Zucchini bread, like banana bread is something that I am often wary about…

I love both of them but what I hate is sitting down and taking a bite of an overcooked, dry piece of zucchini flavoured bread. I want my zucchini bread to be moist and tender inside and have a nice crisp crust all around with tons of flavour. I basically want it to be like a bread shaped cake that you can have for breakfast.

This is that kind of bread.

One of the secrets… ok, ok, it is not really a secret… but the reason it is so moist is the pumpkin… you can replace the oil in many baking recipes with pumpkin purée and what you most often end up with is a super moist cake or bread. Seriously… try replacing the oil in your favourite chocolate cake with pumpkin and making cupcakes (or muffins) They turn out so gooey and satisfying. And, best of all, when you swap out the oil for something like pumpkin (or applesauce) you are also making it a lot healthier…

(can you see how crisp the crust is…but there is nothing dry about any of it)

Zucchini Pumpkin Bread

 

Pumpkin chocolate Zucchini Bread

  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 3 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup pureed pumpkin (I used 1/4 of my dehydrated pumpkin powder, rehydrated in 1 cup boiling water)
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 cups grated zucchini
  • 1 cup dark chocolate chips

Grease and flour two loaf pans and Preheat oven to 325.
Put flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl and mix with a whisk (quicker than sifting)
In another bowl, beat eggs, pumpkin, vanilla, and sugar together and then add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture and beat well.
Stir in zucchini and chocolate chips until well combined and pour batter into prepared pans.
Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan  for 20 minutes and then remove bread from pan, and completely cool.
(You can find my Banana Bread recipe here)