In addition to talking about budgeting and finances, I love to share from-scratch recipes, frugal dishes, and ways to use garden produce. Today I am sharing one of my favorite ways to eat zucchini– zucchini brownies! We don’t have any zucchini yet this year, but hopefully we will soon!
Zucchini lovers and haters alike will love these moist, chocolatey brownies. Hiding zucchini in brownies is a great way to trick picky eaters into getting some veggies. And the frosting is dreamy!
As a bonus, zucchini brownies don’t even require eggs!
We started a garden the first year we were married (almost 18 years ago!). We planted a little bit of everything . It was actually a rather huge garden for two people. Like anyone who has planted zucchini, we had a prolific crop.
When discussing what to do with our harvest, a neighbor asked us if we had tried zucchini brownies. I laughed out loud. Brownies were (are) one of my favorite treats. Why would I want to ruin them by adding vegetables?
Because he was a nice neighbor, he sent my husband home with a plate of moist, delicious brownies. I was sold! I could not believe that they had zucchini in them. I sent my husband back to get the recipe.
You can follow along with the photo tutorial or jump right to the bottom and print the recipe.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 cups flour
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups shredded zucchini
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
- 6 Tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup butter
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Directions
Mix together oil, sugar and vanilla in a large bowl. You may have noticed that there aren’t eggs in the recipe. That’s not a typo. There really aren’t any eggs! That’s another reason that I love this recipe– I can make it even when I’m out of eggs.
In a smaller bowl, mix together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Add flour mixture to the large bowl. Stir until combined. It will resemble slightly moist sand.
Add in shredded zucchini and mix. Sometimes I add walnuts, but I’m not feeling nutty today, so I’m leaving them out.
A note on the shredded zucchini: I leave the peel on and shred it in my food processor. With the skin left on, you may see flecks of green if you look closely, but my kids are smart enough to never refuse chocolate. If you are trying to hide the zucchini from a hater or picky eater, peeling it before shredding it will make it pretty much invisible.
At this point you’re going to think that I am crazy. Your mixture will not look like any other brownie or cake batter you’ve ever seen. If you’ve got a lot of faith, you can just put the crumbles into your greased pan and trust that it will work.
Otherwise, you can let sit for about five minutes first. The zucchini will start to sweat and to let off a little moisture. When you mix it again, it will start to come together a little better. Still it will not look like a typical batter. It will be more like cookie dough now. Don’t fret.
Another note on the shredded zucchini: You can use freshly shredded zucchini or zucchini that has been frozen and thawed. If it is frozen and thawed, drain off most of the water. You won’t experience as much of the dry batter phenomenon (see below) with frozen zucchini as you will with fresh.
Just press it into a greased 9 x 13 pan. I usually put a sandwich bag on my hand to press it into the pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.
After putting brownies into the oven, start the frosting. The method is a little different than most frosting recipes, but it makes for excellent frosting, so pay close attention.
Start by melting the butter and cocoa powder together in a saucepan.
Set aside to cool. I usually wait until after the brownies have been out of the oven for a while to finish the frosting since the brownies need to cool before you frost them anyway.
When it’s nice and cool it will go to a creamy solid state.
In a medium bowl, blend together powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla. Stir in the cocoa and butter mixture once it has cooled.
The cocoa and butter mixture is creamy enough that you can stir it all by hand without any problem. The frosting is pretty amazing. It’s the perfect way to top these yummy brownies, though they are delicious without frosting too.
Spread frosting over cooled brownies and serve.
Be careful because they are really good. While you can argue that they are good for your because they have zucchini in them, I’m pretty sure that eating too many won’t be very good for your waistline. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1½ cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 cups flour
- ½ cup cocoa powder
- 1½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups shredded zucchini
- ½ cup chopped walnuts (optional)
- 6 Tablespoons cocoa powder
- ¼ cup butter
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- ¼ cup milk
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- Mix together oil, sugar and vanilla in a large bowl.
- In a smaller bowl, mix together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
- Add flour mixture to the large bowl. Stir until combined. It will resemble slightly moist sand.
- Add in shredded zucchini (and walnuts) and mix.
- Let sit for about 5 minutes for the zucchini to let off a little moisture.
- Mix again, then press into a greased 9 x 13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.
- Note 1: The mixture will not look like a normal brownie or cake mix, but as it cooks, the zucchini will let off moisture.
- Note 2: There really are no eggs in the recipe. That's not a typo.
- After putting brownies into the oven, start the frosting. Melt the butter and cocoa poweder together in a saucepan. Set aside to cool.
- In a medium bowl, blend together powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla. Stir in the cocoa and butter mixture once it has cooled.
- Spread frosting over cooled brownies and serve.
You Might Also Like:
Free when you subscribe!
Get frugal inspiration and financial motivation in your inbox every week, plus you'll also get the Guide to Getting a Month Ahead Financially for free!
Your other brownie mix was voted best brownie by two of my grandchildren! I can hardly wait to try these! Thank you Stephanie!
That’s awesome Diane! Thanks for sharing! These are (not surprisingly) my kids fav way to use zucchini!
This is my favorite zucchini brownie recipe! I have made it SO many times! My children and I love it! I made it for a family get together and didn’t tell anyone they had zucchini in them until after they ate them I got so many comments about how good they were! Thank you for the recipe!
Made these for a beach picnic and got rave reviews. I didn’t tell the people at first that zucchini was involved and they were amazed when they found out. Other zucchini dessert recipes which I have tried usually have obvious bits of zucchini showing but not these! The texture was between a fudge and cake-like brownie – nice and moist and flavorful. I did have to bake them about 10 minutes longer to avoid a too moist center.
These look delicious! Brownies are one of my favorite treats too – far better than cake. We usually grow zucchini but that didn’t work out for us this year. Hopefully someone at church overplanted =D
Can you use dehydrated zuchinni in this recipe? If so, I assume it would need to be rehydrated?
Wow! These brownies are delicious! I finally tried the recipe today and we could not taste the zucchini at all! Thank you Stephanie for sharing this recipe!
Great for using up all that zucchini hanging out in the garden!