Zucchini season is in full swing, and I’m almost afraid to step into my garden. I’ve learned to only plant a few hills of the green stuff, but man, those plants pump out the zucchini! I grate and freeze bags of it, stir fry it, make fritters, and bake with it. And yet, there was a basket full of zucchini on my counter today…just sitting there guilting me.
When life hands you zucchini, make zucchini bread!
I’m really excited about the flavor combination in this bread. Chocolate and orange makes me dream of Christmas, but I’m happy to scarf it down any time of year. Like right NOW.
I was throwing ingredients together really fast because we were having a wild storm here and I was afraid we’d lose power before the bread had time to bake, so I totally forgot to add nuts to the batter. The bread had been in the oven for five minutes when I remembered, so I tossed some chopped pecans on the top. This was not one of my better ideas, since the weight of the nuts made the top of the bread sink a bit. It isn’t picture-perfect, but I can attest to the fact that the texture and taste is amazing.
I know this because I tested it several times. For the blog.
One nice thing about this recipe is that you just use one bowl and don’t even have to mess with a mixer. A wooden spoon is all you’ll need to mix up this batter. It’s a slam-dunk recipe, which is kind of nice once in a while. You’ll want to print this one out; it’s a keeper!
| Orange Chocolate Zucchini Bread | Print |
- ½ cup butter, softened
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Zest and juice from one large orange
- ½ cup buttermilk
- 1 cup grated zucchini
- ¼ cup cocoa
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)
- Heat oven to 350 F.
- Generously grease and flour a standard loaf pan
- Beat together the butter, brown sugar, white sugar, eggs, and vanilla.
- Mix in the orange zest and juice, buttermilk, and zucchini.
- Stir in the cocoa, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nuts just until combined. Don't over stir.
- Evenly spoon the batter into prepared pan.
- Bake 50-55 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of the bread.
- Move pan to a cooling rack for 10 minutes. Release bread from pan and cool completely before slicing. (Ha ha ha...that's what everyone says. I've never managed to actually do this.)
- Enjoy!
Grating orange zest
Add the zucchini
Stir just until mixed. Don’t over stir!
Spread evenly in the prepared pan
Cooling on the rack. Wait for it…..
Orange Chocolate Zucchini Bread – The Rowdy Baker
So you know the drill. You can plant zucchini if you wish, but it’s easier to just leave your car door unlocked during zucchini season. Or put a sign on the bulletin board at work. Or come visit me!
Lorinda
Oh yummy! Love orange and chocolate together. Shared and pinned the love!
Such a sweetie. Thank you!
My pleasure! <3
I love zucchini and although I don’t have a vegetable garden they’re in abundance at the roadside stands. I’ll have to get some extras and try this recipe.
You’ll love it, Karen. Buy a few extra zucchinis to grate and freeze, because this would be a good bread for the dead of winter. Hard to imagine the dead of winter when we’re in the 90s here, but it is coming!
Oooh!! Orange and chocolate together–one of my faves!!! I’m going to try this with a GF flour and see how it turns out!! I’ll report back! Nom Nom!!
Please do, Jen! I know I need to start developing some GF recipes.