250 g grated courgette (about two small courgettes)
250 g self-raising flour
5 g baking soda (1 teaspoon)
5 g salt (1 teaspoon)
5 g cinnamon (1 teaspoon)
100 g dark chocolate chips or pieces
5 g self-raising flour (additional)
125 g chopped nuts (optional)
Instructions:
1). Preheat oven to 160 degrees.
2). In a small saucepan (or microwave), melt butter. Add cocoa powder and blend together until smooth. Set aside to cool.
3). In a large mixing bowl, combine eggs, sugar, oil, and vanilla. Mix until well-blended.
Peel and grate the courgettes (leave the skins on). Add the grated courgette and cooled cocoa mixture to the egg mixture in the large mixing bowl. Blend well.
4). In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Add these dry ingredients to the batter. Stir only enough to blend in all the dry ingredients – no need to over-mix.
5). In another small bowl, coat the chocolate chips with 2 tsp. flour. This helps prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the pan. Add the flour-coated chocolate chips to the batter.
6). Spoon the batter into two generously-greased and floured 2-pound (9x5x3) loaf pans. Bake for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
7). Cool in the pans for 5-10 minutes. Remove from pans and continue to cool on a wire rack.
