Mexican Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Mexican Chocolate Zucchini Bread! (At last)

(This is for 2 - 9x4 loaves, or LOTS of muffins)

Grease your pans, muffin tins or break out the cupcake papers.

Preheat the oven to 350˚F

Ingredients:

3C grated zucchini that has had a trip through the salad spinner (especially if recovered from frozen.)

3.5 C all purpose flour

1/2C cocoa powder

1C granulated sugar

1/4C packed brown sugar

5 tsp baking powder

1 Tbs ground cinnamon

1/8 - 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (up to you - HOW spicy do you want the bread?)

1/2 tsp salt

1.5 C milk

1/4 C oil (nothing highly flavored)

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs lightly beaten

(Optional: 1C semi-sweet chocolate chips or 1-2 disks Mexican Hot Chocolate chocolate hammered into little chunks)

In a large bowl combine flour, cocoa powder, both sugars, baking powder, cinnamon, cayenne and salt. Stir gently to combine. Make sure there are no islands or lumps of any one thing.

In a smaller bowl, stir together milk, oil, vanilla, and eggs. Add zucchini and gently stir in.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and use a spoon to fold the dry ingredients over and around the wet. Stir until just combined. Lastly, quickly fold in the optional chocolate pieces.

Pour or spoon into desired baking vessel (pan, muffin tin)

Place your bread on the center rack of the oven. Done means muffins spring back at a light finger poke. For bread, check the center with a toothpick. It should come out clean or a little crumby. Not Gooey. If you hit a chocolate chip, try another spot.

For tiny muffins, this means about 12 min

For regular sized muffins, about 22 min

For giant muffins, try 35 - 45 min

For the larger loaf pans, check at an hour, though 1 hour + 10 - 15 min is normal.

Let cool at least 5 min before taking out of the pan/tins. Then let cool the rest of the way on a rack.

If this weren't good enough on it's own, feel free to make a quick topping of softened cream cheese or mild goat cheese, orange zest, ginger and honey (maybe a little salt... depending). Use your own taste buds to find the most delicious combination.