Bread…cake…bread…cake…
So confusing! And no one cares! Not after biting into this moist, chocolaty, cake-like ‘bread’.
So here it is, high summer. Zucchini coming out your ears. I know lots of you started gardens this year because of all the free time you had per the Covid-19 crises. I’m not a huge fan of it (zucchini or the flu) and even I have 3 plants! (this comes from having a son working at a nursery).
With zucchini plants, often times you don’t find out you even have a zook until its the size of a baseball bat! What to do with those giant things?
Make chocolate cake of course! (duh)
Just call it bread, so it sounds healthier. I mean, after all, zucchini. Its a vegetable, so it has to be healthy right? (hmm)
This a very simple recipe I pinched years ago from the “just a pinch” website. It was posted by Missy Wimpelberg. Thank you Missy! Its amazing really. The zucchini just seems to melt into the cake, keeping it moist but not tasting ‘veggie’.
First, lets talk zucchini. Its a very watery vegetable. First you peel it, then cut it open, scooping out the seeds.
Then you grate it, using a box grater. Using a tea towel, squeeze out the liquid, as much as possible without turning it to dust.
That’s not so hard right? The rest just falls together.
Lets assemble the ingredients!
CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI BREAD
- 2 cups grated zucchini, grate, measure, then squeeze
- 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup baking cocoa
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 lg egg
- 6 Tbsp. butter, melted
- 1/4 tsp. instant coffee granules. (or espresso powder)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup of chocolate chips
- Preheat the oven to 350. Put on some music. Get a cool drink. Grease an 8×4 bread pan. I use Crisco for this. You might want to spray it. Potaytoes-potaatoes.
- Get the zucchini ready if you haven’t already.
- In one bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients, like the flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. What? Not the sugar? No, thats considered a liquid, weird but true. Not the espresso/coffee? Nope, that blooms its flavor in the melted butter later. Trust me, or rather, trust sweet Missy. Whisk the dry stuff in a bowl and set aside.
- Now the wet stuff. In another bowl, beat together the sugar and eggs until smooth. I use a hand mixer for this. Then add in the melted butter, instant coffee/espresso and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Slowly add the zucchini to the egg/sugar mixture.
- Add the flour mixture to the zucchini/sugar mixture. (in other words, add the dry stuff to the wet stuff). Add it in about 3 additions, don’t just dump it in all at once. (what was that? Too late?) Add the chocolate chips and mix just until everything is moist and mixed. Not beating it to death. We aren’t really making bread per say. We don’t need all that gluten you get from mixing.
- Pour, scoop, the batter into the prepared man, smoothing out the top. Pop into the preheated oven and bake for at least 50 minutes. Test it with a skewer and see if its done. Also don’t forget the touch test, gently pressing the top of the bread to see if its solid. If not, pop back into the oven for another 5-8 minutes. I hate going through all this just to have it sink in the middle from under cooking. Let cool 5 minutes, loosen the cake from all edged and sides of the pan and gently turn upside down. Let it cool completely on the rack.
There you have it. Simple really. What was that? The icing? Oh yes. Well, I do have a favorite wonderful, shiny glaze I like to use. This one isn’t it. Sometimes I’m just in a hurry. I know you understand this. So here is my hurry chocolate icing.
You need only 3 things.
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
- 2 Tbsp. light corn syrup (I don’t really measure this, just pour out two bloops, eyeballing it for Tablespoon size.
- 2 Tbsp. butter.
Put these 3 things in a glass container and melt in the microwave, stirring every 20 seconds or so. Just until it is nice and smooth. Mix a bit more, to make sure all the chocolate is melted, then pour over the bread. Its not too thin, not too thick. If you want a thinner drizzle, don’t use the chocolate chip glaze here. Try something else.