Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

When we lived on the west side of Houston we used to go to this German restaurant called Rudi Lechner's. It wasn't the best German food ever, but it was in the neighborhood and had a warmly retro atmosphere that we enjoyed (and not intentionally retro, but retro in a your-grandparents-actually-used-to eat-here kind of way). Plus, the kid liked it, which is not to be taken for granted. Her favorite things were the spaetzle and the warm zucchini bread they brought out before the meal. Unfortunately, after a very bad customer service experience one night when we'd gone there to celebrate hubby's birthday, we swore never to darken their door again. And we haven't.

As it turns out you can buy spaetzle at H-E-B that, while not quite as good as Rudi's, is more than good enough to satisfy the kid. But she's been on me to make zucchini bread and finally, after several years, I have gotten around to it. I don't know why I never did it before. I make loads of pumpkin bread every fall and banana bread several times a year, and zucchini bread is basically the same thing. Well today I had a couple of zucchinis (zucchini? zucchinae?) in the fridge starting to go soft and it occurred to me that I should make bread. Duh!

Of course, I knew that just any old recipe wouldn't do, or else I'd have to listen to the kid tell me how mine wasn't as good as Rudi's. I needed a ringer. And what better way to guarantee a win than chocolate? So chocolate zucchini bread it was. The recipe I finally settled on was Paula Deen's.

I didn't have any oranges on hand for the zest, so I left it out and I'll tell you that I didn't even miss it. Then again, I'm generally opposed to extraneous citrus in my recipes--unless there's an honest to god Alton Brown-y, chemistry-related reason for it to be there, just don't do it. I have eaten far too many cheesecakes, buttermilk pies and blintzes ruined by unnecessary lemon flavor. If I'd wanted a lemon-flavored dessert, I'd have ordered one with lemon in the name!

But I digress.

The verdict on Paula's chocolate zucchini bread is A+. It was sweet, but not too sweet, the zucchini was detectable, but not overpowering, and most importantly, the kid loved it. She declared mine even better that Rudi's because "it's got CHOCOLATE!" Proof that everything is improved by chocolate, even vegetables.

TIP: If you don't want your chocolate chips all falling to the bottom, dust them with a light sprinkling of flour before adding them to the batter. Works like a charm!