One Bowl Vegan Chocolate Zucchini Banana Bread

April 9, 2018

This One Bowl Vegan Chocolate Zucchini Banana Bread is a super moist, wholesome treat packed with chocolatey goodness!

There are no words I can think of to describe this masterpiece other than a PRESENT FOR YA FACE.

Baking makes my heart so happy. I did an activity in mindfulness recently where I wrote down times when I felt my mind was “quiet,” i.e. when it’s not bouncing from thought to thought in the distracted manner in does 99.7% of the time. The few things I could think of where I was truly present were cooking, working out, and being in nature. With working out, it’s usually just so mentally taxing that my brain doesn’t have much room to think about anything else. Music is another part of my life that really helps me calm my mind down. I always have tunes on when I’m in the kitchen.

And when I’m baking, I feel home. I feel safe and cozy and calm. I like making things with my hands. I like how the whole house smells like happiness. It’s so soothing to me in a way that nothing else is.

For how much I probably appear to have my shit together, I really don’t. I’m always trying to do so many things at once that oftentimes I don’t give the task at hand enough thought. Instead of finishing things to completion before moving on, I try juggling seventeen things at the same time. That leads to me making carless mistakes more often than I’d like to admit, like leaving the stove and/or my car on. Or leaving the fridge and/or garage door open. Or forgetting my phone in my trunk.

But I think there’s beauty in my absentmindedness. I get a lot done each day and productivity makes me feel awesome. Even if it’s just making dinner and doing a load of laundry, I’ve always thrived on doing a bunch of things at once. It might not all be 100%, but better done than perfect. Amiright?

So this One Bowl Vegan Chocolate Banana Bread…I MEANNNNN, it’s everything. It’s double chocolatey (hi, cocoa powder and chocolate chips), lusciously sweet but not overly sweet, so freaking moist from the banana and coconut oil, and really just so satisfying for the heart and belly. It’s fun to make and it’s even more fun to eat! I know from experience.

I made three loaves of this before I was happy enough to share the recipe. I’m lucky because it’s not often that I have to make a recipe that many times before I post it. I won’t be grating another zucchini for a hot minute, I’ll tell ya that. When I first made this recipe, I used 1/2 cup of sugar, less oil, and some almond milk and it was not at all sweet enough. It tasted like boring chocolate bread. Meh.

Cocoa powder is really bitter and we’ve got 1/3 cup of it here, so that’s why this bread calls for more sugar than my Chocolate Chunk Banana Bread, Chai-Spiced Carrot Banana Bread, and Pumpkin Gingerbread. Long story short, I really don’t advise reducing the sugar. If you don’t have organic cane sugar, regular white sugar or coconut sugar is fine. I imagine maple syrup or honey would work but I would maybe do 1/2 cup liquid sweetener and 1/4 cup granulated sweetener so the ratio of wet to dry isn’t too funky.

I didn’t squeeze the liquid out of my zucchini and the moistness level was PERFECT. Now let’s talk about flour. Whole wheat pastry flour is my go-to in baking because it’s 100% whole grain but still so light and fluffy. You can also use all purpose flour or all purpose gluten-free baking flour to make it 100% gluten-free. So customizable!

All in all, this Vegan Chocolate Zucchini Banana Bread is a more wholesome option for an insanely tasty treat that I’m totally confident the entire fam will adore. I’ve been enjoying it for breakfast with hot coffee and as a night-time treat warmed in the microwave with a little scoop of ice cream and chilly almond milk.

P.S. If you’re looking for a muffin version of these, try my Vegan Chocolate Zucchini Muffins. They’re insane.

Who else has mad love for baking?! LOVE YOU AND LOVE THIS LOVELY LOAF.