Chocolate zucchini bread!

I think I may have mentioned on here once or twice that we kinda have zucchini coming out our ears right now.  So I knew I needed to start looking up more zucchini recipes, when all of a sudden I remembered the existence of zucchini bread, and even better, chocolate zucchini bread!  It seemed like a great way to 1) get rid of a bunch of zucchini, and 2) bring some of it to work in a form that would be highly likely to be eaten.

I surfed around a bit online, and came upon this recipe, which looked perfect: not only did it promise to use more zucchini per batch than most, I also had all the necessary ingredients in the pantry, since I used up all our oil making tempura zucchini a week ago, and this recipe calls for melted butter instead of oil.

I was very excited about the prospect of using 4 cups of zucchini, but then I realized the recipe was for 2 loaves, and we only own one loaf pan -- so I'd only be able to use 2 cups at a time.  In fact, I grated a single zucchini that had stayed on the plant a little too long, which made the full 2 cups, so I didn't use quite as many as I'd hoped, but no matter how many individual squash I end up using in a batch, it still means there are less in the fridge!

I screwed up the first batch by not reading the directions carefully -- I forgot that the sugar doesn't go with the dry ingredients, it gets creamed with the eggs, so I had to toss one batch of dry ingredients.  This recipe also gave me an excuse to use the Kitchenaid mixer I got as a wonderful wedding gift from my aunt, that mostly collects dust on the counter.

When all was said and done, we had a lovely, dark loaf of chocolate cake that was hiding a ton of shredded zucchini inside:

Now, I used some cocoa powder I had on hand, which didn't specifically say bittersweet, so it felt like it needed a little punch -- the original recipe says chocolate chips are unnecessary, but I think they could have improved this loaf.  They were right about how moist it is, though -- dense and chewy, even 2 days later.  I found that ours got a little extra zing by spreading a little Brummel & Brown margarine on it, because the salty spread really compliments the sweet chocolate bread.  This was an easy, quick recipe, and I will definitely be making it again.