00:00Hello, this is Chef John from Foodwishes.com with Chocolate Zucchini Bars.
00:08That's right, these are made with a surprisingly large amount of zucchini,
00:12but without any flour or any white sugar.
00:16And I'm trying to present these as breakfast bars,
00:18which is a little tough since they have the texture and taste of a special occasion decadent dessert.
00:24But anyway, we'll figure out what these are later.
00:26And for now, we'll start with how to prep the pan, which is by generously greasing it with oil,
00:32and then by placing in a piece of parchment paper that goes across the bottom and up two sides like this.
00:38And that's going to make it a lot easier to get this out of the pan once it's cooled.
00:42And once that's set, we can move on to the star of this show,
00:44some nice, fresh, hopefully pretty small zucchini.
00:48Okay, a young zucchini is going to be more tender and less bitter,
00:51and won't have any seeds inside.
00:53And what we need for this recipe is two packed cups,
00:57which is probably going to be about three small zucchini,
00:59but your results may vary.
01:02And what we'll do once that's grated is transfer those onto some paper towels,
01:06and then gather those up and give it a good squeeze,
01:08in an attempt to remove as much excess liquid as we can.
01:12Oh, and you know what? Forget I just said paper towels.
01:16You should actually do this in a dry kitchen towel,
01:18since we really do want to apply a lot of pressure here,
01:21which is way easier with a cloth towel,
01:24as paper towels tend to rip open and explode,
01:26especially if you're not using the thick, expensive ones.
01:30But anyway, the point is squeeze out as much moisture as you can.
01:33And once that's set, we'll pop that in the fridge,
01:35and we'll move on to the rest of the batter.
01:38And that's going to start with three-quarters cup of pistachio butter,
01:41or any nut butter you want.
01:44Okay, almond butter is easier to find and probably cheaper.
01:47And we'll do the job, as will pretty much any nut butter.
01:51And then we'll also want to add some melted butter,
01:53as well as a couple large eggs.
01:56And then, as I mentioned earlier,
01:58we're not going to use any white sugar in this,
02:00but we do need to sweeten it up a little bit,
02:03which we'll do with some maple syrup.
02:05And once we have that transferred in,
02:07we'll take a whisk and give this a mix.
02:09And please, you're going to want to start stirring very slowly here.
02:12Whenever we have something really thick, like a nut butter,
02:15and we try to stir it with other fluid ingredients in the bowl,
02:19if you stir too fast, it's going to splash all over.
02:22So maybe don't do that, and start off slow.
02:24And then once it comes together, we can get more aggressive.
02:28And once we have that mixed, we will stop.
02:30And we will add our salt,
02:33as well as a little splash of vanilla,
02:35plus a spoon of baking powder.
02:37No, not baking soda.
02:38Baking powder.
02:40And what we'll do is stir that for about 30 seconds,
02:42before we stop and add the final ingredients,
02:46which for me are going to be some chopped walnuts,
02:48plus a nice big cup of dark chocolate chips.
02:51And for me, the darker and more bittersweet the chocolate, the better.
02:55And that's it.
02:55We'll finish up with some almond flour,
02:58as well as our hopefully very well-squeezed dry zucchini.
03:01And then what we'll do is switch to a spatula and give this a thorough mix.
03:06And unlike batters that have flour in them,
03:09nothing's going to happen here if you over-mix,
03:11except you'll be wasting time,
03:13which, as you well know,
03:15is by far the most valuable ingredient.
03:17So, once we do have that thoroughly mixed,
03:20we will stop.
03:21And we will transfer that into our prep pan.
03:24And while I do that,
03:25let me explain two things you can do to improve this.
03:29Okay, I never think of it until after the fact.
03:31But we should just mix in half the chocolate chips
03:33and sprinkle the other half on the top,
03:35so that they don't all sink to the bottom,
03:38which is what tends to happen with these kind of batters.
03:41And then, to make things worse,
03:42I decided to give this the old tappa-tappa
03:45to settle the batter down,
03:47which is normally fine and recommended.
03:50But that is also going to move those chips closer to the bottom.
