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This Mini Chocolate Zucchini Bread seamlessly blends the wholesome goodness of zucchini with the indulgence of rich chocolate. Each bite delivers moist perfection and a delightful burst of flavor. Whether you’re enjoying a quiet moment alone or sharing with someone close, this bread, baked in a small baking dish dish, ensures a satisfying and delightful treat.
Indulge in a slice of moist chocolate zucchini bread, perfectly complemented by rich homemade whipped cream, fresh berries, or a creamy scoop of vanilla ice cream. This delightful combination is sure to satisfy your sweet tooth.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Chocolate Zucchini Bread Recipe
- No-mixer required: Keeping it simple means fewer dishes and an uncomplicated process.
- Perfect serving size: Designed for one or two, there’s no excess, and every slice feels special.
- Balanced flavors: The zucchini’s mild flavor complements the chocolate’s richness.
- Quick prep: With simple ingredients, it’s a breeze to prepare before baking.
Selecting The Ideal Zucchini For Your Bread
When on the hunt for the perfect zucchini, several pointers can guide your selection. First and foremost, aim for zucchinis that boast a firm texture and a slightly shiny skin. When you gently tap on the zucchini, it shouldn’t give off a hollow sound or feel. And remember, size matters! Opting for small to medium-sized zucchinis is key, as larger ones can suggest a late harvest, which often results in a less firm interior.
Preserving Your Zucchini: Freezing Tips
Got an abundance of zucchini and have already explored recipes like zucchini bread, zucchini noodles, and zucchini lasagna? Don’t let that zucchini go to waste! Freezing is a great way to store your excess zucchini for later use. Here’s how to do it:
Method 1: Freezing Zucchini Pieces
- Preparation: Dice your zucchini into bite-sized chunks. These smaller pieces are especially perfect for soups.
- Blanching: Boil water in a large pot and set aside a bowl filled with ice water. Drop the zucchini into the boiling water for just about 60 seconds, ensuring they remain crisp-tender.
- Cooling: With a slotted spoon, immediately transfer the blanched zucchini into the ice water. This cools them quickly, halting the cooking process.
- Drying & Freezing: Lay out the zucchini on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Dry them using a kitchen towel or paper towels. Freeze until solid, approximately 3 hours.
- Storing: Once frozen, shift the zucchini to freezer bags or containers. Clearly label with the date, and they’ll be good to use for up to three months.
- Using: Post freezing, zucchini’s texture might change due to its high-water content, making it ideal for soups, casseroles, and sauces. Use directly from the freezer for soups, or thaw before incorporating into casseroles.
Method 2: Freezing Grated Zucchini for Bread
- Grating & Draining: Shred your zucchini, then transfer to a bowl lined with paper towels or cheesecloth. Squeeze to remove excess moisture.
- Freezing: Place the drained zucchini in freezer bags or containers.
- Baking: When you’re set to bake, thaw the zucchini. Give it another squeeze to eliminate any leftover moisture, then mix it right into your batter.
Ingredients
This section provides a quick rundown of the ingredients used in this mini chocolate zucchini bread recipe. For complete measurements and step-by-step instructions, please scroll to the recipe card located at the bottom of this post.
- Zucchini: For this recipe, use approximately 3/4 cup (100 grams) of zucchini, which usually means one small zucchini or half of a medium-sized one. Keep the smooth dark green skin on while grating. You can grate it using a box grater, a food processor with a shredder blade, or a high-powered blender. If you have leftover zucchini, they work great in dishes like Greek Chicken, Vegetable Lasagna, or Ratatouille.
- Sugars: Incorporating both white and brown sugar enriches the taste. If you’re out of brown sugar, whip up our quick brown sugar mix.
- Unsweetened Applesauce or Melted Butter: Your pick! Both ingredients work wonders. Choosing butter? Use ¼ cup (4 tablespoons/60 grams), adding it alongside the zucchini, egg, sugars, and oil.
- Cocoa Powder: Stick to regular unsweetened cocoa powder instead of the Dutch-processed variant. Its slight acidity pairs with baking soda, aiding in the bread’s rise.
- Baking Essentials: We use a combo of baking soda and baking powder to ensure that perfect loaf lift.
- Oil: Either avocado, vegetable or canola oil will do the trick.
- Flavor Boosters: Salt and vanilla extract – essential to enhance those delicious notes.
- Chocolate: My go-to choices are semi-sweet or dark chocolate. Whether you’re reaching for chips or chopped baking chocolate, both complement the bread beautifully. Use leftover chocolate in Chocolate Chip Banana Bread, a single serve Brookie, or Chocolate Scones.
How To Make Chocolate Zucchini Bread
These step-by-step photos and instructions help you visualize how to make a small loaf of chocolate zucchini bread. See the recipe box below for ingredient amounts and full recipe instructions.
- Grate the zucchini: I use my Vitamix blender and it works beautifully. You may also use a box grater or the shredder blade in a food processor.
- Mix the wet ingredients together: Mix together the egg, oil, sugars, applesauce, vanilla, and zucchini in a medium-sized bowl.
- Add the dry ingredients: Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir until no flour remains, being careful not to over-mix.
Pro Tip: To measure flour correctly, use a spoon to stir the flour inside the flour bag or container. You want to loosen it up in case it’s packed tightly inside. Use a spoon to scoop flour into a dry measuring cup and slightly overfill. Then, use the flat end of a knife or other straight-edged utensil to level the flour across the cup. Do not scoop the flour. When you scoop, the flour gets packed too tightly and you will end up with more flour than the recipe calls for.
- Stir in the chocolate chips or chocolate chunks.
- Bake: Pour the batter into a lightly buttered 5×5 inch baking dish and bake for 30 minutes.
