This super moist and rich double chocolate zucchini bread tastes like dessert but is secretly healthy, Paleo, free of refined sugar, grain free, gluten free and dairy free. It’s kid approved and great for snacks and even breakfast!
Double chocolate zucchini bread – tastes like chocolate cake but is WAY healthier, with enough nutrients for breakfast!
This is an older recipe that everyone loved that I tweaked and updated recently.
The changes are minor but give the bread better rise and a bit more sweetness. Plus, there are a few great paleo friendly chocolate chip options now, so no need to make your own!
Let’s get into all the chocolatey details!
What You Need to Make this Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread
This easy quick bread uses ingredients you might already have on hand if you’re familiar with paleo baking.
Here’s everything you’ll need to prepare this chocolate zucchini bread:
- blanched almond flour
- unsweetened cocoa powder
- fine sea salt
- baking soda
- eggs
- maple sugar or coconut sugar
- refined coconut oil
- smooth almond butter or cashew butter
- pure vanilla extract
- fresh zucchini
- dark chocolate chips, paleo friendly
How to Make This Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Preheat your oven to 350°F and line a medium loaf pan with parchment paper
In a medium bowl, combine the almond flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt, then set aside
In a large bowl, whisk or blend together the coconut oil, nut butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla until well combined and smooth.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet until just moistened (batter should be quite thick) then fold in the shredded zucchini, then the chocolate chips.
Transfer the batter to the parchment lined loaf pan and bake until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean, about 50 minutes.
Cool the loaf on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then gently remove the loaf by holding both sides of the parchment paper and continue to cool completely on the wire rack before slicing.
Store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
One last baking note on the zucchini! Since zucchini contains tons of water, you’ll want to squeeze out as much as possible before mixing it into the batter.
I shredded my zucchini using my food processor attachment, then allowed it to sit in a paper-towel lined bowl while I prepared the batter.
Right before adding it in, I squeezed a ton of water out of it between paper towels, THEN measured to make sure I had the right amount.
I hope you’re ready to bake – I can’t wait for you to try this bread! Let’s go!
Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread {Paleo, GF, DF}
Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread {Paleo, GF, DF}
Ingredients
- 1 1/3 cups blanched almond flour
- 6 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder or raw cacao powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp fine grain sea salt
- 1/4 cup organic coconut oil melted and cooled to almost room temp
- 1/4 cup smooth almond butter or cashew butter, unsalted
- 2/3 cup maple sugar or coconut sugar
- 3 large eggs room temp
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 medium zucchini peeled (if desired) and finely shredded - 1 3/4 -2 cups shredded), water squeezed out with paper towels
- 2/3 cup dark chocolate chips homemade or Enjoy Life brand
Instructions
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Preheat your oven to 350°F and line a medium loaf pan with parchment paper on the bottom and up the sides.
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In a medium bowl, combine the almond flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt; set aside
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in a large bowl, whisk or blend together the coconut oil, almond butter, coconut sugar, eggs and vanilla until well combined and smooth.
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Add the dry ingredients to the wet until just moistened (batter should be thick) then fold in the shredded zucchini, then the chocolate chips.
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Transfer the batter to the parchment lined loaf pan and bake until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean, 50-55 minutes.
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Cool the loaf on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then gently remove the loaf by holding both sides of the parchment paper and continue to cool completely on the wire rack before slicing. Store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
*Use refined coconut oil to avoid coconut flavor, if desired. I love this one.
Nutrition
Want More Paleo Bread and Muffin Recipes? Try one of these!
Double Chocolate Banana Muffins with Tahini
Banana Blueberry Breakfast Bread
Simple Almond Butter Blueberry Muffins
Almond Butter Banana Muffins with Flaxseed
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Just made this zucchini, it is absolutely delicious!! Easy to make, I used the enjoy life chocolate chips and made it in two small loaf pans.
Hello from Spain! I used to be a good baker (following disaster-proof recipes) but now that I’m trying to follow a Paleo lifestyle, things are getting a litlle harder, you know, sometimes I miss old reliable regular flour and its power to riiiiiiise in the oven. Anyway, I’m not afraid of trying new things, and yesterday I made this. Had no vanille nor coconut sugar, so I skipped the former and used a veeeery little regular sugar that I still have in my pantry. Also, I used s 95% chocolate that nobody was capable to eat (ahahah) for the chunks. I was a little worried about rising, since I was not sure that baking soda alone (with no acid ingredient) would work… Well, the result is great!!! Super soft, moisty, it didn’t rise much, but I really don’t think it’s a problem. Next time I will use another chocolate because it tastes really really bitter, but I already expected it, and well combined with natural pear sauce, I’ve eaten almost the half of it!!!
Absolutely decadent! Easy to make and not too sweet. It’s a keeper!
Can I put them in cupcakes instead of a loaf? Would it be the same baking time?
Omg this does taste like chocolate cake!!! Will it make it again!!! And again!!
This is pure heaven! So moist and delicious! Be sure to chop that zucchini up pretty fine and wring it out really well. Nobody will even know it’s there let alone that it’s paleo. This recipe is pure genius!
Thanks. It is great recipe. Can sugar be substituted with erythritol?
Delicious! Subbed natural pb for the almond butter and made in muffin pan for 18 minutes. Perfect!
I made several interesting decisions last night. First, to use up the zucchini I had in my fridge by making my first ever zucchini bread. That didn’t quite work out as one of my zucchinis yielded a full 2 cups. Oh well, now I can use the other to make the banana zucchini bread on this website! Second, to use this recipe because while I’m not paleo, I figured I am using a healthy ingredient may as well make a healthier recipe, and I wanted it to be chocolate so my partner wouldn’t know there was a vegetable (fruit?) in the bread. Third, to not make a bread but actually make muffins because I was starting to bake at 10:30PM and wanted to be able to try some before I went to bed. I’m at 4500 feet so I followed Michele’s advice to raise the temp and baked them for 20 mins at 365. For some reason it made 11, not 12 muffins, so I had to eat one while still warm to make sure things were even. My fourth decision was that because I didn’t have paleo/sugar free chocolate chips, I would instead make a dark chocolate glaze to put on top of the muffins, following inspiration from a King Arthur gluten free chocolate zucchini bread recipe. I did not realize that coconut sugar does not melt in chocolate like regular sugar so I spent WAY too long trying to dissolve coconut sugar in 100% chocolate to make a paleo glaze…I later learned you are supposed to use a liquid sweetener like maple syrup…eventually my arm was about to fall off from stirring every which way, the muffins were starting to cool off and I had work the next day so I gave up and melted half white chocolate half dark chocolate chips in a double boiler, which produced a delightful fudge like topping. Not paleo, but you can’t say I didn’t try. The muffins tasted like a deep chocolate cake with a very soft, moist texture. I would venture to say they don’t even need a glaze or chocolate chips – though who doesn’t like melted chocolate? My boyfriend ate 3 and still doesn’t know they have zucchini in them.
Fantastic! I used a yellow zucchini because that was all I had, and I love it!