Zucchini Recipes: Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cookies
ByTis the season for zucchini to grow into the size of baseball bats (and be used as such if you live at my house). Tis the season for everyone to lock their doors while at church…just to prevent someone from unloading their overgrown zucchini into other people’s cars when no one’s looking. Tis the season for people to start offering to pay you money just to take zucchini off their hands.
It’s amazing how one little hill can produce enough zucchini to fill an entire kitchen. (Did I mention that I didn’t even plant zucchini this year?!)
We’ve eaten a bunch of zucchini in stir fry or simply sauted it in a bit of olive oil. It’s SO good like that. I’ve already shredded a bunch and put it into the freezer. Now, I’m on a quest to figure out some great recipes that will sneak zucchini into a variety of dishes, making them more nutritious. And well…a zucchini can only serve as a baseball bat for so long. Eventually it must be eaten.
I don’t like eating a huge zucchini as is. The seeds are larger than my teeth and the skin is tougher than I prefer. I like shredding the large ones in my food processor and stirring them into zucchini bread (whole wheat and honey recipe coming soon).
While making zucchini bread last week (and then looking around at all the other huge zucchini in my kitchen) I realized that surely one could come up with a cookie, or at least a cookie bar that included zucchini. So I tinkered around. I discovered this: Cookies are a delicious way to eat more zucchini.
Here’s the recipe I came up with:
Giant Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cookies
2 cups shredded zucchini
1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup organic sucanat (dehydrated cane sugar juice)
1 egg
1/2 t. salt
1 t. baking soda
3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cup chocolate chips
Shred zucchini (I use a food processor). In a large mixing bowl mix sucanat, flour, salt and baking soda. Stir in shredded zucchini, melted butter and egg. Fold in chocolate chips. Use a large scoop to put 1 1/2 T. sized balls of dough onto a cookie sheet. Bake in a 350° oven for 15 minutes. Makes about 20 giant cookies.
Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bars
Follow the same recipe as above, only spread the dough into a 9×13 inch pan. Bake in a 350° oven for 20-25 minutes.
My husband, kids and I all loved these. Zucchini makes them moist…and of course chocolate makes everything good.
Coming up in my next Zucchini Recipes post…I’ll share my whole wheat and honey zucchini bread and muffin recipe!
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Go check out Amy’s awesome list of zucchini recipes!
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We love zucchini cookies! My recipe is from the book Simply In Season. ;)
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those zucchini bars look amazing! I’ve never tried zucchini cookies — but they’re going on my list too. yum.
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Thanks for the great recipes….I have a somewhat dumb question….when you shred your zucchini, do you take the peel off and the seeds out? thanks so much!
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We put zucchini in anything made with spaghetti sauce. Shredded zucchini in sauce over pasta or meatballs, sliced layered in lasagna. We also like it sliced, breaded in italian bread crumbs with a little parmesan stirred in, fried in olive oil and dipped in marinara.
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Yum, thanks for sharing. Our zucchini peaks in about a month (we hope), so I’ll try some of these recipes soon. I make a zucchini-oat-raisin muffin recipe every year that we enjoy. It will be fun to try new recipes!
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This recipe looks so great. I was wondering if I can use sugar in place of the sucanat. Thanks for the great recipe!
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Laura Reply:
July 21st, 2009 at 9:59 pm
Sure, you can substitute sugar for the sucanat no problem…one for one. :)
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I made a double batch of the zucchini c. c. bars and they were wonderful. Thanks so much for posting your recipes. We ate one 9 x 13 pan and I froze the other pan of bars.
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Well, it may not be high on the most-nutritious list, but I make chocolate zucchini mini-breads that are quite yummy! Recipe here: http://savingandgiving.blogspot.com/2008/09/chocolate-zucchini-bread.html
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Here is a zucchini breakfast casserole that sounds good:
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/zucchini_breakfast_casserole/
Enjoy!
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Can you use honey instead of Sucanat??
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I’m liking all these zucchini recipes…we have planted a garden and hope to be harvesting many zucchini’s in the future! Love the healthy recipes, sucanet is a must in my pantry.
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Thanks so much for these! They are wonderful! I made a couple of additions, some coconut oil, etc…and think I will even try adding some cinnamon next time! They will definitely make it to my “loved” recipes collection! :D
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