Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Does it look YUMMY???

It was good...it was YUMMY warm with some butter...mmm....

Anywho, I made this Chocolate Zucchini Bread a few weeks ago and bragged about it on Facebook while promising to post the recipe at the time...it is now probably 3 weeks later and all I can say is that I am sorry, and I will be legally changing my middle name to "The Procrastinator."

Here is the recipe...

2 cups sugar

1 cup canola oil

3 eggs

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup baking cocoa

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

2 cups shredded peeled zucchini

Directions:

- In a large bowl, beat the sugar, oil and eggs and vanilla until well blended.  Combine the flour, cocoa, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and baking powder; gradually beat into sugar mixture until blended.  Stir in zucchini.  Transfer to two 8-inch x 4-inch loaf pans coated with cooking spray.

- Bake at 350 degrees for 50 - 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted hear the center comes out clean.  Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.  Yield: 2 loaves (12 slices each)

**A few notes...I halved this recipe and made only one loaf because I didn't want to waste too many resources if it flopped...which it didn't...but so you know, you can easily half this recipe for only one loaf (use 2 eggs) and just watch the time in the oven since it will be shorter.

**Also, I used a microplane zester to "shred" the zucchini because honestly I was worried I would have to chew the zucchini in the bread if I used my shredder.  It worked great!! I doubt the results would be as bad as I had imagined with a regular shredder, but just FYI - the finer shreds worked just fine (just make sure to drain the juice before you dump the finely grated pieces in if you go that route).

So, there it is - Chocolate Zucchini Bread.

I am going to start rating my recipes on a scale from 1 - 5 in two categories....Overall taste (this is in general - I will try to be unbiased and not let any personal preferences influence this) and ease of preparation...

OVERALL TASTE:  3 (with some butter a 3.75)

EASE OF PREPARATION:  4