Today is day 2 of my coffee detox {yes I quit again}. I am feeling much better than yesterday, which consisted of laying on the coach groaning from a terrible headache and dreaming of a nice hot latte. Why am I quitting again? I just decided I don’t want to be a slave to it every morning anymore. The feeling of not being able to function properly without it is awful! I am not a student anymore, so I don’t really have an excuse these days. For all of you who don’t have a caffeine addiction, I envy what it must feel like to wake up normally in the morning. I will let you know how that feels next week! Whenever I try to give up coffee, my food cravings go crazy. Especially for things with sugar and caffeine, like CHOCOLATE. Thus, this chocolate zucchini bread happened. I added chocolate chips to make it even more chocolately, and pecans for texture. It turned out SO GOOD. Don’t worry, I have been making really healthy smoothies too with lots of fruit and vegetables…I call them my “guilt smoothies”…
When I first saw recipes for zucchini bread floating around, I immediately wanted to try it because I was so curious about the taste. To my surprise, the zucchini doesn’t really taste like anything in this bread, which is probably a good thing since I love the rich chocolate flavor. It does, however, make the bread incredibly moist! I used a 5-star recipe I found in Cooking Light magazine, but made some changes (for example, I didn’t have applesauce so I used buttermilk instead). I also decided to omit the cinnamon, but I can imagine it must taste delicious with it included. I hope you enjoy this bread as much as I did!
- 1 medium organic zucchini
- ½ cup buttermilk (or ½ cup milk + ½ tbsp white vinegar)
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1⅔ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup cocoa
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp fine salt
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Spray a 9×4-inch loaf pan with cooking spray and set aside.
- Finely shred the zucchini by hand or using a food processor, and gently press out the excess water.
- In a mixing bowl, stir together the buttermilk, oil, eggs, sugar and vanilla. Add the zucchini and stir.
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Gradually add the flour mix to the batter, stirring in-between, until all is added.
- Stir in the pecans and chocolate chips, then transfer to the loaf pan.
- Bake for 1 hour, until a toothpick comes out dry.
- Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool until ready to serve.
- Wrap with plastic wrap and keep in the refrigerator for up to 3 days for best freshness.
Recipe adapted from Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread, Cooking Light 2014
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