Chocolate Cherry Zucchini Bread

(with gluten free options)

A double dose of chocolate, fresh cherries and toasted hazelnuts make this easy zucchini bread taste like heaven, but there are super healthy wins hiding in the background: whole grains, zucchini and even Greek yogurt, plus vanilla, cinnamon and a little hint of cardamom for extra depth of flavor, and it’s sweetened (mostly) with honey. This decadent tasting bread is a great way to hide some of that garden abundance in a healthy treat that tastes like an amazing cake.

That’s MY kinda zucchini bread. (Adapted from Dishing up the Dirt. )

To Squeeze or Not to Squeeze? (the Zucchini, I mean)

I adapted this recipe from Dishing up the Dirt. Whenever I start messing with another blogger’s zucchini bread recipe, I get nervous. Especially because I don’t always know the answer to the quintessential question with zucchini: did you squeeze out the water from the zucchini? They didn’t say. I saw that someone asked in one of the comments, but there was no response, so I hoped/assumed the answer was “no”.

Personally, I would ALWAYS choose to let zucchini do its job of adding moisture to the bread and NOT to squeeze out the moisture. Since they didn’t say to squeeze the zucchini in the instructions, I had to assume I was right, but once I’d mixed up the batter, it looked kind of runny, sort of like cake batter. I was a little nervous, so I cooked up a mini test loaf … and to my delight it worked like a charm! Even with my super wet zucchini. So I went ahead and baked up the rest of the batter in mini loaves and mini muffins. All of them baked up just absolutely perfectly!

So to all you squeezers of zucchini out there: do NOT squeeze the moisture out of the zucchini for this bread. There are times when you do want to do that, but THIS is not the time or the place. The zucchini worked hard to gather up that moisture … don’t let that precious water go to waste.

Look how perfect this lovely bread is! Little bits of sour cherry (or you could use sweet cherries if that’s all you’ve got), melty chocolate chips and the toasted hazelnuts. Oh my. Why have I never used hazelnuts in my zucchini bread before? Toasted hazelnuts are really a magical addition. They taste so much more decadent than almonds or pecans or walnuts … or even pistachios. It’s been so long since I used hazelnuts in anything, so I kind of forgot how good they are, especially when toasted.

Can this bread be gluten free?

I promised a gluten free option for this bread … but I have a slight disclaimer. I have NOT tried baking this specific bread with gluten free flours, but having made gluten free quick breads before, I’m confident it’ll work. Simply swap out brown rice flour or your favorite gluten free blend for the whole wheat flour and voila! Decadent, yet healthy and gluten free chocolate cherry zucchini bread. If you try it, please please please comment and let me know how it turns out! I don’t see my gluten free friends very often anymore and don’t have much opportunity to cook for them. Since I’m not gluten free myself, I don’t bother with the gluten free flours lately.

Regardless of whether you’re choosing the whole wheat or the gluten free option, let’s begin the baking, shall we? I sure hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did! Seriously, how can you go wrong with chocolate and cherries … and a sprinkling of hazelnuts? I’m getting hungry just talking about it …

Print