03:53So, to recap, sprinkle half the chips over the top
03:56and do not, under any circumstances, tap this.
03:59But in any event,
04:00we will transfer that into the center of a 350-degree oven
04:04for about 35 to 40 minutes,
04:07or until it looks like this.
04:10And yes, that does appear to be perfectly baked,
04:13but we still need to check.
04:15And if it's really done properly,
04:16a toothpick inserted near the center will come out clean.
04:20And then what we'll do is just let this sit in the pan
04:22until it cools down to room temp,
04:25at which point I think we should transfer that into the fridge
04:27until it's ice cold before we try to cut it.
04:30Okay, the colder this is, the firmer it is,
04:33and the easier it's going to be to work with.
04:35So that's exactly what I did.
04:38And once cold, we'll pull it out
04:39and carefully remove that from the pan,
04:42which, thanks to that parchment paper,
04:43is going to be very simple and easy.
04:46And then as far as portioning goes,
04:48I'm going to cut this into eight big bars,
04:50since, again, I'm trying to convince you
04:52this would be a beautiful breakfast
04:54next to a nice big cup of coffee or tea.
04:57But having said that,
04:58you could certainly cut this into 12 pieces,
05:00which would still be a nice portion.
05:03They just would not be bars.
05:04And if we're going to call them chocolate zucchini bars,
05:08that is kind of important.
05:10And then once these are cut,
05:11we could just plate them up and serve.
05:13And I think they would look just fine.
05:15But I decided to go for a very experimental garnish,
05:19involving some candied zucchini.
05:21So what I did after slicing some of that on the mandolin,
05:24is I combined equal parts of water and sugar in a pan,
05:28set over medium-high heat.
05:30And once the sugar dissolved and it started simmering,
05:33I transferred the zucchini in.
05:35And what we'll do is cook that stirring occasionally,
05:37for about a minute or two,
05:39just until that zucchini loses its raw edge
05:42and starts to soften up and become flexible.
05:46And once that happens,
05:47what we'll do is pull that off the heat,
05:49and we'll transfer that zucchini into a bowl,
05:52and then cover it with a little bit of that hot, simple syrup.
05:55And we'll let that cool all the way down,
05:57at which point it's ready to garnish the top of our bars.
06:01And while this step, of course, is completely optional,
06:04I really did love how this looked.
06:06And I thought it made the overall appearance more provocative
06:09and more enticing.
06:11And was I upset that it ended up looking like
06:14I garnished this with pickles?
06:16A little bit.
06:17But we should never regret trying something new,
06:20since if we're not trying new things,
06:22what are we going to try?
06:23But anyway, you decide.
06:27I mean, you guys are after all the Angela Merkels
06:29of your candied zucchini circles.
06:32But whether you use those or not,
06:34this, my friends, is one extremely delicious
06:37and, I think, very beautiful bar.
06:40Right?
06:40I thought the taste was fantastic,
06:42and they were just sweet enough.
06:44And no, it doesn't taste like zucchini.
06:46And if you've ever had a zucchini muffin
06:48or zucchini bread,
06:50you know what I'm talking about.
06:52Okay, used like this,
06:53they're much more of a fruit than a vegetable.
06:56And as far as the texture goes,
06:58these are extremely moist and very tender.
07:01And I'd say sort of similar to a nice fudgy brownie.
07:04And while maybe not ideal visually,
07:07having most of those chocolate chips
07:08sink down to the bottom
07:09actually turned out not to be that big of a deal.
07:12Although I would still go with my recommendations
07:14from earlier
07:15and sprinkle half the chips over the top.
07:18And also, don't forget, no tapping.
07:21But anyway, that's it.
07:23My take on chocolate zucchini bars.
07:25Whether you end up serving these for breakfast
07:27or use them as a slightly healthier dessert option,
07:31I really did love everything about these.
07:33And I really do hope you give them a try soon.
07:37So please follow the links below
07:38for the ingredient amounts,
07:40a printable written recipe,
07:41and much more info as usual.
07:44And as always, enjoy.
Comments