I recently discovered something new, my kids like zucchini! I never would have found this out if not for a trip to the Japanese restaurant. The hibachi chef asked who wanted to catch a piece of zucchini in their mouth and I was shocked when all my kids not only tried, but willingly ate several pieces of raw and cooked zucchini. 
Since then we’ve been going through zucchini at a record pace. Sorry to say it’s not because I’ve included it in our diets in a healthy way. I’ve been working on creating the perfect chocolate zucchini donut! For my birthday I got two kinds of donut pans. One nonstick metal mini donut pan and one silicone bakery sized donut pan. Let me tell you, baking your own donuts is the bomb. 
- Donuts take hardly any time to cook.
- Warm donuts fresh out of the oven.
- Warm glazed donuts fresh from the oven.
It would be biased of me to say that today’s chocolate zucchini donuts are without a doubt the world’s best zucchini donuts, but I will say they are pretty darn good. These donuts are dark, moist, and delicious. With mini chocolate chips baked inside they literally melt in your mouth. 
If you’ve never baked a donut before here are a few tips to help you with the process. Fill a ziploc bag with the batter and then snip off the end with a pair of scissors so that you can pipe the batter into each cavity. It’s so much easier and less mess. A light spray of nonstick cooking spray makes a world of difference when removing the baked donuts. And for these zucchini donuts, grate the zucchini as finely as you can. These donuts don’t bake very long, we want to keep the zucchini pieces small so that they bake into the donuts completely.
The batter for these chocolate zucchini donuts will seem very stiff and thick and you might think that there isn’t enough liquid in the recipe. Don’t worry, it’s supposed to be like that. As the zucchini cooks and releases it’s moisture these donuts bake up into the most heavenly texture. Although the pictures show these donuts glazed, we actually prefer them plain, so I haven’t included a glaze recipe today and also embarrassing #TBH I accidentally wrote the glaze recipe on the back of my grocery shopping list and lost it because I’m a ding-dong!
Chocolate Zucchini Donuts
Zucchini keeps these donuts deliciously moist, while the chocolate just keeps them delicious!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 2/3 cup buttermilk
- 1 cup finely grated zucchini
- 2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup baking cocoa
- 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and the sugar. Add the sour cream, buttermilk, and zucchini. Mix on low, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Measure the dry ingredients in a small mixing bowl and stir lightly with a fork to combine.
- Pour the dry ingredients into the buttermilk mixture and beat for 1-2 minutes on low speed.
- Stir in the chocolate chips by hand.
- Spoon the batter into a large ziplock bag and seal. Snip off one corner and pipe the donut batter into a prepared donut pan, filling each cavity 1/2 full.
- Bake at 375 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the thickest part of the donut comes out clean.
- Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then turn out. Cool completely before glazing.
Notes
The times listed are for large donuts. If using a mini donut pan bake for 7-8 minutes.
Kara B
Friday 9th of October 2020
These are fantastic! This recipe is a keeper. I've tried several chocolate donut recipes and this one is the best!
I've made these several times and have since made the following changes: 1/3 cup butter (scant), used plain yogurt instead of sour cream and white chocolate chips. The white chocolate chips tend to caramelize on top. DH said these were better than Tim Hortons (Canada's coffee/donut shop). Yesterday when I made these I also put the batter into mini bundt pans (size of a cupcake) and they turned out excellent. Thanks for a great recipe