Chocolate Zucchini Bread

 I love Farmer's Markets. I love people watching and seeing what is available to buy. Some days I come home with nothing but other days I come home loaded with tomatoes, potatoes, berries, peppers, herbs, and zucchini. I get home and wonder what I'm going to do with it all, but I figure that out later. I do have a couple quick fixes for zucchini. This recipe is one of them.

Growing up my mom often made zucchini brownies. That sounds odd, but they are really just chocolate brownies with tiny flecks of green. You don't really taste the zucchini..just chocolate. They are pretty good. So last year when I was looking for alternative baked goods involving zucchini, I cam across this recipe from Adam and Joanne at Inspired Taste. This bread is delicious! You don't taste the zucchini one bit and the texture is barely tampered with. It's moist, chocolatey, and sweet enough for dessert, but not too sweet for breakfast. It has a delightful cake texture and is just all around amazing. If you have extra zucchini lying around, grate it up and get ready for something amazing.

Time: 70 minutes
Makes 1 loaf or 18 muffins
Ingredients
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp instant coffee granules
1 cup flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup grated zucchini
3/4 cup chocolate chips, opt

Preheat the oven to 350. Lightly spray a 9x5 loaf pan and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream the oil and both sugars. Beat in the eggs, vanilla, and coffee granules.

Pre-beating...

Post-beating

 In a medium bowl, combine all the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt).

I thought it was kind of pretty...so I snapped a picture.

Mix it up well

 Dump your shredded zucchini into the bowl with the dry ingredients. I had a 1/2 cup measure handy so I loaded it up and dumped it in.

Mix it up until all the zucchini is coated with the powders.

 Add the dry ingredients and zucchini into the wet ingredients in batches. Mix it until everything is moistened and combined. If you want to add chocolate chips, do that now.

Pour the batter into your pan and pop it in the oven. I didn't have a 9x5 pan so I used my slightly smaller pan and one mini-loaf pan.

Please ignore the cast iron pizza pan...it's been treated pretty roughly.

 Bake the cake...I mean bread...for about an hour. You should be able to stick a toothpick in it and have it come out clean. Set the loaf on a cooling rack and dump it out whenever you feel up to it. If you make muffins instead of a loaf, they only take about 20 minutes.

I forgot to take a picture of it sliced because I just wanted to eat it. So yummy! Next time I'm going to make it in muffin wrappers just for something different. If you do that though, remember it won't bake as long. Slice a chunk off and enjoy with a cold glass of milk!

Original recipe at http://www.inspiredtaste.net/2108/chocolate-zucchini-bread/