It’s back-to-school season, and zucchini season too! Take care of both with this blast from the past: chocolate zucchini cookies. They’re a hit with kids, and adults will love you for them too.
Are you looking for a delicious way to use up the rest of your zucchini harvest? Or do you just like sticking vegetables in cookies so that you can call them “healthy” and, thus, eat them for breakfast? I fall into the latter group.
These rich Chocolate Zucchini Cookies are both perfectly fudgy and fluffy, with lots of added chocolate chips and walnuts. You’ll never believe the secret ingredient is grated zucchini! Neither will your kids … or your husband … or any other picky cookie eaters that you serve these to—I promise! The recipe comes to us from Julia of The Roasted Root and I think you’re going to love it as much as I love it!
To start, you’ll need to grab flour, baking soda, white sugar, brown sugar, vanilla extract, butter, salt, cinnamon, cocoa, zucchini (I used two, grated!), chocolate chips, walnuts and an egg.
Begin by mixing together your dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and cocoa powder. I always like to sift my cocoa powder before using so it’s not as clumpy!
Whisk dry ingredients together well, getting rid of all cocoa and baking soda clumps. Set aside.
In another bowl, beat your butter, white sugar, brown sugar and vanilla together until creamy. I used my stand mixer for this, but you could also work your arm muscles by beating with a wooden spoon!
Add the egg and grated zucchini to the wet ingredients and beat until just incorporated.
Now, carefully add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix. You can do this a little bit at a time, but be careful not to over-mix.
Dump in the chocolate chips and walnuts and mix again! The dough should be pretty wet and sticky.
Go ahead now and preheat your oven to 350ºF and get a couple baking sheets ready with either parchment paper or Silpats.
The recipe says you can roll the dough in powdered sugar before baking, so that’s what I did! I’m a sucker for anything rolled in powdered sugar.
Stick your little powdered sugar-covered cookie dough balls on your lined sheet tray and bake for 15 minutes.
When they’re done, they’ll be all puffy and the tops will be crackly from the powdered sugar. Yum!
Here’s an inside peak at a cookie just out of my oven to tempt you a little more. They appear fudgy from all the chocolate, but they are quite light and puffy! Like I said earlier, the perfect balance between fudgy and fluffy. And you can’t even almost taste the zucchini in them.
Have you seen Julia’s blog The Roasted Root? She has an awesome tagline: “Eat well, eat often.” Thank you, Julia, for this delicious recipe! Cookies for breakfast!
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Description
Double chocolate cookies with zucchini and a whole lot of deliciousness!
Ingredients
- 1-¼ cup Whole Wheat Flour Or All Purpose Flour
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 2 teaspoons Cinnamon
- ½ cups Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
- 5 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter, Softened
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- ½ cups Brown Sugar
- ½ cups White Cane Sugar
- 1 whole Egg
- 1 cup Shredded Zucchini
- ½ cups Walnuts, Chopped
- 1 cup Semi-sweet (or Dark!) Chocolate Chips
- ⅓ cups Confectioners Sugar, For Rolling The Dough In (optional)
Preparation Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 F.
In a bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and cocoa powder and whisk or sift to combine. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl combine the butter, vanilla extract and sugars. Use a stand or hand mixer to mix until creamy. Add the egg and shredded zucchini and mix just until combined. Pour in the flour mixture (I typically do this in thirds) and mix just until combined. Add the chopped walnuts and chocolate chips, mix to integrate into dough.
If desired, sprinkle confectioner’s (powdered) sugar on a plate so you can roll the balls of cookie dough in the sugar. Roll the dough into balls and roll them in the sugar if desired. Space cookie dough evenly on a parchment-lined or lightly oiled cookie sheet. Bake for 13 to 15 minutes.
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Jenna is a food writer who has worked as a pastry chef and bread baker. Her blog Eat, Live, Run has great recipes, travel stories, and the perfect slogan: “Celebrating life, one crumb at a time.”
