You'll love this chocolate zucchini bread recipe! Packed with shredded zucchini and gooey chocolate chips, it's amazingly moist and fudgy.
This double chocolate zucchini bread recipe is based on the chocolate zucchini muffins from our first cookbook. While I love that recipe, I wanted to make a version that would work well as a loaf for slicing and enjoying with a morning latte or afternoon coffee.
This super easy, delicious chocolate zucchini bread recipe came out better than I could have imagined. It has a perfect cakey crumb, delectable moist texture, and rich chocolate flavor. Like my traditional zucchini bread recipe, this one makes two loaves. We gobble them up pretty quickly at our house, but if you have extra, pop one loaf in the freezer for another day, or share it with a friend!
Chocolate Zucchini Bread Recipe Ingredients
My chocolate zucchini bread is rich, moist, and perfectly spiced…and (chocolate chips aside) it’s fairly healthy, too! Here’s what I use to make this delightful summer treat:
- Flour – A mix of white and whole wheat flour gives it a perfect moist texture and a little whole grain power.
- Baking powder, baking soda, and eggs – They help the bread puff up as it bakes.
- Cinnamon and nutmeg – They add a lovely spiced contrast to the chocolate.
- Sea salt – I add a dash to highlight the rich chocolate flavor.
- Maple syrup – I swap maple syrup for granulated or brown sugar, so this healthy chocolate zucchini bread is refined sugar-free!
- Almond milk – For moisture. If you don’t keep almond milk on hand, substitute whatever kind of milk you do. Oat milk, cow’s milk, and soy milk would all work well here.
- Coconut oil – I use just ¼ cup to make the bread rich, but not too decadent.
- Vanilla extract – It adds warm depth to the spiced chocolate flavor.
- Zucchini – I grate mine on the largest holes of a box grater to get the best moist, zucchini-flecked texture!
- Chocolate chips – I don’t recommend skimping on these guys! You’ll fold some into the batter to make the inside of the bread super fudgy and delicious. Then, you’ll sprinkle more on top!
Find the complete recipe with measurements below.
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.
Fold in the chocolate chips. Look how chocolatey that batter is!!
Pour the batter into two pans, and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaves comes out clean.
Place the pans on wire racks, and allow the loaves to cool in the pan before digging in. So easy!
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.
- Use two packed cups of zucchini. The zucchini is essential for adding moisture, so pack your cups full! Skimping on it will yield a drier final loaf. No need to press or squeeze the moisture out of the zucchini. We want all of it to go into the bread!
- Bake once, eat twice. This recipe makes two loaves of quick bread. I like to enjoy one right away and slice and freeze the other for easy breakfasts or whenever I have a chocolate zucchini bread craving. 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 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!
More Favorite Easy Baking Recipes
If you love this chocolate zucchini bread, try one of these yummy baking recipes next:
- Zucchini Chocolate Cake
- Easy Zucchini Muffins
- Best Carrot Cake or Vegan Carrot Cake
- Healthy Banana Bread
- Pumpkin Bread
- Apple Cake
- Homemade Brownies or Vegan Brownies
- Or any of these 25 Super Fun Baking Recipes!
And for more zucchini recipes, check out this post.
Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Ingredients
- 1¾ cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup whole wheat flour
- ⅓ cup 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 coconut oil, melted
- ⅔ cup maple syrup
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups shredded unpeeled 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 all-purpose and whole wheat flours, the cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, almond milk, coconut oil, maple syrup, and vanilla. Stir in the zucchini. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until just combined. Don’t overmix. Fold in the chocolate chips.
- Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pans. Sprinkle with more chocolate chips and bake for 50 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.
At this point in my young childs life, this is the only way I can get her to enjoy zucchini. So all the zuchini recipes are welcome…chocolate really helps too!
I made the zucchini chocolate bread. I did make a few changes but the results were fenomenal! For example, only used 1/3 c. maple syrup, I had about 1/2 c. dark chocolate chips, and added 1/2 c. walnut pieces. Didn’t have much nutmeg, so I used mace instead. I was reluctant to use coconut oil, years ago a friend nutritionist had negative issues with it. But, I used it anyway for the first time.
My overall rating is DELICIOUS, ADDICTIVE!!! The sweetness is just RIGHT for my taste. I’ve tried it with cottage cheese topped with kiwis and raspberries, also with plain yogurt, a tiny bit of honey with the fruit as well.
I’m so glad you loved it!
Hello!
Can I use chestnut flour?
