These homemade soft and chewy chocolate chip zucchini bars are great for a healthy dessert or snack.
There’s NO oil required for these chocolate chip zucchini bars ♥
It’s a safe bet that if you invite me over, I won’t show up empty-handed.
The reality of being someone who makes desserts for a living is that I always have way too much food in my apartment, and there’s no possible way I can eat it all by myself (although I do a pretty good job!).
On Saturday morning, I made four batches of these chocolate chip zucchini bars, playing around with the ingredients until I came up with the perfected recipe that yielded bars with a deliciously soft and gooey blondie texture.
Leftover Zucchini? Make Chocolate Zucchini Bread
The zucchini adds moisture to the recipe, enabling one to cut back on the fat without sacrificing flavor.
With batches of zucchini bars now threatening to take over my kitchen, I was happy for an excuse to carefully package them and take some with me to a Halloween party.
Using up leftovers + finding a large group of taste testers for my recipe free of charge + making people happy with a homemade dessert = win win win.
This year I went as a biker chick, complete with a faux leather jacket, spikey stilettos that I grew to abhor as the night progressed, and an adorable chick hat handmade by a sweet lady on Etsy.
(And now I am just a little obsessed with Etsy…)
Halloween is one of my favorite holidays because it involves three of my favorite things: puns, costumes, and eating copious amounts of chocolate.
Not that I don’t already do that last one every other day of the year…
Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bars
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup finely shredded zucchini (I used a food processor) (120g)
- 1 cup almond butter or allergy-friendly sub
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp flour (I had success with spelt, white, sorghum, almond, and ww pastry)
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar of choice or xylitol
- 1/4 cup or more chocolate chips
Instructions
- Zucchini Bars Recipe: Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan and set aside. In a medium bowl, gently heat the nut butter if it is not already stir-able, then stir in the zucchini and vanilla. Set aside. In a separate mixing bowl, stir together the flour, salt, baking soda, sugar of choice, and chocolate chips. Pour dry ingredients into wet and keep stirring—it may seem dry at first, so be sure to break up the nut butter and stop occasionally to scrape it off your spoon. It will eventually get gooey like cookie dough. Transfer the batter into the pan, and smooth down evenly. Press chocolate chips into the top if desired. Bake for 10 minutes. When you take the bars out, the top will look set but underneath they will still be quite undercooked. This is good! Leave the bars to cool for at least 20 minutes, and they will firm up during this time. They taste even sweeter the next day!View Nutrition Facts
Notes
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These look great! Katie – after you shred the zucchini, do you squeeze the water out of it or use it as is?
Use as is, liquid and all! I used a food processor, so I really do mean to shred it finely.
Mine were total goo…. I mixed it back up with one egg and baked again, now they’re like a real bar… ?? Did I do something wrong? I was surprised there wasn’t an egg on your recipe…
Hmmm, I didn’t have that issue when I made these, but maybe you just got an extra watery zucchini or something? Also they do need time in the fridge to set. Happy you were able to fix yours with an egg, but if you ever don’t want to use an egg, you can also just try putting them only loosely covered in the fridge overnight so they’ll firm up that way 🙂
Okay so i just made these this afternoon and they turned out amazing! I made a couple changes however to make them grain free!!! First I substituted the 2/3 cup of sugar for 2/3 cup of maple syrup. Second, I used 1/4 cup of coconut flour instead of the 1/4 and 2 tbsp of regular flour. I also cooked it a bit longer, but didn’t track how much extra time it took. Anyway they were delicious! I will definitely make it again!
For halloween I re-used my costume from last year, I was a big-booty grandma. I’m pregnant this year so i went as a pregnant grandma, and used the butt padding i had as extra belly, to make me really pop out!
Thank you for making them!
Have you used PB2 in any of your recipes? I am just wondering if it bakes the same as regular peanut butter…Thanks!
Hi,
I was thinking of doing the same (substituting regular peanut butter with PB2) but then I thought about the oil in the regular peanut butter that the PB2 is lacking…I think the oil would probably be essential in this recipe (since the ingredients don’t contain any other oils) and especially because it’s going to be baked. The bars might come out too dry.
That’s my thought.
If you do try it, though, let me know how it goes 🙂
I use it in the Peanut Butter Jelly Smoothie and the Peanut Butter Chips recipes… some others as well. Google “chocolate covered katie pb2” for all the places I have used it: https://www.google.com/search?q=chocolate+covered+katie+pb2&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS580US580&oq=chocolate+covered+katie+pb2&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i64.3781j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=0&ie=UTF-8
Here are some recipes where she uses pb2! 🙂
-homemade peanut butter chips
https://lett-trim.today/2013/04/22/healthy-homemade-vegan-peanut-butter-chips/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
-inside out pb cups
-peanut butter mug cake
-pb jelly smoothie
Only eight ingredients?! Fantastic! 😀 x
Sooo I guess I need to make these ASAP. Considering I love zucchini, chocolate chips, blondies and anything CCK approved. But the best part about this post is by far your biker costume!! Xox
I just made them. They are wonderful!
Xoxo
You know those coloring book activities that are labeled 1, 2, 3, and so on. Then they ask you to color it according to the number. I dressed as one of those except gorier. I think lots of ppl loved it. I certainly did.
Thank you so much! Just made these–the dough tasted great–they are now in the oven and smell amazing!
Thank YOU for making them!
Your hat is adorable! I love Etsy! I’m so pumped that there’s no oil in these bars… I have all the ingredients and I’m definitely making these soon 🙂
Do you think that we could use a yellow zucchini so it is less noticeable? they look soooo good and I could trick my friends into eating healthy blondes! mwah-ha-ha-ha
You can definitely sub yellow zucchini.
These look and sound amazing!
xx Kelly
Sparkles and Shoes
stilettos always seem like a good idea at the beginning of the night…i feel your pain sistah! 😀 cute outfit!
YUM! I love how you snuck in zucchini into these treats! That means I can eat the whole batch at once, right?
Wow, I love that hat! And Halloween is just a reason to eat even more chocolate!
Saw this recipe and immediately made a batch! So yummy and definitely gooey! I used crunchy peanut butter which added a bit of a crunch also.
Thank you for trying them!
This recipe is a keeper! They were really easy to throw together and the only thing I needed to buy was the zucchini. Your recipes always turn out fantastic and these bars were no exception. My daughter liked them too!
Oh and you look so beautiful in your costume. And great hat!