A Chocolate Zucchini Bread that is moist, soft with a tender crumb and made with whole wheat flour. This is an easy eggless & vegan zucchini bread made with your regular pantry staple ingredients.
Chop some walnuts and measure them. You will need ⅓ cup walnuts.
Grease a loaf pan with the dimensions of 8.5 x 4.5 x 2.5 inches with oil and set aside.
Rinse zucchini and then wipe it dry. Grate 1 medium zucchini using a thick grater. Measure the grated zucchini. You will need 1 cup grated zucchini.
Preheat oven at 190 degrees Celsius (374 degrees Fahrenheit) for 20 minutes.
Sifting dry ingredients
In a sieve, take whole wheat flour, cocoa powder, ground cinnamon powder, ground allspice or clove powder, ground nutmeg powder, ground dry ginger , baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Sift and set aside.
Mixing wet ingredients
In a mixing bowl take the grated zucchini, raw sugar, vanilla extract or vanilla essence, oil, almond milk or water or any nut milk (cashew, almond or coconut).
Mix very well.
Making zucchini bread batter
Now add the sifted dry ingredients and chopped walnuts.
With a spatula, begin to fold batter using the cut and fold technique with light pressure coming from the hands. Do not fold too vigorously.
Fold to a batter where all the ingredients have mixed evenly and the batter has volume. This is a thick batter. If batter looks very thick or dry then add 2 tablespoons more almond milk.
Pour batter in a greased or well-oiled loaf pan. Tap the pan a couple of times on the counter-top and smoothen the top of the batter with a spatula.
Bake in the preheated oven at 190 degrees Celsius (374 degrees Fahrenheit) for 50 to 60 minutes.
Do keep a check when baking, but only open the door after ¾ᵗʰ of the bread is baked. A wooden skewer when inserted in the loaf should come out clean. Keep the loaf pan on a wired rack to cool.
When the bread has completely cooled at room temperature, remove it gently from the loaf-pan.
Slice and serve chocolate zucchini bread. Wrap the remaining bread and store in the refrigerator. You can even freeze this sweet bread.
Notes
Expert Tips
Folding batter: Fold batter using the cut and fold method. Do not mix with a wired whisk or overdo the folding. This will result in developing gluten that will give a dense texture in the bread.
Leavening agents: Baking powder and baking soda are the two ingredients that are used to leaven. So they have to be fresh and active.
Grating Zucchini: Make thick grates from the zucchini.
Consistency of batter: The consistency is of a thick batter like that of a banana bread batter. If batter becomes too flowing, then add 2 to 3 tablespoons flour and incorporate it gently.
Oven temperatures: Since this is a moist bread it takes more time to bake. Oven temperatures vary and in your oven it may take less or more time to bake.
Baking in convection ovens: Bake at a temperature of 180 degrees Celsius (356 degrees Fahrenheit) in a convection oven.
Cocoa powder: Use a good quality cocoa powder. Do not use dutch process cocoa powder.
Wheat flour: Both the whole wheat flour that is available in the US or the wheat flour that is used for making roti can be used in the recipe. Depending on the quality of flour and the water content in the zucchini, you may need to add 2 to 3 tablespoons of flour if batter has a medium consistency or add 2 tablespoons almond milk if batter looks very thick.
Storing: Store the bread wrapped in the refrigerator. You can even store the bread in a container or box in the refrigerator. This chocolate zucchini bread also freezes well. It stays good for 10 to 12 days in the fridge and for a couple of months in the freezer.
Ingredient swaps
Flour: You can use all-purpose flour or pastry flour or whole wheat pastry flour instead of whole wheat flour.
Zucchini: You can use both green zucchini as well as yellow zucchini. But do make sure that the zucchini is not bitter. So taste the zucchini before grating it.
Nuts: Pecans, almonds, pistachios, cashews can be replaced with walnuts. You can even add dry fruits like raisins, dried berries and even chocolate chips.
Ground spices: You can skip any of the ground spices if you do not have them. But do not skip vanilla.
Pumpkin spice: Use 1 to 1.5 teaspoon pumpkin spice instead of adding ground spices separately.
Raw sugar: Maple syrup, coconut sugar, palm sugar, white sugar or jaggery can be used in place of raw sugar.