Zucchini Bread (With Chocolate Chips and Without)

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In an effort to use up all the zucchini from my garden, I went down a probably obvious path . . . Zucchini Bread! I used one recipe, that made two loaves, and put chocolate chips in the second loaf. I don't know about y'all, but chocolate chips make almost anything better. ;)

  This is a recipe that I concocted by combining a few recipes from my church cook book. It's really simple - and low fat too. But the most important part is that it is very moist and delicious!

Here are the main ingredients:

Zucchini (of course), flour, sugar, salt, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, applesauce, baking powder, and walnuts (or any nut you choose)

In a large mixing bowl, combine the apple sauce and the eggs.

In goes some vanilla . . .

and then the sugar.

The shredded zucchini comes next. The more zucchini you add, the more moist the bread will be. However, if you add too much, the bread will be too wet - not "good eats."

Next I added the walnuts, but you can wait to add theses at the end if you wish. I wasn't too concerned about them breaking up in the batter.

Just give them a rough chop, and toss them in.

Next comes the baking powder, (You should really sift this, but I am really bad about doing that.)

the salt,

the flour and the cinnamon (sift these too if you like).

Next comes Nutmeg, (I always grind it fresh myself, using my microplane - I love this thing!)

baking soda 

Just stir it all to combine and you're done! Of course, if you would like to add some chocolaty goodness, then by all means do what I did and add chocolate chips! (I just grabbed a small handful from my large Costco sized bag - it looks to be about 1/3 cup.) I poured half of the batter into a prepared loaf pan, and then added the chocolate chips to the remaining half.

(I just sprayed my non-stick loaf pans with a little no-stick spray, just to make sure they would come out.)
Just so that everyone would know which loaf had the chocolate in it, I sprinkled some more chocolate chips on top.

After baking in the oven for about hour, they come out golden brown and beautiful like this.

They need to cool completely in the pans, before you take them out. They are quite delicate - they might break if you take them out when they aren't ready. (My wonderful hubby got up extra early with the kids, and cut into the bread before I could take any pictures. Thankfully, when they started on the second loaf, he was thoughtful enough to snap a shot first. What a guy!)

Here's the recipe:

Zucchini Bread *With Chocolate Chips and Without

3 eggs
1 cup applesauce
2 cups sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
2-3 cups shredded zucchini (Use what you have, but I wouldn't use more than 3 cups)
1/2 to 1 cup chopped walnuts, to taste (any nut would do)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
3 cups flour
about 1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional), divided (for 1 loaf) -this is to taste

Preheat oven to 350F. Whisk together the eggs and applesauce. Add the sugar, vanilla and zucchini, and nuts. Sift together the dry ingredients: salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and flour. Whisk into the zucchini mixture and grate in the nutmeg. Grease 2 regular size loaf pans. Pour half the batter unto one pan. Add 1/3 chocolate chips to the remaining batter in the bowl. Pour into the second loaf pan, and sprinkle the top with the remaining chocolate chips. Bake both loafs @ 350F for about an hour, or until a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cool completely before removing from the pans.