The gooiest zucchini brownies ever! You’d never guess these are made a little healthier and made with whole grains (but can also be made with all-purpose or gluten-free flour) or that zucchini and that applesauce takes the place of oil! With gluten-free and dairy-free options.
I don’t like zucchini at all. I’m also not a fan of “hiding” veggies in my dessert recipes, because I can always tell that they’re in there. That’s not the case with these brownies!
These healthy zucchini brownies still have sugar in them, but they’re not quite as bad as your usual brownie recipe. If you want something especially naughty, try these gluten-free brownies, which are really the best brownies ever – gluten-free or not! They can also be made with whole wheat flour.
These chocolate zucchini brownies have no added fat* (except what’s in the chocolate chips) and are full of zucchini and whole grains (but really do not taste like it!) so you can feel good about giving these to your children.
* I love healthy fats and usually load up my recipes with them. But in this one, it’s just not needed!
Really, unless your kids watch you make these, or you grate the zucchini coarsely, there’s no way that they’ll be able to tell that these brownies have zucchini in them. Or that they’re whole wheat or whole spelt. The gluten-free version also doesn’t taste gluten-free!
Want some more kid-friendly recipes? Try my no-bake oatmeal cookies. They’re whole grain and naturally gluten-free + vegan. And perfect for the lunch box!
This whole wheat banana bread is also a favorite and you can always toss in some walnuts or chocolate chips for something different.
And if you have portion control issues, these brownies halve beautifully! Use a 9″ x 5″ loaf pan and bake for only 14 minutes.
I highly recommend not decreasing the amount of chocolate chips in the batter. You can definitely skip the ones on top but these zucchini brownies rely on the sweetness and flavor from the chocolate chips!
I’m pretty sure you’d be disappointed if you didn’t use the chocolate in the batter. And I definitely don’t want that!
Be sure to use Dutch-process cocoa powder in these zucchini brownies. If you use the regular natural kind (like Hershey’s) these zucchini brownies will likely come out cakey instead of nice and fudgy like you see!
Besides, once you have some Dutch-process cocoa powder, you’ll be able to make these whole wheat chocolate cupcakes! They’re seriously just as delicious as traditional cupcakes made with all-purpose flour.
If you don’t mind the brownies being cakey and want to use regular cocoa powder, then go for it! Some commenters have mentioned making them with regular cocoa powder and loving them.
Have more zucchini to use? This chocolate zucchini bread also looks great! As do these zucchini muffins.
Enjoy!
Zucchini Chocolate Brownies (100% whole grain, gluten-free, dairy-free options)
- Prep Time:
- Cook Time:
- Ready in:
- Yield: 16 brownies
Ingredients
- 2 large eggs (50 grams each, out of shell)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup coconut sugar or unrefined sugar or granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) unsweetened applesauce
- 1 cup (125 grams) whole wheat flour or whole spelt flour or all-purpose flour or Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour for the gluten-free version
- 1/2 cup (45 grams) Dutch-process cocoa powder (using regular cocoa powder may result in cakey brownies)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups (about 300 – 320 grams) peeled and grated zucchini
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips + 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips to sprinkle on top (for dairy-free, use Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips)
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (176 degrees C) and line an 8"x8" pan with parchment paper or spray with baking spray.
- In a large bowl, mix together the eggs, vanilla, coconut sugar, and apple sauce and let this sit for 5 minutes to let the coconut sugar dissolve.
- In a separate medium bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa powder (sifted if lumpy!), baking soda and salt. Make sure there are no clumps before going on to the next step.
- Add the dry mix to the wet, gently stir until combined. Be sure not to over mix!
- Then fold in the zucchini and 1 cup chocolate chips.
- Pour the batter into the pan and even the surface with a spatula.
- Sprinkle 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips on top.
- Bake for 30 - 35 minutes (14 minutes for the half batch) or until a toothpick inserted in the middle doesn't come out gooey. It might still be sticky - just not have raw batter on it.
- Store in an airtight container for up to 2 days at room temperature or up to one week in the refrigerator. I recommend storing them in the refrigerator right from the beginning due to their high moisture content.
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517 comments on “Zucchini Brownies (gluten-free, dairy-free options)” — Add one!
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Yum. Just made these. I didn’t have applesauce or spelt. Subbed plain yogurt for applesauce and oat flour for the spelt. My coconut sugar said coconut palm sugar, not sure if that is the same thing but they taste good, not too sweet. Soft, delicate texture and look just like the picture.
