Dark Chocolate Zucchini Brownies Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Is it better to use cocoa powder or melted chocolate in brownies? ›

The secret to the fudgiest, most chocolaty brownies is cocoa powder—not melted chocolate. We borrowed chocolate expert Alice Medrich's technique, then added a cream cheese topping for tangy balance.

Dutch-Processed Cocoa Powder

It makes amazingly rich, dark, and tender cakes, fudgy, moist brownies and cookies, and incredibly luscious frosting.

A variation made with brown sugar and vanilla rather than chocolate in the batter is called a blond brownie or blondie. The brownie was developed in the United States at the end of the 19th century and popularized there during the first half of the 20th century.

Cocoa powder is a staple for brownies and chocolate cakes alike. But adding cocoa powder alone may transform your brownies from fudgy to cake-like. SBS Australia notes that cocoa powder has a texture similar to flour. Therefore, adding too much cocoa powder can dry out the batter.

Cocoa powder has a more intense flavour than baking chocolate, less fat, and, in most cases, no sugar.

If you fancy yourself a dark chocolate fanatic, you'll want to keep Ghirardelli Unsweetened Cocoa Powder stocked in your kitchen. In the test, Ghirardelli gave our bakers distinct dark chocolate notes without being overly bitter or sweet. This brand manages to keep these flavor profiles balanced.

Bittersweet chocolate is a great option for most baked goods (one of our favorite recipes is our Chocolate Chunk Brownies). It has just the right balance of sweetness and a rich cocoa flavor, which is why this chocolate is the most popular among our culinary customers.

brownie, in English and Scottish folklore, a small, industrious fairy or hobgoblin believed to inhabit houses and barns. Rarely seen, he was often heard at night, cleaning and doing housework; he also sometimes mischievously disarranged rooms.

Brownies are thought to be of US origin, the name derived from their color (brown) and from the mythical pixie-like characters common in children's stories from the same time period. One story suggests that brownies were invented at the Palmer House in Chicago in 1892.

What are the three types of brownies? ›

Brownie textures fall into three general camps… Cakey, fudgy and chewy. Cakey brownies, like the name implies, are light, moist and airy, with a slightly fluffy, cake-like interior. Fudgy brownies are moist, dense and gooey, with almost the texture of fudge, but not quite as compact.

While I don't recommend substituting chocolate for cocoa in a recipe (or vice versa), you can do it if you have to. The trick is to adjust your ratios to compensate for the higher concentration of cocoa solids in cocoa powder and the added fat in unsweetened chocolate.

Your best bet when using chocolate instead of cocoa powder is going to be unsweetened chocolate ($4, Target) since all other chocolates will have sugar and hence take more adjusting to work in your recipe. In general, a 1-ounce piece of unsweetened chocolate can replace 3 Tbsp. cocoa.

Cocoa powder, being a dry ingredient, can be easily measured, and it eliminates the extra step of melting chocolate. However, in my opinion, brownies made with melted chocolate are far superior—fudgier, denser, and just much more delicious!

The most obvious answer may be “yes, you can” since both are chocolate. However, using cocoa powder might make your mixture more dry, more cakey, and less moist than it should have been if you used melted chocolate or make the batter oily or even too runny to hold up its own weight.