocolate craving. It tastes just as decadent as a rich chocolate cake, but it’s packed with shredded zucchini. Eating your vegetables has never tasted so good!

Like my classic zucchini bread recipe, this recipe makes two loaves. They disappear pretty quickly in our house, but if you have extra, pop one loaf in the freezer for another day, or share it with a friend! They (and you) will love this chocolate zucchini bread.

Quick note: I recently re-tested and updated this recipe to give it a lighter texture, simplify the ingredients, and use even MORE zucchini! I love the results, but if you’d like to make the old version, you can find it in the recipe notes at the bottom of this post.

Chocolate zucchini bread recipe ingredients

Chocolate Zucchini Bread Ingredients

Here’s what you’ll need to make this double chocolate zucchini bread:

  • All-purpose flour Spoon and level it to avoid packing too much into your measuring cup.
  • Unsweetened cocoa powder – It adds rich chocolate flavor to the batter.
  • Baking powder, baking soda, and eggs – They help the bread puff up as it bakes.
  • Sugar – For sweetness. Granulated sugar and cane sugar both work well here. You could even use brown sugar for richer depth of flavor!
  • Vegetable oil – For moisture and richness.
  • Cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla extract – For warm depth of flavor.
  • Zucchini – I grate mine on the largest holes of a box grater to get the best moist, zucchini-flecked texture!
  • Chocolate chips – You’ll fold some into the batter to add fudginess to the inside of the loaf. Then, you’ll sprinkle more on top.
  • And sea salt – To make all the flavors pop!

Find the complete recipe with measurements below.

Pouring dry ingredients into bowl of wet ingredients

How to Make Chocolate Zucchini Bread

This double chocolate zucchini bread recipe couldn’t be simpler to make! Here’s how it goes:

First, whisk together the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and gently stir to combine.

Hand using wooden spoon to fold chocolate chips into batter

Fold in the chocolate chips. Look how chocolatey that batter is!!

Hand sprinkling chocolate chips over chocolate zucchini bread batter in loaf pans

Evenly divide the batter between two greased loaf pans (if you like, you can also line them with parchment paper for easy removal and cleanup!). Sprinkle with more chocolate chips, then bake at 350°F until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaves comes out clean.

Place the pans on a wire rack, and allow the loaves to cool in the pan before digging in. So easy!

Double chocolate zucchini bread in loaf pan

Chocolate Zucchini Bread Recipe Tips

  • Be careful not to overmix! As with all baking recipes that use wheat flour, overmixing the batter will make the bread dense. Stir until everything is just combined to get soft, moist, and puffy loaves.
  • Bake once, eat twice. This recipe makes two loaves of quick bread. They’ll keep well in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days, but they also freeze perfectly. I like to enjoy one right away and slice and freeze the other. To thaw a slice, let it sit out at room temperature for an hour or so, or pop it in the microwave for around 30 seconds.
  • Try changing it up! Swap half the chocolate chips for chopped walnuts, pecans, or dried tart cherries. Or, if you have it on hand, use yellow squash in place of the zucchini. Let me know what variations you try!

FAQs

Should you leave the skin on the zucchini when you make this chocolate zucchini bread?

I never peel zucchini when I make zucchini bread. The skin doesn’t affect the bread’s flavor, so I see peeling the zucchini as an unnecessary extra step.

Do you squeeze out the liquid from zucchini for bread?

Nope! While some zucchini bread recipes might ask you to squeeze out the zucchini’s excess moisture, I never will. Like the bananas in banana bread, zucchini’s magic is that it makes baked goods super moist. We want all the moisture inside it to go into the bread! Simply grate the zucchini on the large holes of a box grater and add it straight to the batter.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread Recipe

More Zucchini Recipes to Try

If you love this chocolate zucchini bread, try one of these delicious zucchini recipes next:

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Chocolate Zucchini Bread

rate this recipe:
4.90 from 92 votes
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
Serves 16 (makes 2 loaves)
You'll love this double chocolate zucchini bread recipe! Packed with shredded zucchini and gooey chocolate chips, it's super moist, fudgy, and delicious.

Ingredients

  • cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
  • cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted if lumpy
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon nutmeg
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 3 cups shredded zucchini
  • 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips, plus more for sprinkling

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350°F and lightly spray two 8x4” loaf pans with nonstick spray.
  • In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
  • In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, vegetable oil, sugar, and vanilla. Stir in the zucchini. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until just combined. The batter will be fairly thick—that's ok. Don’t overmix. Fold in the chocolate chips.
  • Evenly divide the batter between the prepared loaf pans and use a spatula to smooth the top. Sprinkle with more chocolate chips and bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the tops spring back to the touch. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.

Notes

I updated this recipe in June 2025 to have a lighter texture and use even more zucchini.
If you'd like to make the old version, I'm sharing the ingredients below. The method, bake time, and temp are the same!
  • 1¾ cups all-purpose flour
  • ¾ cup whole wheat flour
  • ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon nutmeg
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1½ cups almond milk, at room temperature
  • ¼ cup vegetable oil or melted coconut oil
  • ⅔ cup maple syrup
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 cups shredded zucchini
  • 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips, plus more for sprinkling

 

203 comments

4.90 from 92 votes (38 ratings without comment)

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  1. J. F.
    07.27.2025

    5 stars
    Yummy recipe. Definitely would make again and excited to share with friends. Cinnamon and nutmeg add a pleasant undertone to the cocoa flavor, and the crumb is soft and sweet. Plus, I do like that this recipe includes quite a bit of zucchini!

  2. MRS Smith
    07.21.2025

    5 stars
    My only comment is Where Has This Recipe Been All My Life!! Almost 60 and never heard of chocolate zucchini loaf haha And boy …it did not disappoint. I would not change a thing. Absolutely delicious . Thanks.

  3. Melinda
    07.21.2025

    5 stars
    Delicious! I followed the updated recipe exactly and my loaves came out perfect. Not too sweet or rich. I’ll definitely make this again.

  4. Vicki
    07.19.2025

    This recipe was confusing. It shows a picture of milk but never mentions milk or maple syrup in the directions. The original recipe doesn’t list any sugar. I kind of cobbled both recipes together but adding milk made it more of a cake batter consistency.

  5. Ashley
    07.16.2025

    Does this recipe really need 1 tbsp of baking powder? That sounds like a lot to me so just want to make sure haha

    • Jeanine Donofrio
      07.17.2025

      Yep! That’s what we use.

  6. Katie
    07.13.2025

    1 star
    Has anyone actually followed the recipe and put 1 tablespoon of baking powder in? I’ve never made a recipe with that much so I googled it and decided to put 1 teaspoon in. It’s fine but one of the most flavorless sweet breads I’ve ever made and I’m seriously wondering what would have happened if I would have used 1 tbsp of powder.

    • Britta G.
      07.27.2025

      5 stars
      I just made it following the directions to a t and it’s phenomenal! It does seems like a lot though, I get it.

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Photograph of Jeanine Donofrio and Jack Mathews in their kitchen

Hello, we're Jeanine and Jack.

We love to eat, travel, cook, and eat some more! We create & photograph vegetarian recipes from our home in Chicago, while our shiba pups eat the kale stems that fall on the kitchen floor.