I have been going to great lengths lately to "hide the veggies" from my son (and ahem, my husband) in my cooking and baking. My son will eat broccoli. No problem. But anything else green? Forget about it. My husband is even worse. I could never get him to willingly eat broccoli. Or anything else green. After making a chicken casserole, I will find my husband's plate empty of all but the veggies he has pushed to the side as he navigated his dinner with his fork.
I have recently discovered that vegetable purees are an excellent accomplice in helping me hide the vegetables from the two guys in my life. Inspired by a post from You.And.Me.Are.We about Chocolate Zucchini Bread and my favorite recipe for Chocolate Banana Bread from Once Upon a Chef, I decided to combine the two to create my own moist, rich, chocolaty, veggie-laced concoction.
What you will need:
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup white flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
4 tbsp butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup of peeled, chopped zucchini- then pureed
1 egg
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup chocolate chips (optional)
Heat your oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a loaf pan. Combine all your dry ingredients through the salt in a medium bowl. Mix thoroughly with a whisk. Set aside.
Next peel and chop 1 cup of fresh zucchini. It took about half of a larger zucchini to make a cup. Using a food processor or blender, blend the zucchini chunks until smooth.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in the egg. Then the zucchini puree.
Add your mashed bananas and vanilla to the larger bowl, and beat to mix well.
Add your dry ingredients a third at a time to the zucchini/banana mixture, beating after each addition.
Once your batter is mixed well, stir in the chocolate chips. Now, you can opt to leave these out, but why would you? Pssssttt... I saved you a lot of fat and calories by replacing a lot of the butter and eggs with pureed zucchinis and mashed bananas. Go ahead and add the chocolate chips. ;)
Pour the batter into your prepared loaf pan and bake for approximately 45 minutes. Check for doneness by inserting a toothpick near the middle of the loaf. If it comes out clean, it is done! Once baked, let it cool in the pan for about 10 minutes and then turn the loaf out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
This Chocolate Banana Zucchini Bread was AH-mazing. It was crazy moist and oh so decadent. I have made the Chocolate Banana Bread recipe from Once Upon a Chef a number of times for my husband and my son. In fact, they often request that I leave a couple of bananas to ripen just so I can make them this bread. :) My son didn't notice any difference at all. My husband actually had a piece and told me it was the best of this bread that I had ever made. Hehehe... No, I did not tell him what was different about it. In this case, ignorance is definitely bliss. ;)