Chocolate Zucchini Bread

It's that time of year again...zucchini overload!!  This is a sweet taste on the typical zucchini bread.  You can make it lightly sweet or with a deeper chocolate flavor, just by adding chocolate chips.

This recipe makes 2 loaves of bread.

1 1/2 C sugar
1 C unsweetened applesauce
3 eggs
3 tsp vanilla extract
2 3/4 C all-purpose flour (for higher elevation, lower elevations use 2 1/2 C)
1/2 C cocoa
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp baking powder
2 1/2 C zucchini, peeled and shredded
1 C chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350.
Lightly grease two bread pans with cooking spray (8"x4" or 9"x5" pans).
Mix together the sugar, applesauce, eggs and vanilla.
Add the flour, cocoa, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and baking powder to the wet mixture and blend.
Mix in the zucchini.
Fold in the chocolate chips (you can also make one loaf with chocolate chips and one without by adding the chocolate chips to the batter after you fill one pan).
Fill the two bread pans equally.
Bake for 45-55 minutes (until a toothpick comes out clean).
Let the loaves sit in their pans for 10 minutes.
Transfer them to a cooling rack to finish cooling.

This recipe is adapted from www.sixsistersstuff.com.