Every fall at the end of growing season, I get tons of squash from generous friends and family members. What to do with all of it? I’ve made hubbard squash soup, baked acorn squash, and grilled and stir-fried yellow squash. Not to mention all the faux pasta dishes I’ve made from spaghetti squash from my own garden.

How about zucchini? And how about a treat? Here is a delicious recipe for gluten-free chocolate zucchini bread. It does require a few specialty ingredients, like liquid stevia, and almond flour, but this is a simple and easy recipe that comes together in just a few minutes. I’m using some ghee for a buttery flavor, but to make this fully paleo, substitute the ghee for more coconut oil. This recipe is adapted and inspired from Elana’s Pantry, and wonderful blog chock full of great paleo recipes.

Let’s bake!

Ingredients:

2 1/2 C. almond flour
1/2 C. cacao powder
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. baking powder
4 eggs
2 TBS ghee
2 TBS coconut oil
1/3 C. honey
1/2 tsp. vanilla stevia
2 C. grated zucchini

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350°

Cut your zucchini in half lengthwise, and use a spoon to core out the seeds.

With a box grater, shred the zucchini, skin and all. Set aside.

In a food processor, pulse almond flour and cacao powder to combine.

Now pulse in salt and baking powder.

Add in the eggs, coconut oil, honey, stevia and ghee. Pulse to combine, pushing down the edges of the batter with a spatula as you mix.

Now add in the zucchini and pulse to combine.

You want a nice even batter. I like a little texture, so don’t over-process.

With a spatula, pour the batter into a loaf pan. I’m using a non-stick pan, which turns out perfect loaves, but if you’re nervous, grease your pan and dust it with some almond flour.

Bake at 358° for 45 minutes.

Remove from oven and allow to cool in the pan for 2 hours. After it is cooled, your bread should pop out easily.

Enjoy!