It’s good to know that oat flour works in these! I’ve been wanting to try that out. And yogurt sounds like a great sub! Coconut sugar is indeed the same thing as coconut palm sugar. :) I’m so happy that the brownies came out well for you. Thanks a ton for the feedback!
Hey Erin! I am making these right now:-) my only concern is the batter (although delicious in my opnion) was very gritty. I accidently put baking powder In & baking sod. Will that effect it much? I’m ju curious to know why the texture is like that
Thanks!
Hi, Eliza! I haven’t had any commenters mention the batter being gritty so I’m not really sure what could be going on there. What kind of flour did you use? Do you mean that you used 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda? I’m not sure if that’d make the batter gritty but I’m guessing they’ll come out more cake-like! Sorry I don’t have a better answer for you. I hope they’re still delicious! :)
We must be soul sisters!!! My birthday is tomorrow, I have 2 huge zucchinis on my counter that have been asking me to make them into brownies. One google search and I find the recipe that I would have made had I not been able to find it. Thank you for saving me the effort! Scrolling down to check out the ingredients and that first photo made me say “damn that looks good!”
Happy birthday! :D That’s so funny that your zucchinis tell you those kinds of things because mine are the same exact way! Crazy. ;) I hope you have a fantastic day today and that you’ll enjoy your birthday brownies!
I made these last night and I love them! But I need a low sodium variation for my family member. I find it easier to find sodium free baking powder not soda….Any recommendations? Would I have to add 4x the baking powder? I assume that would leave a weird taste in the brownies.. please help! Thanks!
I’m so happy you liked them! I wasn’t sure about your baking powder question so I looked into it and found this useful article. I think the first three points would be helpful for you. They say, “Baking soda and baking powder are chemically different, and while it’s easy to sub soda for powder with a few added ingredients, doing the reverse might require a Ph.D.” Then this page says to use 3x the amount. I haven’t tried this so I don’t know if it’d affect the taste at all. Sorry I couldn’t be more of a help!
These were delicious!! Thank you so much for creating this recipe! None of my guests guessed the magic ingredients applesauce (made my own) and zucchini!
Awesome! I’m so happy it was a hit. And I love that you made your own applesauce! Thanks so much for your feedback. :)
I was browsing pinterest for zucchini recipes because we have so many that I needed new ideas.
These brownies sound perfect for my family!
I love that those are dairy free. My mom is not allowed to eat dairy and I’m always looking for ideas when she is coming over.
My younger son never eats vegetables. Yay for sneaky recipes!
And I still have applesauce from last year’s harvest and looking at the trees there will be a lot more this year.
Thank you! I’m going to try it this week.
Like your son, I don’t like veggies so I also appreciate sneaky ways to hide their taste. ;) And lucky you with apples trees and homemade apple sauce! That’s a dream of mine. Thanks so much for your comment and I hope that you and your family will enjoy the brownies!
Hi Erin!
Just wanted to say this recipe is fabulous! I did make some adjustments though. I know you had told other commenters that it probably wouldn’t work with a gluten free flour because the brownies would get too cakey, but I still was able to get a gooey consistency substituting the 1 c whole wheat flour for 1/4 c coconut flour. Also, I didn’t have coconut sugar so I used maple syrup instead. I did have to add an extra 1/4 t of baking soda and subtract out 3 T of liquid. I just wrung out my zucchini to decrease the liquid content. I even baked them in a mini cupcake pan to have bite-sized brownies (to hopefully create some portion control… haha :D ).
I’m sure the original recipe is wonderful, but I thought I’d experiment a bit and it did turn out quite well! I’ll definitely be looking at your site for additional recipes. Thanks a bunch!
Hi, Courtney! I love that you made these with coconut flour. I do a lot of baking with that so I’ll have to try it, too. The bite-sized brownies also sound great. :) Thanks so much for sharing your grain-free version! Hopefully it’ll help the others out and I know I’ll be trying it for sure. And so sorry for my slow reply! I don’t know how I missed it.
I am speechless!!! These are absolutely amazing and I was totally a skeptic! You must try these because you will not be disappointed! Oooey gooey chocolate lovers dream!
Thanks so much for your feedback! I’m thrilled that you liked them so much. :)
I have made your brownies so many times and everyone (friends, family, strangers off the street…. They all love them) but in so many different levels of sugar I thought I’d pass on what I learned…. 1) coco to ‘Regular’ sugar you can go 1:1 1/2 cup of each but only Only if you use eggs…. I have a son with an egg allergy and for his I have to go 1:2 with the sugar being a full cup. Most importantly if you Only have mini chips…. Go to the store and buy morsels it is not the same (in a bad) way if you don’t….. Thank you again for your blog I have always loved all your recipes and usually follow them to the letter… But with that much chocolate I find I don’t miss the sweet sugar. ;-)
Hi, Maureen! Thanks so much for sharing what you’ve learned with the sugar amounts. :) I’m all for less sugar so I’ll definitely be trying your reduced sugar version! And I think it’s great that you experimented with the recipe to find a yummy-tasting not so sugary version. Thanks again for your feedback!
