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You will absolutely positively never guess what I put into these brownies to give them the name sweet & spicy zucchini brownies!

Uhmmm….what?  So I keep doing these crazy things in my blog life.  Like starting Facebook pinning groups.  And expanding my VA services.  And joining challenges that require me to make food you actually want to eat with things like zucchini, (straw)berries, heavy cream, and green chilies.  Yeah, unlike my monthly ingredient challenge group where we get all creative with ONE ingredient this time I joined a Chopped {ya know, like the tv show?} inspired challenge where I had to get all creative with FOUR.  Cue fainting here.  I gratefully admit I didn’t have to get quite as crazy with my ingredients as some people.  I mean Nicole from Little blog on the homestead has to work with Vienna sausages and beets.  Yikes.

Disclaimer: I don’t like zucchini.  Like.  At all.  Not even a little bit of me thinks that zucchini is delicious no matter how you cook it.  So when I decided to do some zucchini brownies I was straight up terrified that I was going to waste all that delicious chocolaty-ness by ruining it with zucchini.  So terrified I chopped that shredded zucchini nine ways from Sunday to make the pieces as small as humanly possible.  I fully expected to take these brownies out of the oven and hate every bite.

Oh my WOW.  Just no.  These are so good I might hide them so I don’t have to share.  I can’t even tell you how impressed delighted ecstatic I was to bite into one of these brownies and taste nothing but velvety chocolate.  Perfection.  Now I know why I keep seeing all these zucchini baked goods on the interwebs.  Now I must go and zucchini and chocolate all the things!

Before I get carried away with all THAT.  Lemme tell you a lil somethin’ somethin’.  It’s probably not much of a stretch to incorporate zucchini, heavy cream, and berries into a baked good right?  That four year old you know probably thought of zucchini brownies way before I did.  But what in the heck was a girl to do with green chili peppers.  Oi.  Then I remembered my friend Mary from Goodie Godmother had this recipe for candied jalapenos.

After she promised me the recipe would work the same for green chilies I set off.  {I accidentally over cooked my sugar and ended up with a candy that will probably harden quite nicely into a brittle.  Stay tuned for that recipe.}  I took my favorite better than boxed homemade brownie recipe and made a few tweaks to incorporate my secret ingredients then added a creamy cream cheese and blueberry frosting on top.  We were supposed to use strawberries but since I’m allergic I had permission from the head chef to use another kind of berry.  Since we went blueberry picking a few weeks ago and the roomie made blueberry jam, blueberries it was!  Man…how many more times can a girl use the word blueberries in one sentence…

Please for the love of all that is holy and good and delicious in this universe make these brownies.  You can forgo the candied chilies if spice isn’t your thing but the brownies are a must have.  The creamy frosting is sweet but not too sweet so as not to overpower the brownies and the blueberry jam is a tart compliment to the chocolate and cream cheese.  You could definitely use strawberry jam if you’re not allergic or raspberry if you’re not a little blueberry obsessed right now like I am!

Be sure to pop over to An Aiming High Wife {the lovely organizer of our little Chopped inspired challenge} to check out all the other delicious things the other groups made with their secret ingredients!

What would you have made with these ingredients?

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Sweet & Spicy Zucchini Brownies

Yield: 12

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

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Ingredients

For the Brownies:

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 small zucchini
• 1 1/2 sticks butter
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup chocolate chips

For the Frosting:

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 Tbs heavy cream
• 1/4 cup blueberry jam

Instructions

For the Brownies:

1. Peel and shred zucchini, then mince finely with a sharp knife. Squeeze out excess water using your hands or some cheese cloth.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment mix sugar, eggs, vanilla, and minced zucchini.
3. In a microwave safe container melt butter and stir in cocoa powder until well combined. With the mixer on low add in cocoa powder and butter and mix until combined.
4. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt directly into the bowl and mix well. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula and stir to make sure all ingredients are incorporated.
5. Pour into an 8x8" glass baking dish lined with foil or parchment paper and evenly distribute chocolate chips across the top.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes and allow brownies to cool completely before frosting.

For the Frosting:

1. Combine cream cheese, powdered sugar, and heavy cream. If too thick add more heavy cream. If too thin add more powdered sugar.
2. Gently fold in blueberry jam careful not to over mix and turn your frosting pink.
3. Evenly frost the brownies and serve.
4. Top with candied green chilies if desired.