I'm not sure about you, but we have lots of zucchini coming out of our garden. Every year, as we get inundated with zucchini, we shred it and make numerous zucchini bread recipes. We make numerous loaves, we freeze them and enjoy them all summer long. We have our favorites, Mom's Zucchini Bread, Pineapple Zucchini Bread and Chocolate Zucchini Bread which we make every year. As a food blogger, I am always looking for new recipes to add to those we love.
I came across an article on Food & Wine called The Best Zucchini Bread Recipes. As I got to the 5th recipe, it was called Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread. There were three things that caught my attention 1. There was no picture of the bread 2. No one had commented on the recipe 3. One of the ingredients was cardamom. If it's one of the BEST Zucchini Breads then why hadn't anyone made the recipe.
Let the challenge begin - this zucchini bread recipe needs to be made.
The recipe was simple to put together. There wasn't as much oil in the bread as most zucchini breads, instead it uses sour cream. I love this ingredient because it normally makes the bread moist. The best part was the nutmeg and cardamom. Cardamom is one of those warm ingredients that remind you of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and/or allspice. Over the past year, we have used cardamom in a number of dessert recipes, one being an apple crumble recipe which sadly never made it to the blog.
After the zucchini bread came out of the oven, I waited about 30 minutes before I sliced a big wedge. It was delicious...moist, slightly sweet with chocolate and wonderfully spiced. When I gave Jeff his first piece, I got, "I don't like chocolate chips in zucchini bread, especially for breakfast." Fine, more zucchini bread for me. Later that evening, I saw him enjoying a slice with vanilla ice cream. "Ah, you're eating zucchini bread with chocolate chips." "Yes", he said, "This is really delicious, better as dessert with ice cream rather than eating it for breakfast." So, I will offer this. If you enjoy chocolate for breakfast, grab a big cup of coffee or tea start your day my way. If you like chocolate as dessert, then grab your favorite ice cream and enjoy this zucchini bread Jeff's way.
Either way, this zucchini bread with chocolate chips and cardamom will become this year's BEST zucchini bread recipe!
Ingredients of Zucchini Bread with Chocolate Chips and Cardamom
2-1/3 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon of ground cardamom
2 large eggs
1 cup of sugar
1/3 cup of vegetable oil
1 medium zucchini (about 7 ounces), finely shredded (about 2 cups, packed)
2 teaspoons of vanilla
1 cup of sour cream
1 cup of mini bittersweet chocolate chips
Preparation:
1.Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease (2) 9 x 5 inch loaf pans. (We use foil loaf pans)
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients of flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cardamom.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs with the sugar, oil, zucchini and vanilla.
4. Add the flour mixture and stir gently with a spatula until the flour is just incorporated.
5. Stir in the sour cream, then the chocolate chips.
6. If the mixture seems dry, add a little more zucchini.
7. Pour the mixture into the prepared pans. Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, until the top is golden and a cake tester comes out clean.
8. Let the loaves cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning it out onto a rack to cool completely. Or if you use foil pans (like us), they can cool in the pans.
NOTE: If the bread browns to quickly and you are concerned about burning, lay a piece of aluminum foil over the top while baking.
