Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Total Time: 1 hr 30 mins Preparation Time: 20 mins Cook Time: 1 hr 10 mins

Ingredients

• 3 large eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup peanut oil or 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 cups packed zucchini, grated, about 4 medium zucchini (see note*)
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 2 teaspoons flour
• 2 cups chopped nuts, to taste (highly desirable) (optional)

Recipe

• 1 note*: grate zucchini and squeeze in paper towels to extract as much juice as possible before measuring. preheat oven to 350°f.
• 2 in a large mixing bowl, combine eggs, sugar, oil, apple sauce, and vanilla extract, and mix until well blended.
• 3 in a small saucepan, melt 2 tbsp butter, add 6 tbsp cocoa powder, blend together until smooth, and set aside to cool.
• 4 if desired, peel the zucchini (we don't), grate it, and squeeze out and discard as much juice as you can before measuring.
• 5 add zucchini and cooled cocoa mixture to the large mixing bowl, and blend well.
• 6 sift together the 2 cups flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
• 7 add dry ingredients to the batter, and stir only enough to blend in all the dry ingredients; do not over-mix.
• 8 in another small bowl, coat the chocolate chips with the 2 tsp flour.
• 9 this helps prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the pan.
• 10 stir the flour-coated chocolate chips into the batter.
• 11 spoon the batter into 2 generously greased and floured 9x5x3-inch loaf pans, and bake for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
• 12 cool in the pans for 5-10 minutes, remove from pans, and continue to cool on a wire rack.