The means to the end
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at 5:21PM 
If you, like me, were the recent recipient of an armload of blue-ribbon-at-the-county-fair-worthy summer squash, then most certainly you are, like me, currently thinking yourself spectacularly spoiled.
But then, if you're one of those industrious types that grows their own squash, then maybe you're looking for a way to use up the proliferous buggers.
In either case, if need be, I may have the means to the end of your zucchini supply, specifically by way of chocolate olive oil zucchini bread.
I had some difficulty with this bread, not in its making but in its naming, as while the sum of the parts is what we're all here for, each of those parts has an indespensible role to play.
I put the chocolate first, because one glance at this quick bread and there's no mistaking the presence of cocoa. Chopped semisweet chocolate mollifies the tobacco-darkness of that cocoa powder; the irregular shards melt into the bread so that here and there within the crumb are damp pockets of sweetness.
The olive oil is the surprise, tasting resiny and somehow green. The one I used makes me think of lemons and fields of newly-mown hay, which feels right for something you're baking at summer's height.
The zucchini is, of course the main event, and so gets the glory of the final fanfare. There's a full four cups of it in the recipe, divided between two loaves. The pale shreds weave through the batter, so the resulting breads are gratifyingly bulging with bumps and crags, shot through and through with specks of green. It's a bread that does not pretend to be anything other than what it is, and that's an (albeit tasty) conveyance for terrific quantities of summer squash.
All that said, I could have mentioned the walnuts. They're toasted, so that their fatty waxiness is made snappy and their aromatic bitterness is amplified. Along with the olive oil you've got a winner of a combination, so much so that the nuts were this close to headline status.
The buttermilk too, it could have been up there in lights, because this bread would be so much less without the spring in the crumb - the crumb has weight without being weighed down, and the buttermilk's to thank for that. It steers the bread away from residence in the land of cake and clears the way for having some for breakfast. Which I did already. Twice.
Exceptional with coffee, this bread's not so much suited to a fork, but instead the sort you use your fingers to break chunks off a slice, to be eaten in between paragraphs as you read the paper.
There's what's left of a loaf on the counter and it's my plan for tomorrow's breakfast - let's go for three times being the charm.
If you'd like, I'll set an extra place.
Chocolate olive oil zucchini bread
Adapted from a variety of sources. The method for this bread is the standard muffin or quick bread style; wet ingredients stirred briefly into the dry. No mixer required, with two bowls and a spoon and you're set for this one.
Ingredients
Softened butter, for pans
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup well-shaken buttermilk
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups fine-grained turbinado sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 cups shredded zucchini, see note
Preheat an oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease two 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pans with softened butter. Use a length of parchment to line the bottom and long sides of the pan, forming a sling, and lightly butter the parchment as well. Set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir in the chopped walnuts and chocolate. Set aside.
In another bowl, whisk together the olive oil and buttermilk. Add the eggs, sugar and vanilla, and beat until smooth. Stir in the zucchini.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, stir until combined, taking care not over mix. Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared pans and bake, rotating once, until a cake tester inserted into the loaf comes out almost clean, which should be around 50 minutes. Cool loaves in their pans on a rack for 20 minutes, then grasp the edges of the parchment to ease the bread out.
If you can wait long enough to let them cool to room temperature before slicing, then well done. But if you can't wait, and cut the loaves into ragged pieces while still warm, then I can't say I blame you.
Makes 2 loaves.
Notes:
- For the zucchini, I use the grating attachment on my food processor, taking care not to press down on the feed tube plunger while the machine is running - this gives a light, feathery shredding. Since we want a bread that is damp but not sodden, I sprinkle the emerald-tipped strands across a (lint-free) kitchen towel, then place another atop, patting it down gently. After a few minutes the towels will have absorbed some of the excess liquid and the zucchini is left crisp and ready to go.
- If olive oil is not your thing, then it can be replaced by an equal amount of neutral oil or melted butter. With the latter, the bread will be denser and, as it lacks the mitigating edge of olive oil, it will taste sweeter as well.