Hey Erin just giving you a Happy Update That Thanks to all your amazing recipes My son is for the 1st year Officially Egg Allergy Free…. I always sharing your post to all my allergy friends. So glad this recipe is still in my bookmarks As Everyone Swears its the Best Brownie EVER!!!
Not sure why I never posted what I DID use as a sub but it was Chi-Egg (1tbs of chi 2 tablespoons of water… let it sit for 30 seconds in a separate container before adding)
Anyway just wanted to Thank you again And if ANYONE scrolls this far into your comments to see this…. I PROMISE you WILL NOT REGRET MAKING THEM!!! (Oh and 1/2 the regular sugar still 🤣)
Hi Maureen! Nice to hear from you so many years later. :D I’m thrilled that your son made it through the first year and that you and your friends like these brownies! I love how enthusiastic you are about them. :) Thanks again for your super nice comment and please forgive my slow reply! (I was on vacation)
These are freaking awesome. Thank you so much Erin for this recipe. They’re still hot (I ran here to write the review) so I hope I won’t change my mind when they cool off tomorrow(you know, if they’re one of ‘those’ desserts that just loses value after cooling off), but while still hot, a large portion has already gone, my family loved them.
I love knowing that much of the volume of the brownies actually comes from VEGETABLES and not flour. Also, I put 5-6 drops of stevia (no aftertaste, will put up to 8 next time), and check this out-I put stevia-sweetened chocolate that has no added sugar(crushed them into little chips myslef). Because I was really scared I also put 2-3 tbsps maple syrup and 1-2 tbsps honey(forgot to measure how much), but looking back (if like me, you don’t need things to be super sweet) it can be reduced to 2 tbsps max in total. Not a hint of regular sugar in them. That’s how I succeeded in making them even a bit more healthier, and I’m super proud because of that (so I guess I know how you feel when you do it). I think I also went overboard with the applesauce but that seems to be a completely acceptable mistake to do. Next time, I might try subbing up to 25% of the flour for buckwheat or oat flour to lessen the grain amount. Stop me if you think that would be a bad idea.
I’m so happy that you enjoyed them! These remain gooey for days so day two should definitely be good. :) I love how you made them even healthier! I’ll have to try that. Although I haven’t tried it, I’m pretty sure buckwheat or oat flour should work fine in these! I’ve had good luck using those in brownie recipes. I’ve never had to add a binder and it always works. Let me know how it goes and thanks a ton for your great feedback!
I love this recipe! I’m making it again for St. Patrick’s Day tomorrow – I feel like the green of the zucchini makes it festive :)
I like how you think! Thanks so much for the feedback. :)
LOVED this recipe. I’m new moving toward clean healthier food choices, which thought I would start with eliminating white flour, white/brown sugars, and eggs (eggs in recipes). So for this recipe I sub sugar with maple syrup and eggs with flax egg. On the flour I was going to use GF Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose Baking Flour, but noticed it said on the package use as a 1:1, but recommend to add Xanthan Gum, which I didn’t have. Since not sure how it would work with this added item, I just used white flour :(. Do you know if I could have gotten by without the Xan gum? Glad I found your blog.
I’m so happy that you liked them! I’ve not made these using GF flour but I’ve made lots of GF brownie recipes and I never use xanthan gum (I don’t use it in anything). These brownies are so gooey and so chocolatey that I think you don’t really need the xanthan gum to hold it together. If it’s cookies or bars or something like that, it’d probably be needed. If you’re just trying to eliminate white flour and not necessarily gluten, you could also try these with whole wheat or whole spelt flour. They’re much better for you than refined white flour! Thank you so much for your feedback and I’m sorry for my slow reply – I didn’t see this until now!
Hi I’d love to try your recipe. I’m always on the lookout for healthier alternatives for my son since he loves chocolate so this seems great. My question is this : I have a huge jar of hot chocolate mix that I wanted to use up – could that be replaced for the cocoa powder and sugar? What changes do you think I’d need to make if I were to do that? Thanks!
Hi there! I’ve never tried it but I’m guessing that won’t work. The proportion of sugar and cocoa powder would be totally different, which would affect the taste and texture of the brownies. I’m guessing the brownies would be too sweet and not chocolatey enough, but it’s just a guess. I definitely recommend sticking to cocoa powder and sugar. :) I hope you’ll enjoy the brownies if you try them out!
