Chocolate Zucchini and Sweet Potato Bread With Almonds and Dried Cherries
By: Anna C
Published: Tuesday, September 14, 2010 - 6:23am

Ingredients




Batter:
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup dark Dutch cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup toasted sliced almonds
3/4 cup dried cherries, coarsely chopped
3/4 cup dark chocolate chips
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup grated zucchini (unpeeled)
1 cup grated uncooked sweet potato
Crumble Topping:
1/4 cup all purpose flour
3 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup almond slices
1/4 cup dark chocolate chips

Preparation

1 In a bowl add 1/4 cup of flour, 3 tablespoons brown sugar, and butter.  With your fingers blend the flour, sugar and butter pieces until the texture of very coarse meal. 2 Add the almonds and combine with the flour/butter mixture. You may then toss in the chocolate chips or simply sprinkle them on top of the streusel topping. 3 Set aside while preparing the batter 4 In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, dark chocolate cocoa, cinnamon, soda, baking powder and salt. 5 Toss in the cherries, dark chocolate chips and almonds. 6 In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs,sugar, oil and vanilla. 7 Stir in the grated zucchini and the sweet potatoes. 8 Pour the egg /zucchini mixture into the dry ingredients and beat to combine. Do not over beat. 9 Pour the batter into a prepared 9x5x3 loaf  pan. 10 Bake in a pre-heated 350º F oven for 1 1/2 hour to 2 hours. 11 The loaf is done when a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.

Comments:
Anna C

True to my word, this post is to fulfill my promise  to Val Outmezquine, community producer at the Foodnetwork.ca site, after I was fortunate enough to win a copy of Anna Getty's book, "Easy Green Organic".  I picked the zucchini and sweet potato bread with pumpkin seeds and dried cherries" as my project.  However, don't  go looking for the pumpkin seeds in my version, but do expect a few surprises as I stray from the original recipe.