From Joyce's Recipe Box: Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

Your kids will never know they're eating veggies!


This started out as a typical zucchini bread recipe I found on an "Easy Everyday Cooking™" recipe card. However, believing that everything tastes better with a little organic Fair Trade chocolate, I put my own "eco-healthy" spin on this, and...well, let's just say that in my house, a loaf of this stuff never lasts more than a couple days!


If you can, try to use organic ingredients. I also use Fair Trade/organic chocolate chips (Sweet Earth Organic Chocolates) and Fair Trade/organic raw sugar (Whole Foods).

Makes 1 loaf (4" x 8" loaf pan).

Ingredients:
1 egg
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini (about 2 medium zucchinis)
1 cup wheat flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup chopped pecans (or walnuts)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease a 4 x8-inch loaf pan.


2. Beat egg, oil, sugar and vanilla in a large bowl win an electric mixer set at medium speed until foamy. I just used a hand-held mixer...works fine.


3. Add zucchini to egg mixture and stir.


4. Combine flour, salt, cinnamon, baking soda and baking powder in a separate bowl.


5. Gradually add flour mixture to zucchini mixture, beating continually until well mixed. I usually just pour in a quarter of the flour mixture at a time, and stir with a rubber spatula in between - no need to use the mixer.
   


6. Stir chocolate chips and chopped pecans into batter.


7. Pour batter into loaf pan and bake for 1 hour or until golden brown. To test, I stick a tooth pick in and see if it comes out clean.
   

*NOTE: This recipe calls for a 1/4 of the sugar (original recipe uses 1 cup sugar to 1 cup flour) and twice as much zucchini as in the original recipe. In addition, I substituted wheat flour for the original white flour. With the chocolate chips added in, I think this bread is more than sweet enough. However, you may want to experiment with more sugar and/or mixing half wheat and half white flour.