This ingenious recipe for dairy-free zucchini and chocolate bread won second place in a recipe contest which we hosted in 2017. It won for some of the special ingredient touches – like a spice infusion – and its unique use – as a bread for dairy-free ice cream sandwiches. But of course you can taste a slice of this delicious bread directly.
Moist, Rich, Dairy-Free Zucchini Chocolate Bread
This recipe was created by personal trainer Andie Thueson of Maybe I would., but we recently updated it with more details, ingredient notes and options.
What is Natural Cocoa Powder?
It has not been processed with alkali (like Dutch cocoa powder), so natural cocoa powder is more acidic and bitter. This acidity reacts with the baking soda (an alkali) in your cookie dough, giving it some lift, better texture, and neutralizing the bitterness of cocoa and the naturally acrid flavor of baking soda. You can find natural cocoa powder from brands like Hershey’s, Scharffen-Berger, Unsweetened Ghirardelliand at Antoine’s.
Which dairy-free yogurt do you recommend?
andie uses So Delicious Coconut Milk Yogurt, and U.S. too. It has a little fat, which I think helps with the texture of this dairy-free chocolate zucchini bread. It’s also one of the cheapest vegan yogurt options out there, and it comes in larger tubs.
Is it okay to use oil?
It is a low-fat bakery product, which means the texture tends to be better when hot, toasted, or chilled (as with ice cream sandwiches), rather than cooled to room temperature. If you prefer to add a little fat, you have several options. You can replace some of the oil with dairy-free yogurt or you can just add a few tablespoons of oil. A little goes a long way in tenderizing bread.
What does this pain au chocolat and zucchini taste like?
We tested Andie’s Zucchini Chocolate Bread recipe for the contest, and we even made the vegan version. Here’s what Sarah and her family had to say.
We really liked this zucchini bread recipe. It tastes really good. I had no idea how the spices would work with the chocolate, but they work together. The recipe makes two loaves of zucchini bread, which is a lot! The children ate leftover bread for breakfast yesterday and today. It’s very good grilled! This is a very good bread recipe that we will make again.
Ice cream sandwiches? Does it really taste good?
Andie uses this dairy-free chocolate zucchini bread to make ice cream sandwiches with So Delicious Vanilla Coconut Milk Frozen Dessert. It seems like an obvious concept, but I’ve never seen it before – using real bread to make ice cream sandwiches! We’ve included his option in the recipe, and here’s what one of our contest recipe testers had to say about the actual results.
The coconut vanilla was the right choice of ice cream. It’s nice and light with the rich bread. Honestly, I love the ice cream sandwich idea. I’m already thinking of other bread/ice cream combinations.
Special dietary notes: zucchini and chocolate bread
By ingredients, this recipe is dairy-free/dairy-free, optionally egg-free, nut-free, peanut-free, soy-free, optionally vegan, oil-free, and vegetarian.
For gluten free dairy-free chocolate zucchini bread, I recommend replacing the flour with your favorite gluten-free baking mix and using the eggs (not the egg substitute). Please note that we have not tested this gluten-free recipe.
Dairy Free Zucchini Chocolate Bread
Total time
Author: Andie Thueson
Type of recipe: Breakfast
Kitchen: American
- 3 cups all-purpose flour (can substitute whole-wheat white flour)
- ½ cup natural cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 2 cups sugar or your granulated sweetener of choice
- 1 cup dairy-free plain yogurt (see post above for options)
- 3 large eggs or 3 vegan egg substitutes (tested with Bob’s Red Mill Egg Substitute)
- 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
- 2 cups grated zucchini
- 1 bag (10 ounces) dairy-free chocolate chips
- Preheat your oven to 350ºF and grease two 9 x 5 inch loaf pans.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, allspice, salt and baking powder until all the pieces of cocoa powder have disappeared.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the sugar, yogurt, eggs or egg substitutes, and vanilla with a hand mixer to combine. Stir in zucchini.
- Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring to combine. The batter will be very thick. Add the chocolate chips.
- Divide the dough between the loaf pans and level it.
- Bake the bread for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of each loaf comes out clean.
- Leave the loaves to cool for 10 minutes in the molds, before unmolding them on a wire rack to cool completely.
Option ice cream sandwiches: Let a pint of dairy-free ice cream sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes to soften and make it easier to prepare. We love this vanilla bread, but chocolate could also be delicious! Once the bread has completely cooled, cut 2 slices for a sandwich. Top 1 slice with a scoop of ice cream and gently press down to form an even layer. Garnish the ice cream with the second slice and enjoy!
Portion: 1 slice calories: 161 Big: 4.2g Saturated fat: 2.4g Carbohydrates: 29.9g Sugar: 18.5g Sodium: 120mg Fiber: 1.7g Protein: 2.2g
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More quick bread recipes without sugary dairy
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