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
Recipes Of The Day:
Chocolate Peanut Butter Popsicles
I haven’t tried but would think so… If you try, be sure to report back!
Made these tonight and they came out AMAZING!! So chewy and gooey like brownies! Also added some walnuts and honey in place of sugar. Will definitely make this again 😉
These are great! My only mistake was using demerara sugar, which is too coarse and it stayed crunchy (which is fine if you like that sort of thing). Next time I’ll use regular brown sugar, or break up the demerara sugar in the blender first.
I saw a recipe for zucchini carrot coconut craisin cookies! Wondering how all these will go into your recipe? Also wondering if the recipe could be eaten raw like bliss balls?
Hey Katie, these look amazing! Just a question – do you recommend substituting a liquid like maple syrup or honey for sugar? If so, how much ? Can’t wait to try them!
Just wondering if I were to use stevia in these brownies, how much would I use??? I am reading Stevia is sweeter than regular sugar, and I don’t have any Xylitol. Thanks
Can I use splenda (sucralose) sweetener?
Hi.. Zuchini is a very wet ingredient when grated, even if finely. I assume that you don’t want us to wring or squeeze the excess water? Thanks in advance for your reply– if anyone besides CCK has an opinion, please let me know. I’d like to make these soon!!!
Hey, I know I might be too late, but to answer your question- use the shredded zucchini as is, with the liquid. I did and they are awesome! Plus, someone else asked too and Katie said she also kept the liquid 🙂
I baked these today. They really seem very under cooked. I even left them in the oven for a few extra minutes too. The taste is great but it’s like eating raw peanut butter cookie dough. Not like there is anything wrong with eating cookie dough…but it would be the kind of dessert you serve with a fork or spoon…not like a bar or something you can hold and eat from your hands
Did you let them firm up for a while before trying to cut? I let mine cool about 15 minutes, then I put them in the fridge overnight and they were perfect!
Can white rice flour be used for the chocolate chip zucchini bars? Thanks in advance for your help 🙂