Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

Perfectly spiced, perfectly sweetened, and a great way to use up your summer zucchini (or frozen zucchini any time of the year)! Recipe makes one loaf or 12 muffins.

Are you home gardeners absolutely swimming in zucchini right now? It’s that time of year there are at least a half a dozen zucchini (and other various vegetables) sitting on the counter in the lunch room at work just begging for someone to take them home because the grower can’t possibly find any more uses for his or her abundance of homegrown produce.

What a wonderful problem to have!!

This is not a problem we have (sads). We don’t have a garden. I really and truly wish we did, but since we rent, we don’t quite have that luxury. One day when we are grown ups and have our own house, we WILL have a huge garden, and we will bask in the joy of too many zucchini and cucumbers and tomatoes and asparagus and peppers and l can’t even wait.

Until then, I will gladly take some lunch room vegetables to go along with the locally grown vegetables we get at the market down the road from us.

Since we don’t have a garden, I’m not as aware as someone who does about just how much zucchini one person can accumulate at this point in the summer. This is where really great readers like YOU come in handy. I got a message from a reader (hi, Kelly!) last weekend practically begging for a zucchini bread recipe.

I had considered making a loaf of my mother-in-law’s zucchini bread a few weeks ago, but totally forgot about it. I am so glad Kelly asked me if I could post a recipe, because I forgot how wonderfully delicious my MIL’s recipe is.

It’s funny, I’ve been eating this zucchini bread for years, almost 8, actually, but I had never made it myself. Ever. I’d only ever “helped” her bake it– pretty much just melting butter and then licking the bowl.

Basically since Matt brought me home to meet his family, I have been eating my MIL’s zucchini and banana breads, so I never had a reason to make either of them myself!

While Matt was still in college, I spent several summers “living” with him at his parents’ house on the weekends. Those weekends always included zucchini bread, which is probably why I wore bigger jeans back then, but that’s neither here nor there (yikes).

I’ve professed my love for quick breads before. If you’re a regular reader (thanks ♥♥♥), you are familiar with this love. Quick breads are so great for their ease of assembly, the fact that they don’t require yeast or rising or proofing, and they freeze really well.

Also, they’re totally a way to basically eat cake without frosting any time you want. Score!

My MIL uses the classic recipe from Betty Crocker, and over the years, she has adapted it a bit. I have, of course, adapted it even further and included some chocolate chips. My MIL adds raisins and/or walnuts (like the original recipe), which I make note about in the recipe.

This recipe is pretty straight forward and doesn’t need a whole lot of explaining, but I will say, I’ve made a bit of a swap with sugars from the original recipe to include some brown sugar for added moisture.

This bread uses butter as its fat source, which can sometimes dry out quick breads. This is why I typically prefer quick breads with oil, but then you miss out on the buttery flavor that complements each and every spicy zucchini bite!

You may use fresh or frozen zucchini for this bread, just make sure if you go the frozen route that you thaw your zucchini completely and blot or wring it dry as much as you can.

I used frozen for this loaf and just threw it into a kitchen towel and squeeeeeezed the life out of it. Make sure you squeeze pretty hard. The added water will just make your bread soggy. Soggy is not the same as moist. Soggy is just downright gross.

We like to keep our frozen zucchini in batches of 1 and 1/2 cups so we can just pull out as much as we need for one recipe!

My favorite thing about this zucchini bread is that each and every corner and edge of every slice has this wonderful crunch to it. The sugar in the bread caramelizes on the edges that touch the loaf pan as it bakes, creating this delightful little exterior that leads to the most flavorful and tender crumb inside.

Not too sweet, not to vegetable-y, and graced with the perfect amount of chocolate chips. Oy. This zucchini bread is just lovely.

Alsooooo… See my notes about making muffins instead. Or in addition to. There’s no shame in loading up on zucchini baked goods. Plus– muffin form makes it totally acceptable to eat zucchini bread for breakfast, right?

Get to shredding and freezing your zucchini (because I know your garden is growing you a monster-size one while you sleep) so you can make bread or zucchini any time of the year! It might also make you feel less overwhelmed with all those beautiful green squash stashed away in your freezer instead of evil laughing at you from your back yard.

Yeah, they do that.

And to that I say… Zucchini baked goods for everyone!

Print Recipe

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

Perfectly spiced, perfectly sweetened, and a great way to use up your summer zucchini (or frozen zucchini any time of the year)! Recipe makes one loaf or 12 muffins.

Prep Time15 mins

Cook Time40 mins

Total Time55 mins

Servings: 12 servings

Ingredients

• 1 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour be sure to measure properly
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves¹
• 2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar firmly packed
• 2 large eggs
• 6 Tablespoons unsalted butter melted and allowed to cool
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 and 1/2 cups shredded zucchini² about 1 medium zucchini

Instructions

FOR LOAF

• Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Spray a loaf pan (9" x 5") with non-stick spray. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, ground cinnamon, and ground cloves. Toss in the chocolate chips. Set aside.
• In a medium size bowl, whisk the sugars and the eggs together until smooth. Add the vanilla extract and the butter and whisk again until completely combined. Fold in the zucchini with a spatula.
• Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir gently just until combined. Do not over mix. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle additional chocolate chips on top, if desired. Bake for 35-40 minutes, covering the pan with foil after about 20 minutes to prevent the loaf from browning too much. Loaf is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely in the pan on a cooling rack. You may remove the loaf from the pan while it is still slightly warm. Slices stay fresh stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week or in the refrigerator up to 10 days. Loaf or slices freeze well, up to 2 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight.

FOR MUFFINS

• Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Spray the wells of a 12-cupcake pan. Alternatively, you may use cupcake liners for muffins. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, ground cinnamon, and ground cloves. Toss in the chocolate chips. Set aside.
• In a medium size bowl, whisk the sugars and the eggs together until smooth. Add the vanilla extract and the butter and whisk again until completely combined. Fold in the zucchini with a spatula.
• Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir gently just until combined. Do not over mix. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle additional chocolate chips on top, if desired. Bake for 15-20 minutes until tops spring back when you touch them or a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffins comes out mostly clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely in the pan on a cooling rack. You may remove the muffins from the pan while they are still slightly warm. Muffins stay fresh stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week or in the refrigerator up to 10 days. Muffins freeze well, up to 2 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight.

Notes

1. Clove is a very strong spice. I prefer 1/2 teaspoon cloves. If you're unsure of your preference, start with 1/4 teaspoon.
2. If using frozen, thaw completely and wring out as much water as possible.

If you'd like to omit chocolate chips and replace them with nuts or raisins, use 2/3 cup of add-ins (such as 1/3 cup of each or 2/3 cup of just nuts or just raisins). If you'd like to add in nuts or raisins in addition to chocolate chips, reduce chocolate chips to 1/3 cup and use 1/3 cup of nuts or raisins.

Recipe adapted from Betty Crocker

Try my Apple Cinnamon Streusel Bread next!