Chocolate chip zucchini brownies are rich, decadent and delicious – no one will realize they are secretly healthy! Whole wheat and loaded with zucchini, these brownies make a perfect treat!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day my friends! ☘️💚

I hope you all have some fun celebrations to look forward to today, or at least later this week!

I of course, am celebrating with some food 😂

Some green food, to be festive. And some chocolate. Cause, celebrating. 🙌

That’s right, these gorgeous brownies aren’t what they seem at first glance. They are loaded up with veggies! What?!

So, I’ve been making these chocolate chip zucchini brownies for years.

Normally, it was always to help use up some of the zucchini from my garden at our old house – which tended to produce A LOT of zucchini! You know how it is… the plant goes crazy and you are constantly uncovering more and more and more zucchini.

So I’d be making chocolate chip zucchini bread, vegetarian stuffed zucchini, harvest zucchini muffins, almond butter zucchini muffins, zucchini turkey burgers and even zucchini cheddar whole wheat waffles.

Not a bad thing…

(Except maybe those few times when I haven’t checked carefully enough and suddenly there is a zucchini that’s at least a foot long and 5 inches around. Whoops!)

Our new house doesn’t get great sun though so I have significantly scaled back my garden. Meaning no zucchini. Sniffle, sniffle…

Now, I just buy loads of it at the store and the farmer’s market and it’s almost as the same. 😊

And today, I wanted to make these zucchini brownies for St. Patrick’s Day. ☘️

They feel festive with their little green bits tucked away in all that chocolate.

Soft, melty, festive chocolate — yup, definitely how I want to celebrate!

Plus, they are completely whole grain and contain 2 full cups of zucchini. There’s no butter or oil in the recipe at all. So you can feel OK about taking down a couple at a time. Maybe 3. (I have portion control problems…)

A few notes on these chocolate chip zucchini brownies:

• You can substitute regular all-purpose flour here if you prefer. (You can also substitute a gluten-free baking flour.)
• I don’t bother peeling the zucchini. Just use the fine side of your grater.
• The 2 cups of grated zucchini is measured before you squeeze the extra moisture out. Grate 2 cups then squeeze with paper towels or a kitchen towel to get the extra water out. You’ll have a compact little ball of zucchini. Break it up a bit as you add it to the batter so the zucchini gets incorporated.
• This size batch yields 9-16 brownies, depending on how you want to cut them. (We like big, thick brownies here!) I’ve also baked these in an 8×4 bread pan to have a mini batch. Alternatively, you could double the recipe and use a 9×13 baking dish.

Make these chocolate chip zucchini brownies. Soon.

You’ll be getting wafts of chocolate-y goodness in no time and they’ll come out warm and melty and thick and beautiful.

You’ll be in chocolate heaven!

XO,

Kathryn

P.S. This has been updated with a new VIDEO! Press play and check it out:

Yield: 9-16 brownies, depending on how big you want them

Chocolate chip zucchini brownies

Print

Decadent and delicious (and secretly healthy) chocolate chip zucchini brownies!

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup applesauce
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1 cup whole wheat flour (I use white whole wheat flour)
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups grated zucchini (I don’t bother peeling it, just use the fine grater), squeezed of extra moisture
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 and spray an 8x8 pan with cooking spray.
   
2. In a large bowl, mix the eggs, sugar, applesauce and vanilla until well combined.
   
3. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt until well combined.
   
4. Add the dry mix to the wet and mix until just combined. Don’t over mix.
   
5. Add the zucchini and chocolate chips and gently fold in to the batter so everything is evenly distributed.
   
6. Pour into your prepared pan and level out the mix with the back of a spoon.
   
7. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until done. Check with a toothpick - the brownies are gooey but shouldn’t be raw.
   
8. Once cooled, store in the refrigerator. (They keep better this way because of all the moisture from the zucchini.) I kind-of prefer them cold but you can heat in the microwave if you want them warmed up.

Notes

The 2 cups of grated zucchini is measured before you squeeze the extra moisture out. Grate 2 cups then squeeze with paper towels or a kitchen towel to get the extra water out. You'll have a compact little ball of zucchini. Break it up a bit when you add it to the batter so the zucchini gets incorporated.

Adapted from Texan Erin.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

9

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 247Total Fat: 8gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 41mgSodium: 289mgCarbohydrates: 43gFiber: 4gSugar: 28gProtein: 5g