Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread
A delicious and healthy chocolate chip zucchini bread that is moist, flavorful and tender! A tasty way to get in your veggies. This bread is vegan, loaded with whole grains and an easy snack or grab and go breakfast!
I feel like every season has it’s specific and perfect bread. Around the middle of summer, zucchinis are just about everywhere. I always end up with a few needing to be used up in the fridge and have used them in different recipes like zucchini fries, coconut cream zucchini oatmeal, and this roasted lentil potato salad. Today, we’re shredding it to make this chocolate chip zucchini bread, which has become a staple this time of year.
To make this bread dairy-free and egg-free we have done some scientific swaps to make sure that we still end up with a fluffy and flavorful treat that can also be used for a breakfast slice on the go. Regardless how you decide to enjoy this, you will love it!
Why You’ll Love This Vegan Zucchini Bread
- It’s fluffy even with the use of whole grains and is not overly sweet like a lot of traditional breads.
- Lower in added sugar compared to other zucchini bread recipes.
- A great way to use up your summer zucchini and get in more veggies.
- Perfect for making ahead to use as a sweet treat or grab and go breakfast.
- Vegan, loaded with whole grains and easy to make!
Key Ingredients and Substitutions
- Flax Egg: For more structure. You can also swap the ground flaxseeds for ground chia seeds.
- Zucchini: The main ingredient. Use a medium sized zucchini and avoid large zucchinis that have a lot of large seeds in them as they will make the bread gummy.
- Apple Sauce: A natural sweetener and acts as one of our egg replacers. If you don’t have access to apple sauce, use mashed ripe bananas.
- Flour: You can use white spelt flour, white whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, and 1:1 gluten-free all-purpose flour for alternatives.
- Brown Sugar: I recommend a light brown sugar, but this can be swapped with coconut sugar.
- Nut Butter: I used peanut butter, but you can use any other creamy and runny nut or seed butter you like.
- Apple Cider Vinegar: Will react with your baking powder and baking soda to create a fluffy texture. You can sub for distilled white vinegar.
- Chocolate Chips: I always prefer chocolate chunks, but use your favorite dairy-free chocolate chips. You can also add in some walnuts or pecans if you want some additional chew to this bread.
How to Make Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread
Combine water and flaxseed and let it gel for 5 minutes to form a flax egg.
In a large bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and sugar. Fold in the flax egg, applesauce, peanut butter, apple cider vinegar and grated zucchini until half the batter is mixed.
To the batter, fold in the chocolate chips until you get a well mixed, thick batter. Add the batter to a lined 8-in x 12-in loaf pan. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until you stick a tooth pick into the center of the loaf and it comes out clean.
Allow the loaf to cool then slice and serve.
Expert Tips
- Use a box grater to grate your zucchini. For best results, I like to grate it fairly fine so it blends very well into the bread.
- If you have little ones that don’t like seeing the green parts of the zucchini skin, you can peel your zucchini before grating it for this recipe.
- The apple cider vinegar or your acid in this recipe is critical. It reacts with the baking soda and baking powder and helps to create the air and lift in your bread.
- Use a smooth and runny nut or seed butter. The consistency will help to take the place of the fat used in traditional loafs, which impacts the texture.
- Do allow the bread to cool before slicing. The bread will continue to cook itself when taken out of the oven. Cooling will also help the bread to finalize its structure and prevent it from becoming gummy in texture.
Frequently Asked Questions
To make this bread nut free, feel free to swap the peanut butter with sunflower seed butter, coconut oil, vegan butter or tahini.
The flour is easy to swap with other flours. I would recommend using the Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free 1:1 all purpose flour for the best results.
To prevent it from drying out I recommend covering the bread in some plastic wrap or a large freezer safe bag on the counter for up to 5 days.
Yes! Slice your bread into individual slices and store in an airtight container to place in the freezer for up to 2 months. To reheat, just take your slice and place it into a toaster oven to heat through.
You really don’t taste any zucchini in this bread. Zucchini on it’s own is very bland and will blend into this bread without detection. What the zucchini will do is add more moisture and fluff to the bread. The flavor of the bread really comes from your add ins, which include the cinnamon, vanilla and chocolate chips.
How to Serve
You can enjoy each slice as is or spread with some vegan nutella, creamy peanut butter or chia jam. For more protein as a simple breakfast, serve with a serving of soy milk or pea milk to add 7-9 grams of protein!
