Chocolate Wave Zucchini Bread

This one was inspired by another Foodie Blog I've been reading lately: Taste and Tell. She's got some gorgeous photos and a ton of recipes I'd like to try-you should definitely go check out her blog.

Now zucchini is one of the foods my husband refuses to eat...if you don't know us yet-my husband has an aversion to quite a few foods that I personally LOVE. So I will often times try to sneak those things into dishes to see if he will even notice. Sometimes I'm successful-other times-not so much. Well, zucchini went into the Chilaquiles Casserole the other day and he didn't notice, so I figured I try out this delicious looking bread recipe as well.

Well, he noticed the little green flecks in this one and asked about it-I told him it was spinach...hehehe...he believed it and ate two pieces. The kid also ate it. Score! So this recipe is a lovely way to get some veggies in that your kids might not normally eat.

I used whole wheat flour instead of all purpose-I think that made it a little more dense-and I didn't use butter-I used a butter substitute. I also omitted the walnuts.

The bread comes out moist and rich with a nice texture and its pretty with the presentation as well. My "wave" didn't turn out as pretty as the one on Taste and Tell but it was interesting all the same. not bad for a first try. I think when I make this again-I'll experiment with piping the chocolate batter into the zucchini batter for a different design.

Chocolate Wave Zucchini Bread

1/3 cup butter

1 1/3 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups grated zucchini

1/3 cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1/3 cup chopped walnuts

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1/3 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease one 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together. Mix in eggs.

Add zucchini, water, and vanilla; stir. Blend in flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, and pumpkin pie spice. Stir in nuts.

Divide batter in half*, and add cocoa powder and chocolate chips to one of the halves.

Pour plain batter into bottom of the loaf pan. Pour chocolate batter on top of plain batter.**(I poured about 3/4 of the plain better into the loaf pan and then spooned the chocolate batter down the middles. I then spooned the remaining plain batter on either side of the chocolate batter).





Bake until wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Cool 10 minutes, and remove from pan. Store in refrigerator.


*keep the chocolate "half" at just less than half the batter.