Chocolate Zucchini Bread

What do you get when you want to eat something and its got to be sweet and it's got to be chocolate and you gotta have it now? ( I think I just ripped off an old Cracker Jack ad song).

 I am not boycotting the grocery store, but we are definitely trying to eat everything I had frozen last summer  and at the same time I am reloading it with this summer's produce.  I found a bag of shredded zucchini and needed to use it.  It is probably my least favorite of the squashes because it squeaks when I chew it and I prefer my food to remain silent. ( Sounds weird, I know but it is a noisy vegetable.  I have no issue with loud crunchy raw vegetables but once they are cooked they should surrender and remain silent.  Zucchini always sounds like it is launching a meek protest.)  Since I was going to cook the whiney vegetable anyway, I thought it might as well be something delicious. Something chocolate. Something with enough non traditional vegetable ingredients to tame that zucchini into silent submission.

Viola!  I found a recipe at The Recipe Critic.  I had most of the ingredients and the things about it that I didn't like were flavors that could be altered without impacting the actual bread. ( I have an aversion to chocolate combined with cinnamon.  I love both flavors individually but they scream a huge foul in my mouth when tasted as one)  I am writing the recipe as I made it but check out the original.  It might be more to your liking.
 

                                              Chocolate Zucchini Bread

• 1 cup flour
• 1/4  teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup  cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup melted coconut oil 
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 t vanilla
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 1/2 cup  C grated zucchini
• 1/2 cup chopped roasted pecans 
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• Topping:
• 2 T brown sugar
• 2 T white sugar
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a  9 loaf pan.
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• Mix the topping sugars and set aside
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• Whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda and cocoa powder in a small bowl and set aside. With a mixer blend the oil, sugars, and eggs in a separate bowl until they are light and fluffy ( I was trying to contain my clean up and did this using just the  bowl and wooden spoon.  It. Took. Forever.  Save yourself effort and time and go ahead and get the mixer out) Stir in the vanilla and sour cream until it is well blended.  Stir the zucchini to mix well.  Stir in the flour mixture, being sure it is all incorporated well.  Fold in the chopped nuts and spoon into the prepared pan.  Sprinkle with the topping mixture and pop into the oven.  (If you look closely you will see I forgot to add the topping to mine.  When you make it in advance and put it aside, put it close enough to see it.)  Bake for 50-55 minutes or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. (I am not sure what kind of testers you use but I am partial to a long piece of uncooked spaghetti).  Remove from the oven and let it sit in the pan for about 5 minutes.  Invert it on a wire rack to remove from the pan.  Place another wire rack on the top ( actual bottom) of the bread and invert again.  Let it cool and enjoy the bread.
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• I am not sure I can give you an honest reaction to this bread.  The people who knew what it was did not like it at all, and the one who didn't thought it was really good.  I thought it was very tasty, but it had a consistency that was more like cake than bread.  I increased the cocoa since I did not have any chocolate chips at all and thought it might need the added  tablespoon of cocoa flavor.  I am not sure it really did as it was intensely chocolate.  
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• The zucchini had been cut on a box grater.  Next time I will whirl them in the food processor to cross cut it into a finer shred.  I thought the texture would have been better without strands of zucchini  in my mouth. ( But that is a physical issue rather than a taste one).
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• This weekend we are going to the lake and I am going to try it again, as a single layer cake ( 9 " square pan).  I will also put a thin layer of chocolate frosting on it.  I'm going to present as just a regular cake and see what happens.  I will let you know how it turns out.  We have a saying here: "What do you call a 2 day old cake? Bad cake!"   The true test will be exactly how long a one layer chocolate cake lasts.  Remember, I have only sons and quantity is as big an issue as quality .
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• Will let you know the unbiased verdict, and I don't have to worry about the test being compromised.  They never read what I write here anyway!