Zucchini-mania, part two: Zucchini Brownies

The zucchini completely disappears in these incredibly rich brownies.  I can usually eat two or three of any bar or dessert.  But these, more than one (at a sitting, of course) and I'm over-done.  The brownies are very cake-like, but also a tad gooey.  They are, I think, my favorite zucchini-laden baked good that I've found to date.

My three-year-old twins wanted to help with the frosting.  They wanted green frosting, I wanted chocolate. We compromised with sprinkles :-)

Zucchini Brownies

1/2 C. vegetable oil
1-1/2 C. white sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
2 C. flour
1/2 C. unsweetened cocoa
1-1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 C. shredded zucchini
1-1/2 C. chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350, grease and flour (or spray with cooking spray) a 9x13 inch pan.
2. Mix together the oil, sugar, and vanilla. (I used 1/4 c. applesauce and 1/4 c. vegetable oil)
3. Separately, mix together the flour, cocoa, soda, and salt.
4.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet.  This will be very dry.  I mean VERY dry.  I couldn't get everything quite mixed together until I added the zucchini.
5. Add the zucchini, and then fold in the chocolate chips.
6. Spread into the pan, again, this mixture will be thick, like a thick cookie dough.

Bake 25 - 30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out mostly clean.

Frost with chocolate frosting.

For something like this, I just throw together a frosting from what I have on hand.  This time, I used:

7 Tbsp. butter (I usually use at least a half a stick...but whatever I might have that is between 1/2 and 1 whole stick).
1/3 C. unsweetened cocoa
About 3 Tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
4 C. powdered sugar

Mix everything together until creamy.  It usually works best to mix together the butter, vanilla, milk, and cocoa, then add half the powdered sugar, mix well, add the rest of the powdered sugar and mix well.  If the mixture needs more milk or sugar, then add it to make it the right consistency.