More Lightly Sweetened Vegan Desserts to Try
- Vegan Peanut Butter Blondies
- Matcha Sugar Cookies
- Chewy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Lemon Blueberry Muffins
- Peach Pie Ice Cream Bars
- Healthy Strawberry Crumble
Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Total Time: 65 minutes
- Yield: 10 slices
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
A delicious and healthy chocolate chip zucchini bread that is moist, flavorful and tender! A tasty way to get in your veggies. This bread is vegan and loaded with whole grains!
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp ground flaxseed
- 4 tbsp water
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 cups spelt flour or all purpose flour, spoon and level
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 cup grated zucchini
- 1/4 cup natural peanut butter
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup dairy-free dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Combine water and flaxseed in a small bowl, then allow to gel for 5 minutes to form a flax egg.
- In a large bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and sugar. Fold in the flax egg, applesauce, peanut butter, apple cider vinegar and grated zucchini until half the batter is mixed.
- To the batter, fold in the chocolate chips until you get a well mixed, thick batter. Add the batter to a parchment lined 8-in x 12-in loaf pan. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until you stick a tooth pick into the center of the loaf and it comes out clean.
- Allow the loaf to cool for 30 minutes before slicing and serving.
Notes
Use a box grater to grate your zucchini. For best results, I like to grate it fairly fine so it blends very well into the bread.
If you have little ones that don’t like seeing the green parts of the zucchini skin, you can peel your zucchini before grating it for this recipe.
To make this gluten-free use Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free 1:1 All Purpose Flour.
Use a smooth and runny nut or seed butter. The consistency will help to take the place of the fat used in traditional loafs, which impacts the texture.
Do allow the bread to cool before slicing. The bread will continue to cook itself when taken out of the oven. Cooling will also help the bread to finalize its structure and prevent it from becoming gummy in texture.
If you tried this recipe or any other recipe on the blog, then let me know what you thought in the comments below! And if you loved it, don’t forget to rate it too. Feel free to follow on Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok for the latest nutrition tips and recipe videos.
★ Catherine
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Hi thought you may want to know that when I go to print the recipe its comes up as Chocolate Chip Walnut Banana Bread. This recipe looks amazing , will be trying soon.
So sorry about the confusion. The title was the only thing wrong. I corrected it. The recipe should be the absolute same. 🙂
Look yummy! Please keep up the good works!
Thank you!
Just tried this recipe. I used unbleached all purpose flour instead of spelt flour. It turned out great. Thanks for the recipe!
So glad you had success with this recipe. You are so welcome and if anything thanks for trying it!
We made your chocolate chip zucchini bread for house church brunch this morning and it was delicious! We used mostly unbleached all purpose flour with a small percentage of whole wheat flour. Thank you for your work in providing us with healthy plant based recipes! You never miss!
Hi I have recently tried a few different recipes because I had a lot of zucchini from my garden and this one I really liked the best. To make it more protein packed, I substituted the spelt flour for Kodiak Cakes buttermilk flapjack mix so i didn’t at the other ingredients needed for the flour. I also substituted brown sugar with trivia brown sugar blend. I love it with chocolate chunks and chopped walnuts!
hi there, i was wondering if i could use 3 mashed (aka 1 cup) bananas instead of the unsweetened apple sauce since and turn it into a lighter version of the chocolate chip walnut banana bread (which i love). best xx
I am so so sorry I missed this comment Mimi. This should work really well with the banana, in fact I really love this idea a lot. If you’ve already tried it, let me know how it turned out! Hope you enjoyed it. 🙂
:hahah dw, i just went ahead and made and it was absolutely lovely :)))
I’m gonna give this a try myself soon. So glad you enjoyed!
I did this the second time I made it cus I had a bunch of bananas about to go bad and it came out great! Any tips on freezing it?
Hi I love the sounds of this recipe, but just FYI, when I am on this page a really gross advertisement for dental hygiene with some horrible secretion on someone’s fingers, it’s really off putting!
Hi Elisabeth! Glad the recipe sounds good to you, and hoping you can give it a try. And sorry that an ad like that popped up for you. Unfortunately, the ads are google ads that are based on a users recent searches or inquiries. If you’ve looked up anything dental related or came across anything on social media that talked about a topic like this unknowingly, they can often then suggest ads like that to you. Usually as you change your searching patterns, the ads will change. Hope this helps!
How would I adjust if turning into muffins? I don’t have the right size loaf pan (only 10 x 4) so figured I’ll do muffins instead