I have aired my complaints with the “Dubai Chocolate” trend by now. I won’t bother you all with them again. I have just come to terms with the fact that chocolate and pistachio are a wonderful flavor combination, and we didn’t need Dubai to tell us that. So I will be calling everything “chocolate pistachio” instead of “Dubai.” To be very clear: this is not a Dubai-Style Zucchini bread. It’s a Chocolate Pistachio Zucchini Bread. And it’s very tasty.
I did two versions of this bread, actually. The first time, I swirled in some pistachio cream in the middle of the loaf, but when I baked it, it sort of just… dissolved into the bread. It tasted great, but it wasn’t visible. So I tried again, and I mixed some powdered sugar into the pistachio cream to thicken it up and make it sort of like a Reese’s filling texture. And guess what? That dissolved too. So maybe there just won’t be green swirls in the middle of this loaf. But there will be pistachio flavor throughout, and beautiful swirls on top!
I also mixed some pistachio bits into the second loaf. That definitely helped spread the pistachio flavor out! And just made the texture more interesting.
But even better is that I made the second load gluten free, and you literally could not tell that that is what changed. Which is extra convenient, because this is going to be my Gluten Free Quick Bread entry for the State Fair this year. Maybe the judges will also hate the Dubai Chocolate trend, but I hope it will be hard for them to deny that this loaf is pretty darn delicious.
I feel like I haven’t been posting as much, but… that’s because I’ve been doing things like baking two iterations of everything in my attempts to perfect recipes! I’ve already locked in my flavors for each bake, so… I’ve got to make them all the best they can be!
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Joy the Baker, swirled with pistachio cream… topped with pistachio streusel?
Ingredients
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, divided
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (or, 1 1/4 cups gluten free flour + 3/4 tsp xanthan gum)
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 3/4 teaspoons salt
- 3/4 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder, divided
- 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 cups freshly shredded zucchini
- 3/4 cups chocolate chips
- pistachio cream
- 1/2 heaping cup coarsely chopped, roasted and salted shelled pistachios
Instructions
- Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9×5-inch loaf pans with nonstick cooking spray, line with parchment paper, and lightly spray the parchment paper. Set aside.
- Mix the eggs, oil, sugars, and vanilla extract. Whisk well to combine until each is thick and glossy. Set aside.
- Add in the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda and baking powder). Fold gently until incorporated.
- Add 2 cups of grated zucchini to the batter and fold until everything is moistened.
- Mix in the chocolate chips and pistachios, if using.
- Spoon half the batter into the prepared pan. Spoon/drizzle some pistachio cream throughout. Top with the rest of the batter, then add a few more dollops of pistachio cream. Run a knife through it gently to swirl it.
- Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center of each loaf comes out mostly dry.
- Allow to cool for 15 minutes before removing from the pan to slice and serve warm. Bread will last, well wrapped at room temperature, for up to 4 days.