You'll love this chocolate zucchini bread recipe! Packed with shredded zucchini and gooey chocolate chips, it's moist, fudgy, and delicious.
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 made with healthier ingredients like whole wheat flour, maple syrup, and 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.
Chocolate Zucchini Bread Ingredients
Here’s what you’ll need to make this double chocolate zucchini bread:
- Flour – I use a mix of all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour. They give the bread a perfect moist crumb, plus a little whole grain power.
- 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.
- Maple syrup – Many chocolate zucchini bread recipes call for granulated sugar or brown sugar. I sweeten mine with maple syrup instead. It adds a subtle caramel-like flavor that I love.
- Almond milk – For moisture. Oat milk, regular milk, and soy milk would all work well here too.
- Vegetable oil or coconut 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.
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 greased loaf pans. 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!
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. 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.
More Zucchini Recipes to Try
If you love this chocolate zucchini bread, try one of these delicious zucchini recipes next:
- Zucchini Bread
- Chocolate Zucchini Cake
- Zucchini Muffins
- Zucchini Brownies
- Or any of these 30 Best Zucchini Recipes!
Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Ingredients
- 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
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, 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.
Have made this 2 times this week. We love it! Made exactly according to recipe but found that it was done in 35 minutes – not 50 in my oven.
I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Do you have a gluten free version?
Hi, we haven’t tested a gluten-free version of this recipe, so I’m not sure how it would work. A 1-to-1 gluten-free blend might work fine in place of the white and wheat flours.
If you’re going to make this recipe, use the whole wheat pastry flour. I tried the whole wheat flour and all purpose flour combined and like others, got a very spongy, odd consistency quick bread. I also felt like this recipe was a bit more work than usual quick breads.
Hi Kelly, Did you change anything about the recipe? We’ve found the loaves made with whole wheat pastry flour and part white, part wheat to be very similar.
Hi Phoebe,
I followed the recipe exactly as written since it was the first time making it. It did get less spongy over the course of a day or two but initially it was very unappealing to eat.
Hi Kelly, Thanks for your feedback! I’m glad you were happier with the texture over time.
I made this as muffins and they came out great! 17 minutes in my oven. YUM!
And it made 2 dozen.
Thanks for sharing this!
Hi Mandy, I’m so glad you loved the muffins!
I saw the comment about the recipe being changed. Can you provide details of the previous recipe? That worked so well for us!! I subbed out the pastry flour for almond flour and wasn’t sure of the ratio between the two.
Hi! I’m really excited to make this with my son, but just curious if you thought I could use all whole wheat flour instead of part that and part all-purpose. Thanks you!
Hi Cierra, I think all whole wheat would be pretty dense which is why we did this mix. Although, I do find that whole wheat pastry flour is lighter than regular whole wheat so you could use that here in place of all flours. Bob’s Red Mill and King Arthur make it.
What’s a good substitute for the eggs if I want to make it vegan?
Hi Sandy, we haven’t tested this one without eggs, but this other zucchini bread (with chocolate chips) has a vegan option: https://www.loveandlemons.com/zucchini-bread/
Amazing! Did anyone break down the nutrition and calories by chance?
I have been making this recipe for over a year now and always bake it in a Bundt pan instead of 2 loaf pans. It comes out perfect, moist and chocolatey every time. I made it last night for my son to take back to college and it came out spongy. It didn’t rise as much and is more dense than normal. I have no idea why, but I also wondered if the recipe changed because it used to call for whole wheat pastry flour. Was it always 3 eggs? I’m sad because my family loves this recipe so much. Thank you!!
Hi Lorie, we changed the flour because whole wheat pastry flour isn’t accessible for most people to find. I’m sorry it didn’t come out the same, we thought our loaves came out the same. You can definitely go back to the WW pastry flour (2 1/2 cups). We didn’t change the eggs.
Very good bread. Followed recipe exactly. It was perfect!!
I’m so glad you loved it!
Can you use two 9×5 loaf pans?
Hi Lanelle, you could, your loaves will be a little shorter.
This is a super tasty recipe! I switched up liquid after the first batch I made and added 1 cup EVOO and 3/4 cup oat milk and it was so luxurious.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Can I use butter instead of coconut oil? My husband is allergic to coconuts. Will also sub oat milk for almond as he’s allergic to that too.
TY, Lori
Hi Lori, melted butter might work, but I’d probably go with a neutral oil first (vegetable oil, canola, or avocado).
Would it be the same amount of avocado oil as coconut? I said butter because I was thinking closest saturated fat to coconut
Thank you
Lori
Hi Lori, yes, it would be the same amount of oil. I think melted better might work too. (same amount).
Wondering about the flour as I am allergice to wheat and I notice not just regular flour, but specifically whole wheat flour. I wonder what happens with all 1-for-1 GF flour? Asking first bc the stuff is expensive – LOL if the recipe crashes that’s a lot of GF flour, though results may still be salvageable with ice cream…
Hi Judy, I haven’t tried this bread with GF flour so I can’t say for sure.
Can you use this recipe to make muffins as well? Would the oven time be different?
Hi, I’d bake them less (maybe around 16-22 minutes) – and I’m not exactly sure what the yield would be.
Could I use milk instead of almond milk? Is it Dutch processed cocoa?
Hi Melissa, yes, you can use regular milk. And I use regular cocoa powder.
Looks delicious! I don’t have maple syrup, can I sub brown sugar, or will that alter the moisture of the bread?
Hi Kathryn, it’ll change things for sure – going from a wet to a more dry sugar. This regular zucchini bread uses regular sugar: https://www.loveandlemons.com/zucchini-bread/
hello. I love baking I have not baked a lot but ya sort of my happy hour. I had a question what shall I use instead of eggs in the bread . I am a vegetarians many cookies and breads have eggs involved. what can I use instead of eggs?
I made this with flax eggs, which worked just fine.
I am new at baking. I had great success. The chocolate zucchini bread turned out great. The family loved it. Really clear instructions. First class website, great presentation.
I’m so glad everyone loved it!
Hi Jeanine! Do you think I could swap the cocoa powder with all purpose or whole wheat flour to make a regular zucchini bread? I like how this recipe uses maple syrup instead of cane sugar like your recipe for regular zucchini bread, so I was hoping to use this one instead!
Hi Sarah, I haven’t tried that so I’m not sure. Can you let me know if you give it a go?