Expert Tips
- Before you start baking, make sure to read the entire recipe, including the Ingredient Notes section, and examine the process photos. This detailed guide will help you understand how the recipe unfolds, ensuring your chocolate zucchini bread turns out perfect every time. All the information you need is found within the body of this recipe post, so don’t miss a thing!
- Grating Zucchini: A box grater (hand grater), mini food processor, or a high-powered blender like Vitamix will do the job effectively.
- Zucchini Moisture: Resist the urge to squeeze the zucchini. Retaining its natural moisture ensures a succulent loaf.
- Flour Measurement: Adhere to the spoon and level technique as detailed above for precise measurements.
- Mixing Method: Gently combine the ingredients. Overzealous mixing can lead to a loaf that’s dry and less tender.
Frequently Asked Questions
Ideal choices include a 5×5-inch dish or an oven-safe 4×6-inch dish. Explore our Store Page to discover the exact dishes we recommend for our recipes.
Wrap your bread and store it at room temperature for up to 3 days. For a longer shelf life of up to a week, keep it refrigerated.
Certainly! When doubling the ingredient quantities, choose a 6.5 x 6.5 inch or a 6×8 inch baking dish.
Ways To Use Leftover Ingredients
If you have any ingredients leftover from this small chocolate zucchini bread recipe, check out our Leftover Ingredients Recipe Finder or you might like to consider using them in any of these single serving and small batch recipes:
If you’ve tried this mini chocolate zucchini bread or any recipe on One Dish Kitchen please let me know how you liked it by rating the recipe and telling me about it in the comment section below.
Also, if you take a picture please tag us on Instagram (@onedishkitchen) we’d love to see it!
Mini Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 large egg
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil or use canola oil or avocado oil
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¾ cup grated zucchini (do not drain or squeeze out excess moisture)
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup chocolate chips (about 1-ounce)
- Optional: powdered sugar for topping
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350° F (177° C). Lightly grease a 5-inch baking dish (or use a dish of similar size) with cooking spray or butter.
- Mix together the egg, oil, sugars, applesauce, and vanilla in a medium-sized bowl. Stir in the zucchini.
- Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir until no flour remains, being careful not to overmix.
- Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Pour the batter into the baking dish and bake for 30 minutes. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean.
- Cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Remove from the pan and transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
- Slice and top with powdered sugar, if using.
Notes
- Before you start baking, make sure to read the entire recipe, including the Ingredient Notes section, and examine the process photos. This detailed guide will help you understand how the recipe unfolds, ensuring your chocolate zucchini bread turns out perfect every time. All the information you need is found within the body of this recipe post, so don’t miss a thing!
- Grating Zucchini: A box grater (hand grater), mini food processor, or a high-powered blender like Vitamix will do the job effectively.
- Zucchini Moisture: Resist the urge to squeeze the zucchini. Retaining its natural moisture ensures a succulent loaf.
- Flour Measurement: Adhere to the spoon and level technique as detailed in the recipe post for precise measurements.
- Mixing Method: Gently combine the ingredients. Overzealous mixing can lead to a loaf that’s dry and less tender.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Can you put a banana in it?
You can add banana to the chocolate zucchini bread, but since bananas add quite a bit of moisture, it can make the loaf overly soft or dense if not adjusted. If you’d like to try it, I recommend using about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of mashed banana in place of some of the oil—maybe reduce the oil to 1 tablespoon. Keep in mind that banana adds natural sweetness, so you could also slightly reduce the sugar if you’d like.
Also, the baking time might need to be increased slightly since banana can slow how quickly the center sets. I haven’t tested this version myself, but it’s definitely a fun idea to experiment with. Let me know how it turns out if you try it!
Hi Joanie,
When doubling the recipe you would still use a 5 inch size pan? I’ve got it in the oven now and it’s still baking after 30 minutes. Center toothpick still comes out not done. I’m using an electric oven.
Thank you,
Dawn
Thank you, Dawn! As we mentioned in the FAQ section on the recipe page, we recommend using a 6.5×6.5 or 6×8 inch baking dish. It sounds like you have too much batter in the dish you’re using, which is likely why the cake isn’t done yet. I hope this helps!
Made this today. I used dark chocolate chips which made it chocolatey rich. So good!! Will make again and add nuts. Great recipe and easy. Thank you.
I’m so happy you enjoyed the zucchini bread. Thanks so much for your feedback!
Hi Joanie,
I made this recipe today using a small bundt cake pan. It was perfectly moist and absolutely delicious! Just right for 2 people.
PS. I have your cookbook and follow you on Instagram. I’ve have made several of your wonderful recipes. Thank you for sharing!
Good morning Joanie
Thank you for your efforts in building this site. I am now cooking for one, sometimes two. Your website is going to be very helpful. Will the recipes come out ok if I use a stand mixer instead of a hand mixer?
Hi Pat, they should turn out just fine using a stand mixer. I use a hand mixer because my stand mixer is very deep and with small batch recipes, it’s harder to mix the ingredients together in my deep mixer.
Super tasty!! Doubled it and cooked it in an 8×8 glass pan. Used some of the last zucchini from my garden and for the chocolate, I had a chunk of bulk milk chocolate that was a bit past it’s prime in that it was crumbly with a lot of white but it tasted just fine… man this cake is good!! Seriously cannot tell it has zucchini in it. Like a super moist chocolate cake. Mmmm.. thanks so much!
Hi Joanie Love your recipes
Look forward to Fridays to see what you are cooking .
Just a quick question ——zucchini’s are getting overwhelming ( but I never get tired of them) the zucchini bread can that be made in the microwave ?
Thank you, Janet. I don’t recommend using the microwave for this recipe.