Thanks 😉
Hi Esther, no but you can use it in place of any recipe that uses almond flour, there are a bunch listed in this post: https://www.loveandlemons.com/almond-flour/
I am amazed. I used full cream milk and it is just beautiful. Light and fluffy and chocolatey but not too sweet. It is the best, easiest recipe…
I’m so glad you loved it!
Love this recipe! Made it in a Bundt pan instead of two loaves and it came out perfect and baked the exact same amount of time. This allows it to double as a dessert! I’ve made this 4 times now just wrung out the zucchini for the first time to see if it makes it a little less dense. Will report back! Thank you for an amazing & healthy recipe!!
Any idea the calorie and other macro count roughly?
Hi Meredith, I’m sorry we don’t calculate nutrition facts, but you can plug the ingredients into sites like my fitness pal for the info.
Hi, my maths could be wrong but if you cut each loaf into 7 slices, it works out around 260 calories a piece.
I worked out how many calories each measured ingredient was, and added it all together to get 3,620 with some rounding. If you wanted more or less slices just divide that by how many across the two loaves. I’m not sure about macros though sorry! 🙂
This looks delicious – I’m gf, what tweaks would you suggest to make the consistency right when using gluten free flour? Thank you!
Hi Mary, we haven’t made this with GF flour, so I’m not quite sure.
Can you substitute honey for the maple syrup? I’m out of maple syrup and want to make it before I will be going to the store again. 🙂
Hi Judy, I think it might work but I haven’t tried. It’s thicker and stickier than maple so it might make a difference in the batters consistency, but I’m not sure.
I used honey in place of maple syrup. It took longer to bake and even after baking for about an hour, it was still kind of doughy or wet in the middle. It tastes great but I’m storing it in the fridge just because of the consistency of the bread. Next time I’ll try using maple syrup and see if I get a different result.
Thank you!
Can you use all purpose flour instead of whole wheat
Hi Jane, I think that would be fine.
Can you use yellow zucchini instead of green?
yep!
This sounds delicious! My question is do you have to take the moisture out of the zucchini? I didn’t see that in directions or comments?
Hi Tracey, nope, not in this recipe, the extra moisture can be included.
woah, i love this. I work at a farm and we have a bit of a zucchini situation at the moment. 🙂 I made some small tweaks, and the loaf still worked really well. I…
– used only whole wheat flour
– used the tiniest 3 eggs you’ve ever seen (basically only 2 eggs)
– halved the amount of maple syrup… the loaf is still sweet enough to my tastes, because i like to eat it for breakfast or snacks. no baking powder or soda taste which sometimes happens if i take out too much sugar.
– i also reserved the cocoa until last and mixed it only into 1/2 the batter so i could make it a swirl cake. I couldn’t decide if i wanted chocolate or plain zucchini bread so this appeased me!
i really like this recipe and will keep it for sure.
thanks!
I’m so glad you enjoyed the bread!
The Chocolate Zucchini Bread was so delicious, I made it for when my grandchildren were visiting for a week, they are not too keen on vegetables. They enjoyed it so much. They ATE VEGGIES in a very yummy way. I will definitely make this recipe over and over again.
I’m glad everyone enjoyed it!
I have the same question as Melissa. Can I make it eggless? I want to make it and share but one of my friend’s kid is allergic to eggs.
Hi Chaitali, it might work with flax and water as a replacement, but I haven’t tried it so I’m not sure.
Do you have the nutritional value of this very yummy bread?
When I entered it in, it cane out to about 2 calories per gram or 1831 caloriea per loaf
Has anyone used a flax egg instead of a real egg and did it turn out?
Sheer magic. Incredible. Hits ever note….Healthy, delicious, moist and easy. 🥰❤️
Do happen to have the nutritional information for any of the recipes?
The problem with this recipe is… it totally tests my willpower! My husband and I devoured the first loaf and now I keep thinking about that second loaf stashed in the freezer. Absolutely delicious and will be a repeater for sure! We ate it as dessert last night— topped with some vegan cream cheese, fresh strawberries and raspberries, and toasted pecans. My husband said as we were going to bed that he couldn’t wait to have it for breakfast the next day. And as far as treats go, I feel like this one is pretty virtuous. 😀
I made this chocolate zucchini loaves and they turned out perfect. I used 2 c of flour & 1\2 c of ground flax seed 1/3 c coconut flakes unsweetened. I added chocolate chunks and walnuts too. I used 3 zucchini.