Fudgy Zucchini No Bake Cookies

I don’t know about you, but for me there seems to come a point at the end of every summer where I feel a tad overwhelmed. I mean how can it seriously be August already? It seems like just yesterday was June, I was making plans for the summer and putting plants in the garden. Well it’s August folks, which means back to school soon for my hubby, everything is ready for harvest in the garden, and oh hey did I mention we are moving? (More on that later) So needless to say I love the warmth and abundance of fresh food that August brings, but I could use some longer days and more easy recipes like this weeks Fudgy Zucchini No Bake Cookies. 

Zucchini is one of those plants that just explodes with produce once it matures. Late June through early September I could probably harvest at least 1-2 of these babies a day from my garden and I only plant two plants! (They are so easy to grow by the way so if you haven’t before you should really consider it next spring). Zucchini is also crazy versatile.  It works amazingly shredded and added into baked goods (think the moistest cake you’ve ever eaten). Makes a great side dish (cubed and roasted with other veggies, or thinly sliced, coated in breadcrumbs and fried)…the options are endless.

Why you need to make these fudgy zucchini no bakes today!

Three words: easy, fudgy, chocolate. Actually, “fudgy” isn’t a legitimate word, so maybe that’s more like 2.5 words.  But seriously these bad boys can satisfy your chocolate craving without blowing your healthy eating plan, or warming the kitchen up in the hate summer heat.  I love them because I seriously had the batter mixed, and cookies in the fridge to cool in less than 15 minutes.  Which is what my life needs right now.

As I hinted to in the beginning of this post, the hubs and I are putting our sweet little first home on the market and moving! Which is awesome and exciting, but also a tad scary. He took a new teaching position (still in the middle of the mitten, but a bit further south). In the long run the move will be great, closer to work for both of us, and into a bigger city with so many more options for everything.  But the process of prepping our first home that we have loved dearly these past two and half years has been a lot of work.  And moving into an area with a seriously hot housing market has been challenging. So needless to say I needed a fast, simple recipe to fulfill my dessert craving and these fudgy zucchini no bake cookies fit the the bill.

To start shred your zucchini. For one cup you really only need a small zucchini. Here is the most important part of the recipe: get as much water out of the zucchini as possible.  Otherwise your cookies will be crazy soggy and not set up. There are  few ways to do this:

1) Place the zucchini in a cheese cloth and squeeze out as much water as possible.

2) Complete the same process with paper towel instead of cheese cloth

3) Place the zucchini in a fine metal mesh strainer and press out as much water as possible.

Once your zucchini has lost a significant amount of water you can set it aside. Melt the butter in a medium sized sauce pan over medium heat.  Add the sugar, coco powder, and vanilla. Once everything is melted and well mixed add the shredded zucchini and old fashioned oats. Bam! Your done, well except for scooping out the cookies to chill, but the mix comes together that easily.

To wrap up just scoop spoon sized balls of fudgy zucchini no bake cookies onto a wax paper lined cookie sheet.  Place in the fridge to cool for about 2-3 hours (you can eat them right away they will just be super messy). These cookies are waaaay fudgy and tend to soften up if they get warm so they are best stored in the fridge for up to one week.

There you have it, a great treat for a busy end of summer season.  Try out these fudgy zucchini no bake cookies and let me know what you think! (And wish us luck on our big move!)