This moist zucchini quick bread has a light chocolate flavor that pairs well with the cinnamon and cloves. I remade one of our family recipes to make this Chocolate Zucchini Bread gluten-free, vegan, and allergy-friendly!
Over the past year, I’ve been re-making and photographing some of my older recipes. Some of them I’ve been leaving at their original place, but some of the really great ones, I’ve been republishing so that they get more exposure. I wanted to re-do the photos on this this Chocolate Zucchini Bread and felt like this one deserved to get re-published since it’s so good, you don’t want to miss this one!
I posted this recipe about 2-3 years ago, but we’ve been making the original recipe I adapted it from for years. I’m not really sure where my mom got the recipe originally, but this was one of my favorite treats as a kid, and now my kids love it, too.
If you haven’t had zucchini bread before, then you definitely need to make this! Also check out another one of my quick read recipes: Yeast-Free Gluten-Free Sandwich bread that’s great toasted (and that’s another recipe I’m going to re-do photos for soon!).
This recipe is a re-make of one of my favorite recipes: my mom’s Chocolate Zucchini Bread! I don’t really remember where my mom got her recipe from originally, but we have made this bread for as long as I can remember. This is a great way to use up the loads of zucchini you get at the end of summer. Since it is one of my favorite recipes, I decided to make this one gluten-free, egg, dairy, and nut-free, but just as delicious!
The original recipe had eggs so the loaf stood a little taller and the original was a bit more moist and cakey (I attribute the change to using sorghum flour in the new recipe).
I used my King Arthur Flour gluten-free loaf pan for this recipe (and all my other gluten-free breads) to make the loaf a little taller. The pan works awesome! I always line it with parchment paper for easy cleaning and easy removal of the bread, but the pan works great without parchment too.
The chocolate flavor in this bread is nice and light (there’s only 2 Tablespoons cocoa powder for the entire loaf). If you want to go for a deeper chocolate flavor, you can add another Tablespoon of cocoa powder to the batter.
When we used to bake this at mom’s we would put 1/4 cup chocolate chips on top of the batter before baking to add a chocolate chip layer on top. Sometimes they would fall off and get messy, but it added a sweet chocolate layer to the bread. You can give that a try if you want a more decadent Chocolate Zucchini Bread.
This recipe makes great muffins, too, and mini loaves. For regular sized muffins, just cook these for about 18-20 minutes. You can also make mini loaves and gift these to friends and family, but I personally think this particular recipe tastes best the same day it’s made.
Gluten Free Chocolate Zucchini Bread (Vegan)
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cup superfine sorghum flour OR superfine brown rice flour (I use Authentic Foods superfine sorghum flour)
- ⅓ cup ground flax seed
- 2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 cup grated zucchini (washed and unpeeled)
- ⅔ cup pure maple syrup
- ⅓ cup + 2 Tablespoons rice milk
- ¼ cup light tasting olive oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon liquid Stevia (I used NOW Foods Chocolate flavored Better Stevia)
- ¼ cup allergy friendly mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325° F and line a gluten-free loaf pan with parchment paper. Set aside
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the sorghum flour, flax meal, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and cloves. Set aside
- In another medium sized bowl, grate the zucchini until you have 1 cup grated zucchini (don’t worry about peeling the zucchini first). Add to the grated zucchini the maple syrup, rice milk, olive oil, vanilla, and liquid Stevia. Stir well to combine
- Add the dry flour ingredients to the liquid zucchini ingredients and stir well by hand to combine.
- Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake at 325° F for 40 minutes. A cake tester or toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean.
- Remove the loaf pan from the oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes
- Remove the bread out of the pan by the parchment paper and allow to cool completely on a wire rack before slicing
- Enjoy!
Nutrition
I recently updated the photos and post for this recipe, here’s one of my old photos (I added mini chocolate chips to the bread in the new photos):
Sarah Jane Parker is the founder, recipe creator, and photographer behind The Fit Cookie. She’s a food allergy mom and allergy friendly food blogger of 12 years based in Wyoming. Sarah is also an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer, ACE Certified Health Coach, Revolution Running certified running coach, and an ACE Certified Fitness Nutrition Specialist
What is the dimension of the loaf pan you mentioned? Thanks.
Hi Josie! The gluten free bread pan from King Arthur Flour is 9x4x4 inches. I updated the link in the post to go directly to the pan on their website.
So many of my favorite foods in one bread – you got me drooling!
This is so good, I bet you’d love it!
Love cloves. Smart addition Smart Cookie! (:
Thanks Serena! Whoever created the original recipe got that it right! 😉
I have never had zucchini bread before…you make me want to try it! except, i think i would eat the WHOLE loaf 😛
It’s pretty amazing! The texture isn’t quite what Mom’s zucchini bread was like since it’s gluten-free, but it’s is still delish!
Fantastic! Just a light hint of cocoa! Zucchini is my favorite veggie and I bake with it always! The perfect moisture!
So far, this is the only thing I bake with zucchini, but I should make some pancakes with it! That would be pretty awesome 😉
Wow, that gluten-free bread loaf pan is genius! Why didn’t I think of that??? I’m saving this recipe for next summer when I have zucchini coming out of my ears. 🙂 Pinned!
Thanks Amy! My mom got me that loaf pan several years ago when I started eating gluten-free and it is so awesome! It really sturdy and does a fantastic job
Yum! This looks SO SO delicious!
It’s definitely delicious! The chocolate, cinnamon, and cloves go together really well. It’s one of my favorites!