Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Zucchini bread is healthy, right?  I mean it has zucchini in it, so it must be.  Sorry to get all Jessica Seinfeld on you here.  I merely set out to make some zucchini bread while I was inspired by the fresh (and cheap!) zucchini at the market, and instead I made something that is bread in name-only but cake at heart.

There are zucchini bread recipes of all kinds on the web, but why bother making any other kind once you know you can make one with not one, but two types of chocolate?

I brought most of this loaf into work, and I left a Post-It explaining what it was - lest someone find a teeny piece of something green and wonder how that got into their rich chocolate cake.  This zucchini bread disappeared faster than if I had just called it brownies!

People probably allowed themselves seconds because they felt they might not get home in time to have a good dinner (hey, that happens at law firms), and they might as well have some zucchini, at least.  I fully endorse this backwards thinking because this "bread" is worth eating and savoring wholeheartedly, ditching guilt on the side.  It tastes like a decadent brownie and the buttermilk, oil, and zucchini all keep it from getting dried out.  Get yourself in the kitchen immediately and whip up this easy and delicious zucchini bread - I promise it will be the best one you've ever had.

Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread
From Baking Bites

2 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/3 cups vegetable oil
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 medium zucchini shredded (done easily with a food processor), about 1 1/4 cups
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 8x5 or 9x5 loaf pan with butter.  Set aside.

In a large bowl sift together 2 cups flour, 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 cup sugar, 2 teaspoons baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.  In a medium bowl whisk together 2 large eggs, 1/3 cup vegetable oil, 3/4 cups buttermilk, and 1 teaspoon vanilla.  Add your wet ingredients to your dry ingredients and stir until just combined.  Add in shredded zucchini and 1 cup chocolate chips and slowly mix it into the batter until incorporated.  Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees until a toothpick comes out of the center clean or with a few moist crumbs - about 50-60 minutes.  Cool in pan and invert over a cookie rack to extricate from the pan before slicing.