Paleo Zucchini Brownies

Your tastebuds will never believe these fudgy, chocolatey Paleo Zucchini Brownies are made with a culinary vegetable! But, alas, they are! Shredded zucchini, maple syrup, and coconut sugar come together for an indulgent paleo brownie recipe! Top with chopped nuts, paleo chocolate pieces, or shredded coconut! {Paleo}

Paleo Zucchini Brownies? DON’T MIND IF I DO!!!! Who knew vegetables could taste so good! I mean, technically a zucchini is a fruit. But from a culinary perspective, it’s treated like a vegetable. So vegetable it is. Especially if it’s immersed in chocolate, which these zucchini pieces are! 

Today’s recipe is inspired by Ambitious Kitchen’s Zucchini Brownies. One of the biggest challenges of creating zucchini brownies is getting the right consistency. Zucchinis hold a lot of water while coconut flour runs dry. Finding the right balance between the two took fortitude. So, five practice batches later, we made adjustments.  One, we added tapioca flour in addition to the coconut flour. Then we used almond butter instead of tahini (we have an allergy in the house). And, finally, we reduced the amount of salt used.

If you’re still on the fence, let me just say, hop off and join me in the kitchen! Because even the reject brownies were delicious! With so many brownies on our kitchen counters right now, we’re eating them for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and in between times, too. But, hey, we’re eating our vegetables. This counts as elating our vegetables, right? I’m going to say it does.

Five batches in, let’s make another! You won’t likely need to make as many as we did to get everything right, but your tastebuds wouldn’t mind if you did. 😋

PALEO ZUCCHINI BROWNIES INGREDIENTS:

Here are the ingredients you’ll need to make your own decadent batch of Paleo Zucchini Brownies!

• Zucchini. 1 cup, shredded/minced and drained. It’s critical to squeeze out as much water from the zucchini as possible so your brownies are firm enough to hold their shape. See below, under Best Practices, for additional details.
• Dry ingredients: Cocoa (or cacao), coconut flour, tapioca flour, baking soda, and sea salt.
• Wet ingredients: Egg, almond butter (or other nut butter of choice), maple syrup, coconut sugar, vanilla, and coconut oil.
• Mix-ins and Toppings (optional): Chocolate chips (dark chocolate pieces or carob nibs for paleo-friendly options), melted chocolate drizzle, mixed nuts, coarse sea salt, or shredded coconut.

HOW TO MAKE PALEO ZUCCHINI BROWNIES:

1. Set oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8×8 baking dish and line with parchment that has been cut to size. Set aside.
2. Place shredded zucchini on a thin dishtowel (thick paper towels and napkins will also work), fold the towel over, and, using the heel of your hand, begin pressing on the zucchini in multiple places to extract the excess water. Repeat several times. Then gather the corners of the towel together and, standing over a sink or bowl, ring out remaining water from the zucchini. Set zucchini aside. If available, place the zucchini on a fresh, dry towel to continue draining any water that may still remain.
3. Combine the dry ingredients in a small mixing bowl, whisk together with a fork, and set aside. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk the wet ingredients together with a fork and pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Stir until evenly combined. Fold in desired mix-ins.
4. Pour the batter into the parchment-lined baking dish and bake for 30-35 minutes. For best results, rotate the dish once during baking. Remove from oven and set on the counter to cool for 10-20 minutes. Using the sides of the parchment paper, lift the brownie batch out of the pan, set on the counter or on a cutting board, and continue to cool another 5-10 minutes.
5. Cut into squares, serve, and ENJOY! Store brownies in an airtight container for 2-3 days.

PRO TIPS FOR ZUCCHINI BROWNIES THAT AREN’T TOO SOFT OR TOO DRY:

When I first started learning how to bake paleo recipes, I found they were dry and crumbly. Baked goods with zucchini, on the other hand, tend to hold too much moisture, leaving them soft and soggy. So wouldn’t paleo baking and zucchini recipes be a match made in heaven then? I mean, couldn’t the zucchini soften up the paleo flours and the paleo flours absorb more of the zucchini’s moisture?

Technically, yes. But creating these Paleo Zucchini Brownies proved to be trickier than that. The key is to get the right balance of ingredients. Five batches later, we figured out a few tricks:

• Extract excess moisture from the zucchini. Friends, I cannot stress this enough: as soon as you think you have all the water squeezed from the zucchini, it’s important to check one more time. I use two main methods. One, I ring the zucchini out over a bowl or a sink, using a thin dishcloth. And, two, I fold a dishtowel in half, place the zucchini in the center of the “pocket,” and using the heel of my hand, press down in multiple places on the cloth. You’d be surprised just how much water you find when both steps are utilized. I share more about this in my Paleo Zucchini Bread recipe.
• Line the baking dish with parchment. In addition to greasing the baking dish, it’s a good idea to line it with parchment paper. This will make it easier to lift the brownies out of the pan to cool or serve.
• Let the brownies cool before serving. This is a critical step. If you slice and serve the brownies too soon, the ingredients will be soft, and your brownies will fall apart. I like to cool the brownies in the baking dish for 10-20 minutes and then, using the parchment paper, lift the entire batch of brownies out of the pan to finish cooling on the counter. Then I cut them into squares and store them in an airtight container, layered between sheets of parchment paper (you could reuse the piece from the baking dish, if it isn’t too messy). 

BROWNIES, BROWNIES, AND MORE BROWNIES!!!

Get your gluten-free, dairy-free brownie fix with these delectable, chocolatey treats!

• Chocolate Almond Butter Brownies
• Gluten-Free Cake Brownies
• Paleo Fudgy Brownies
• Delectable Dairy-Free Chocolate Tart (Okay, this one isn’t technically a brownie, but, wow, is it good! So, we’re making it an honorary brownie today!)

Spiriteds, I hope these Paleo Zucchini Brownies find you well. Take care and stay safe. I’m glad you’re here. ❤️ 

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