Macheesmo

With this post (and these zucchini chocolate chip cookies), I give you permission to eat cookies for breakfast.

After all, these cookies have eggs (breakfast), granola (breakfast), and chocolate chips (breakfast-ish)…

Plus, I’m pretty sure it’s okay to eat zucchini bread for breakfast and these cookies are essentially zucchini bread except smaller and actually with less sugar than a lot of zucchini bread recipes.

Eat these for breakfast, or fine… dessert. But, they are definitely worth making especially if you have a pile of zucchini you don’t know what to do with!

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies

by Nick

Serves:

16 large cookies

Prep Time:

15 mins

Total Time:

45 mins

Just a moment please...

Print Recipe

Helpful Equipment:

Zucchini chocolate chip cookies packed with add-ins plus a secret ingredient to give it some texture and flavor! These are a must-make in summer!

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups shredded zucchini

1 cup almond granola

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Helpful Equipment:

Stand Mixer

Show Directions

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Grate your zucchini and use a few paper towels to soak up some of the moisture from the zucchini.

2) In a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, cream together the butter and sugars until it’s light and fluffy. Then add in an egg and the almond extract. Mix together quickly and then add in the flour mixture. Mix until the dough is just combined.

3) Stir in zucchini, chocolate chips, and granola. Stir until combined.

4) Form up large heaping spoonfuls of cookie dough and divide them on two cookie sheets. I recommend doing 8 cookies per sheet so they have room to expand. If you want, dot each cookies with a few chocolate chips for an extra touch.

5) Take the cookies at 350 degrees F. for 14-16 minutes.

6) Remove the cookies and let them cool for a few minutes before chowing down. Store cookies in an airtight container and they will keep for a few days (not that they will last that long).

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies

Let’s Talk Zuke

If you’re measuring, you want about two cups of zucchini for these cookies. That should be about two small zucchini, but it’s also not essential to be perfect. A little bit less or more zucchini won’t kill the cookies.

What will kill the cookies is if you don’t dry out your zucchini. It has a ton of water in it and after you shred it, just grab a few paper towels and soak up as much of the liquid as you can. If you don’t do this your dough might be on the runny side later.

Cookie Time

To start the cookies, whisk together the flour with the spices. If you want you can substitute up to 1/2 cup of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour for a little extra nutty flavor.

As with any good cookie dough, cream together the butter with the sugars until they are light and fluffy. I used my stand mixer for this but you can also just use a hand mixer.

Then add in some almond extract (or you could use vanilla) and an egg.

Once that is blended, add in the dry stuff and stir it together until everything is just combined. Try not to over-mix the cookie dough. Even if you have some bits of flour not mixed it, that’s okay.

Now for the add-ins! Stir in all that zucchini, chocolate, and granola.

The granola is my little cookie trick. It gives the cookies some great texture and body and adds in a lot of built in flavor. I used almond granola for this version!

When your dough is ready, roll out big heaping spoonfuls of the dough onto two baking sheets. You should get about 16 large cookies. Give the cookies plenty of space on each cookie sheet.

Bake these bad boys at 350 degrees F. for 14-16 minutes. The finished cookies should puff up slightly and be browned on the edges.

Let them cool a bit before chopping down, but I personally like them while they are a little warm so the chocolate is still melted!

These are the cookies of summer: light, but still packed with chocolate.

Plus, did I mention that you can eat them for breakfast?!