Sourdough Chocolate Zucchini Bread pin image

Sourdough chocolate zucchini bread is a moist and delicious quick bread that our whole family loves! We make a lot of it at the end of summer when we harvest lots of zucchini from the garden. This sourdough chocolate zucchini bread makes the perfect summer breakfast, quick dessert or snack. A lot of folks complain about too much zucchini and wonder what to do with it, but with zucchini recipes like this around, we can never have too much zucchini. This recipe can easily be made into zucchini muffins that are perfect for packing in lunches or taking with you on the go.

I always try to make sure that I preserve some extra zucchini so I can make this recipe all throughout the winter. My favorite way to preserve zucchini is to shred it in the food processor and then freeze it in a freezer bag. Then it can easily be thawed out and made into this delicious zucchini bread.

We like to make different flavors of this moist quick bread including lemon poppy seed zucchini bread, and classic zucchini bread. Be sure to look for those recipes here on our blog.

Ingredients

Flour – I like to buy unbleached all-purpose flour from Azure Standard. If you want to use whole wheat flour, I suggest making these with half whole wheat and half all-purpose flour so they don’t get too dense.
Cinnamon
Vanilla extract
Cocoa Powder
Chocolate Chips – optional
Salt – Redmond salt is the healthiest because it contains a lot of natural minerals. Salt actually brings out the sweet rich flavor in baked goods.
Sugar – you can use regular white sugar, brown sugar or if you want a healthier option try this cane sugar from Azure Standard
Baking Soda – since we are using sourdough discard for this bread, we have to add some kind of leavening agent to help it rise.
Baking Powder – this also helps the bread to rise.
Fat – you can use any kind of oil, butter, melted coconut oil or beef tallow, or to make these oil free just use applesauce instead of the oil.
Grated zucchini – fresh zucchini or frozen works just fine, but if you use frozen make sure it’s thawed and drained before adding it to the recipe
Eggs – farm fresh is always best
Sourdough discard – I like to make these muffins with sourdough discard because it’s usually what I have in my refrigerator. You can also make them with active starter. As long as you’re adding some kind of sourdough starter, you’ll get a good result.

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Tools

Stand mixer or a large mixing bowl – my absolute favorite stand mixer is a bosch mixer. I’ve used it almost everyday for years and it has served me so well including in the summertime when we bake almost 100 loaves of bread for farmers’ market each week. I know several people that have had bosch mixers for over 30 years and they are still running strong. Getting a bosch mixer is one of the best investments you can make for your kitchen. Get an extra $20 off when ordering from nutrimill.com/wagonwheel.
Cookie Paddles – if you get the bosch mixer, I highly recommend you get the cookie paddles which is what I use for making this quick bread. You will need the metal top for the cookie paddles. I also highly recommend getting the cake paddles as well. I use all of them all the time.
If you don’t have a stand mixer, you could use a large bowl and a hand mixer or large wooden spoon.
Loaf Pan – I love my enamel cast iron bread pan from Nutrimill, but if I make more than one loaf, than I often use my regular bread pans as well.
Muffin tin, optional – I really like this 24 cup tin, it allows me to make a bunch of muffins all at once. If you don’t have a muffin tin, just set your paper muffin liners inside narrow-mouth rings (like you would use for canning) and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet. This will keep the muffin liners upright until the muffins are baked.
Muffin liners – this saves on dishes and you won’t have to grease your muffin tin
Measuring Cups and Spoons

Favorite Sourdough Recipes:

How to Make This Sourdough Chocolate Zucchini Bread Recipe

In the bowl of your stand mixer or a large mixing bowl, mix together all the wet ingredients. Eggs, oil or applesauce, sugar, vanilla extract, cinnamon, sourdough starter, shredded zucchini and salt.

adding zucchini to sourdough zucchini bread

Then add all the dry ingredients. Flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and baking powder. Mix just until combined.

Add in the optional chocolate chips if desired.

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*If you want this recipe to have long fermented digestive and health benefits, you can leave it out on the counter for up to twelve hours or overnight.

To make sourdough zucchini bread:

Grease and flour the pan by spreading some butter or some kind of fat in the pan. Add a little bit of flour and shake it around until the inside of the pan is completely coated. You could also line the pan with parchment paper.

grease and flour pans for sourdough zucchini bread

Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake at 350 degrees in a preheated oven for 1 hour or until knife inserted in the center of your bread comes out clean. I often end up baking this bread for closer to 1 hour and 25 minutes. Every oven will vary slightly.

To make sourdough zucchini muffins:

Line each muffin cup with a paper liner. Use an ice cream scoop to spoon the batter into each muffin cup.

making chocolate zucchini sourdough muffins

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

For best results, allow to cool completely on a wire rack before storing in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Serve with fresh butter or cream cheese.

Best if eaten within 3-5 days, or store in the freezer for an easy breakfast or dessert later on. To thaw, allow to sit out for a few hours at room temperature.

If you try this recipe and love it, please come back and give it 5 stars! Tag me on Instagram @wagonwheelhomestead21. I can’t wait to see what all you make!

Tips

This bread can be mixed up the night before and allowed to sit out at room temperature to long ferment which increases the health benefits and digestibility
A great way to use up leftover sourdough starter discard. You can also use active sourdough starter if you don’t have any discard in your refrigerator
If you’re looking for a more natural sweetener, try this cane sugar from Azure Standard.
You can use any kind of fat – oil, melted butter, beef tallow, coconut oil, or if you want to make these oil-free you can substitute applesauce for the oil
If you have extra chocolate chips, it makes the bread even more gooey and delicious, but it’s honestly just as good without them too.

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