Chocolate Zucchini and Sweet Potato Bread with Almonds and Dried Cherries

True to my word, this post is to fulfill my promise  to Val Outmezquine, community producer at the Foodnetwork.ca site, after I was fortunate enough to win a copy of Anna Getty's book, "Easy Green Organic".  I picked the zucchini and sweet potato bread with pumpkin seeds and dried cherries" as my project.  However, don't  go looking for the pumpkin seeds in my version, but do expect a few surprises as I stray from the original recipe.  I replaced the pumpkin seeds with toasted almond slices, which I think is a marriage made in heaven when combined with cherries. I also added dark Dutch cocoa and  dark chocolate chips to compliment the cinnamon in the original recipe, which by the way I reduced in half , so as not have the cinnamon overpower the chocolate ingredients. I also reduced the oil from 1 cup to 3/4 cup. Couldn't very well stop there! However nothing too drastic, I opted to use the almond slices in the topping instead of  the pumpkin seeds. I elected to sprinkle dark chocolate chips on the streusel topping. I might have not followed the recipe to a tee, but who can knock that all that chocolaty goodness oozing out of the hot loaf.


Ingredients:
 Batter:
1 3/4 cups all  purpose flour
1/2 cup dark Dutch cocoa powder 
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup toasted sliced almonds
3/4 cup dried cherries, coarsely chopped
3/4 cup dark chocolate chips
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup grated zucchini (unpeeled)
1 cup grated uncooked sweet potato

Crumble Topping:
1/4 cup all purpose flour
3 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup almond slices
1/4 cup dark chocolate chips

In a bowl add 1/4 cup of flour, 3 tablespoons brown sugar, and butter.  With your fingers blend the flour, sugar and butter pieces until the texture of very coarse meal.  Add the almonds and combine with the flour/butter mixture. You may then toss in the chocolate chips or simply sprinkle them on top of the streusel topping.  Set aside while preparing the batter

In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, dark chocolate cocoa, cinnamon, soda, baking powder and salt.  Toss in the cherries, dark chocolate chips and almonds.  In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs,sugar, oil and vanilla. Stir in the grated zucchini and the sweet potatoes. Pour the egg /zucchini mixture into the dry ingredients and beat to combine. Do not over beat. Pour the batter into a prepared 9x5x3 loaf  pan. Bake in a pre-heated 350º F oven for 1 1/2 hour to 2 hours. The loaf is done when a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.