Can i substitute more apple sauce for the zuchinni? i Dont have anything against veggies, but i was SHOCKED to find out zuchinni is GMO!!
I don’t think so because the texture and moisture content is totally different. Sorry about that!
my friend cannot have eggs butter or milk what can I do to make a cake or cookies
I would suggest finding some vegan recipes to use rather than trying to adapt one like this. I don’t have many vegan recipes, but Namely Marly has lots of vegan cake and cookie recipes. :)
I just made them – unfortunately the grated zucchini did not seem to have absorbed the colour of the chocolate and did not dissolve – so it looks like little worms. I tried some and they are great tasting but knowing my kids they will not touch them. Not sure if I do them again unless I find a better way of grating them. I grated them fine.
I also gluten intolerant so adjusted the recipe. I only had milka hot chocolate which already has chocolate as well as the apple sauce was sweetened so I did not put any additional sugar in it which was fine and used Doves Gluten free flour for it.
I’m happy you thought they tasted good! Using hot chocolate instead of unsweetened cocoa powder and leaving out the sugar completely (even though the hot chocolate mix and applesauce was sweetened) is most likely to blame. 3/4 cup is a lot of sugar and the hot chocolate and applesauce don’t have anywhere near that. The gluten-free mix might have contributed to the weird texture, too. If you want a GF version, I recommend these flourless chocolate chip zucchini oat brownies. I hope that helps! :)
LOVE these – super tasty & intensely chocolatey – all the family enjoyed them. Just wondering, do you have any tips on how to reduce their sugar content/what I could swap in for the granulated sugar (I don’t have any coconut sugar)? Thanks :)
So happy that you liked them! You can reduce the sugar but the more you reduce, the cakier and less gooey they become. I’d say raw sugar or coconut sugar are really the only good subs here. If you used a liquid sweetener, then the liquid content would be off. Thanks for the feedback! :)
Hi Erin,
These look delicious!!! We do not get applesauce where I am (India). Can I use regular unsalted butter instead of the applesauce?
If you used butter, I think these would come out really greasy. They’re already super gooey and I’m afraid that they would never really set. If you enjoy applesauce, it’s easy to make! Or you could try these whole wheat zucchini brownies, which are applesauce free. :)
Hi Erin,
Thanks!! I found a simple applesauce recipe online and finally made these brownies for me and some office folks. They turned out very moist but not as gooey as expected (like a soft cake). I could not believe that there was zucchini in these. Will make them again this week. Thanks a lot for this recipe. I already know this will be one of my regular ones :)
Abhishek
I’m happy they came out well! I’m wondering if your homemade applesauce was maybe a little more watery than store bought apple sauce. That could have caused the cakey-ness! Thanks for letting me know how they came out. :)
Hi Erin! Just wanted to thank you for this recipe! I made it last night and it was deeeeeeeeeelicious :-) So moist – like one of those chocolate dessert cakes, you know? I do have one question: do you grate your zucchini finely or coarsely? I only ask because we could still ‘feel’ the bits of (coarsely) grated zucchini. Didn’t stop us eating a quarter of the brownies in one go though!
I’m also in Germany (British but live here with German boyfriend). So…. greetings from Berlin!
Kay
Hi Kay! I’m so happy that they came out well for you. :) I used a medium ribbon grater from Microplane. It’s been a while since I’ve made them but I don’t think I could detect the zucchini at all (and as someone who hates zucchini, I’m betting I’d remember. ;)) And hi back from Berlin! Thanks so much for the feedback and stopping by to say hi. :)
Oh my god these look absolutely amazing!!
Thanks, Millie! I hope you can give them a try. :)
Thanks for the recipe! Loved the gooey factor of this chocolate brownie, as did my bf who has left a few for me… He was getting concerned with counter space after I brought home a glut of zuccs. I used whole meal flour and Belgian dark chocolate chips, 70% cocoa solids and they were delish. I’ve looked at your inspiration for this recipe and would like to add this recipe as a link to my relatively new blog in my second recipe post if that is OK?!
So, so sorry for my slow reply, Tina! Please feel free to link to this recipe or the recipe on The Baltic Maid, where I adapted it from. :) And you never need to add to link to someone, just ask if you want to use their recipe (rewritten in your own words) or want to use a picture. I’m just letting you know since you said your blog was new. Hopefully it’ll save you a little time! :) I’m thrilled that you enjoyed the brownies and thanks for the feedback! Sorry again for my slow reply.