Reader Comments (49)
I do have lots of zucchini - from my sister's garden - so perhaps I should try this immediately! Thanks for sharing!
Hi Tara - I just served the bread and also the incredible chocolate icecream to my best friends. So delicous. Amazing recipes - wonderful blog! Manymany thanks!
Thanks for this delish recipe. Just made it tonight and ate a slice hot out of the oven. I substituted buckwheat flour for the whole wheat flour, like I'd seen David Lebowitz do in his cocoa persimmon muffins. It turned out great (w/ butter instead of olive oil, but next time I'll definitely try the olive oil angle). Again, great post!
Sounds like my kind of bread! Yum...can't wait to share this with a co-worker who has zucchini coming out of her ears. My kind of recipe, too, with all the healthy 'twists'. Lovely photos!
I haven't grown zucchini in forever -- there's just no room for it. But I'll happily get some from the market to try this. I've never had it with chocolate before and it sounds wonderful -- especially the olive oil and walnuts in the mix.
genius. i did not realise that buttermilk can prove to be an edible shock absorber. love the effect.
Zucchini and chocolate is by far one of my favourite combinations! I've done the cake, but I'm dying to try your recipe next time!
This looks amazing. Thanks for sharing!
affordable medical insurance
I don't know if its only me but the idea of zucchini bread has never appealed to me. And may be its just me the idea of olive oil (even though I have tired) in sweet breads just isn't in me. That was a few minutes ago. This recipe has totally made me want to try zucchini, olive oil, walnut, buttermilk and CHOCOLATE bread.
A bread recipe without a bread machine is just too good to pass. I have been following your blog for so long but this recipe just threw me out of the roof..just too too good with all healthy ingredients. Great Job!
Thanks for this recipe for chocolate olive oil zucchini bread. It looks wonderful.
Oh my goodness - just saw this now - your zucchini bread looks amazingly delicious and chocolatey - I will have to update my recipe! x
How has this never occurred to me before!? The dark chocolate and zucchini combo is to die for. Thanks for the post!
I made this yesterday. Really, really good for breakfast. I re-posted the recipe on my blog in both English and Polish. Hope you don't mind.
Thank you so much for the recipe!!!
Karo
For a chocolate lover like me, this is something worth trying SOON. About your difficulty in naming what you made, just bear in mind what Shakespeare had to say about roses. It may called by other names but it will still smell the same,similar thing can be said about your Chocolate olive oil zucchini bread.
Tara - I am a huge fan of your site and an even bigger fan of sandwiches - so much so that I am dedicating my final project in my Digital Design school to creating a website/iphone app specifically for sandwich lovers. My question to you is: Do you ever grant anyone permission to use your photography, and if so under what guidelines? I was hoping to use some of your beautiful imagery as some sample content for my project, as shooting my own will be out of my scope. The project will be for student use only, unless I see an opportunity to take it further, in which case I will remove your content and create my own. Let me know.
Thanks!!
my apologies if you already said this somewhere, but should we peel the zuchinni? (thinking no, just checking)
thanks!! LOVE your blog!
hi lesli (and everyone else!) - no, you needn't peel the zucchini. the peel makes it prettier, and consider it another healthy addition. which completely justifies having a second slice.
The photography on your website is stunning. I'm studying food photography.....who does it for you or do you do it yourself?
I am so hungry after seeing this, I didn't know a cake could look so good containing zucchini (courgette here in the UK)
Found this via Pinterest and made it yesterday. We absolutely love it. Not too sweet, but chocolatey enough to please everyone. Plus, it hides zucchini from my picky toddler. Thank you!
holy yum! i'm saving this one for late july when we are *hopefully* swimming on a ridiculous amount of zucchini from our garden...thanks so much for sharing! xo
I made this yesterday. This is the single best zucchini bread I've ever made. And the most moist! I was unsure of what kind of cocoa powder to use, so I played it safe and went with natural. SO delicious. Thank you!
ohmy goodness! Can't wait to try it! :)