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Bake scrumptious Mini Chocolate Zucchini Bread! Easy, healthy recipe packed with moist zucchini & decadent chocolate. Perfect for snacking!
Delicious, moist, and chocolatey – the Mini Chocolate Zucchini Bread is a delightful snack that everyone should try. This bread combines the goodness of zucchini and the richness of chocolate, creating a perfect balance of flavors.
What Is Zucchini Bread?
Zucchini bread is a sweet bread made from shredded zucchini, much like banana bread is made from bananas. The zucchini adds a lovely moisture to the bread, making it soft and delicious. When you add chocolate to this mix, you get Chocolate Zucchini Bread – a treat that’s doubly delicious and moist.
Why This Recipe Works
- It’s easy – It’s a no-mixer recipe, ideal for beginners.
- It’s versatile – You can enjoy it for breakfast, as a snack, or as a dessert.
- It’s healthy – Zucchini is packed with fiber and nutrients.
How To Select The Perfect Zucchini
- When choosing zucchini, look for ones with a firm, slightly shiny exterior.
- Tap the zucchini with your fingertips – it should not sound or feel hollow.
- Look for zucchini that are small to medium-sized. Larger zucchini may indicate that they were picked too late and will be less firm inside.
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
See the recipe box below for ingredient amounts and full recipe instructions.
- Zucchini: Zucchini, also known as a courgette, has a smooth dark green skin that I do not peel before grating. You will need 3/4 cup (100 grams) of grated zucchini which may be either one small zucchini or half of a medium-sized zucchini. To grate the zucchini, use the shredder side of a box grater, the shredder blade in a food processor, or a sturdy blender.
- Sugar and brown sugar: This recipe calls for using both types of sugar. If you don’t have brown sugar, use our easy brown sugar recipe.
- Unsweetened applesauce or melted butter: This double chocolate zucchini bread can be made with either of these ingredients and I think you’ll love the bread regardless of which ingredient you use. If you use butter instead of applesauce, use ¼ cup of butter (4 tablespoons/60 grams) and add the melted butter along with the zucchini, egg, sugars, and oil.
- Cocoa powder: This recipe calls for regular unsweetened cocoa powder, not Dutch processed. Unsweetened cocoa powder is slightly acidic and reacts with the baking soda to provide some of the bread’s leavening.
- Baking soda and baking powder: Both of these ingredients are used in our chocolate zucchini bread recipe and both are needed to add lift to the bread.
- Oil: Use vegetable oil or canola oil.
- Salt and vanilla extract: Both of these ingredients add flavor.
- Chocolate: I prefer using semi-sweet or dark chocolate in this recipe. Use either chocolate chips of chopped baking chocolate.
This is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why I used them. For the full recipe please scroll down to the recipe box at the bottom of the post.
How To Make Chocolate Zucchini Bread
The photos and instructions are here to help you visualize how to make a mini 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
- You can easily grate the zucchini with a hand grater, also known as a box grater, a mini food processor, or a Vitamix blender.
- Don’t squeeze the zucchini. The moisture is required to keep the loaf moist.
- Measure the flour as instructed above, using the spoon and level method.
- Stir the ingredients just until they are combined. Overmixing can cause breads to become dry and chewy.
Frequently Asked Questions
I use a 5×5-inch baking dish that has a base of 25 square inches, an oven-safe 4×6-inch dish, or a baking dish that measures 6.6×5 inches. You can also use a round 6×2-inch cake pan.
You can find the dishes we use in all of our recipes on our Store Page.
Chocolate zucchini bread should be covered and will keep well at room temperature for up to 3 days. It will keep for up to a week when stored in the refrigerator.
Absolutely, yes! Double the ingredients in this bread recipe, use a larger baking dish and bake for the same amount of time as indicated in the recipe.
Ways To Use Leftover Ingredients
If you have any ingredients leftover from this one-bowl chocolate zucchini bread recipe, you might like to consider using them in any of these single serving and small batch recipes:
- Zucchini: Mini Zucchini Lasagna, Zucchini Noodles, Ratatouille, Vegetable Casserole
- Applesauce: Zucchini Bread
- Vegetable oil: Spice Cake, Gumbo, Apple Fritters
- Eggs: Cheesy Baked Eggs, Dutch Baby, Pancakes
- Vanilla extract: Vanilla Ice Cream, Banana Cream Pie, Hummingbird Cake
- Cocoa powder: Texas Sheet Cake, Double Chocolate Chip Cookies, Deep Dish Brownie
- Chocolate: S’mores Dip, Two Ingredient Chocolate Mousse, Chocolate Chip Muffin
How To Freeze Zucchini
If you find yourself with plenty of zucchini and you’ve already made zucchini bread, zucchini noodles, and zucchini lasagna (recipes can be found above the photo). Freeze your leftover zucchini to use later.
Here are two ways to freeze zucchini:
First method
- Cut the zucchini into bite-sized pieces. If you think you’ll be using the zucchini for soups, small pieces are great.
- Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil and prepare an ice bath by filling a large bowl with ice water.
- Spoon the zucchini into the boiling water and cook for 60 seconds. When done, the zucchini should still be crisp-tender.
- Using a mesh strainer or a slotted spoon, scoop out the zucchini and plunge it into the ice water – this helps stop the cooking process.
- Scoop the zucchini from the water and arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with a silicon baking mat or parchment paper. Pat the zucchini dry with a clean dish towel or a paper towel.
- Freeze until completely solid, at least 3 hours.
- Transfer the frozen zucchini to freezer bags or containers.
- Label and date the containers, and freeze for up to 3 months.
Because zucchini is 95% water, it can become very soft after you freeze and thaw it. Therefore, it is best used in soups, casseroles, and sauces. I just toss the zucchini in while still frozen – no need to thaw it first.
For casseroles, thaw the zucchini first before adding it to your dish.
Second method
To freeze grated zucchini to use in zucchini bread throughout the year:
- Grate the zucchini and place one cup of it in a bowl lined with paper towels or cheesecloth, then squeeze out as much liquid as you can.
- Transfer the grated zucchini to a freezer bag or container and freeze.
- When you are ready to bake with the zucchini, defrost it, then squeeze out as much water as you can before mixing it into the batter.
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!
Recipe
Mini Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 large egg
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil or canola 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
- You can easily grate the zucchini with a hand grater, also known as a box grater, a mini food processor, or a Vitamix blender.
- Don’t squeeze the zucchini. The moisture is required to keep the loaf moist.
- Measure the flour as instructed above, using the spoon and level method.
- Stir the ingredients just until they are combined. Overmixing can cause bread to become dry and chewy.
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.
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.