Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

Remember that big ole zucchini that I picked from my garden? Well, they are really only good for shredding and baking with. My favorite thing to do with overgrown zucchini is to make a quick bread. For some reason the "green stuff" (as Jack calls it) is somehow masked when you add chocolate chips. I searched high and low last year to find a good recipe for zucchini bread and came up empty so I took a chance and created my own recipe, which came out great! This recipe is makes three loaves, but it freezes well and is fun to share with your neighbors, friends and co-workers (the guys at the PD liked it). For a nice way to wrap a loaf of bread to give as a gift check out this post.

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 cup of vegetable oil
1 cup of white sugar
1 cup of brown sugar
3 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp of honey (can omit if you don't have)
3 cups of flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 1/2 tsp cinnamon
4 cups of shredded zucchini
1 cup of chocolate chips

NOTE: If you want to make this healthier you can substitute white whole wheat flour instead of regular flour, you can use 1/2 cup of applesauce and 1/2 cup of oil instead of a full cup of oil, and you can cut the sugar back to 3/4 cups of each white and brown.

First you will need to shred your zucchini. I find that a box grater is the easier way, unless you have a food processor with a shredding blade. Do NOT peel it! Grate it all. I cut mine in chunks to make it easier to hold while grating. You will need a little arm power to get this done.

You will need four cups of shredded zucchini. This big zuc yielded about eight cups total so you can reserve the extra for zucchini fritters, or even freeze it for another time.

Do not drain the liquid out of the zucchini. The moisture from the zucchini makes this bread moist and delicious.

In a mixing bowl combine your eggs, sugars, oil, vanilla and honey. In a separate bowl sift your dry ingredients and mix with a whisk.

Add your dry ingredient mixture to the wet ingredients and mix until combined.

Add your zucchini and chocolate chips.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three loaf pans (or spray generously with non-stick cooking spray) and divide the batter evenly among the three pans. Bake for 45-55 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Cool in pan for 30 minutes and then remove and continue cooling on wire rack.

These were delicious.

See those chocolate chips? This is a great bread to eat with your morning coffee. You can also toast with a little butter. Enjoy!