These tender, rich muffins are the perfect answer to a summer abundance of zucchini! Chocolate zucchini muffins are easy to make, wonderful to share, and just right to take along on a picnic or to save for an afternoon snack!
I have a confession to make.
I am not a good gardener. You won’t find flowers in my yard that were intentionally planted. I buy fake plants at IKEA and artificial flowers at Hobby Lobby because while I love the look of plants in our home, I always manage to kill even the so-called “most resilient” plants.
It’s not that I am not interested in learning and having a yard full of fragrant, beautiful blooms one day. But if I do have a green thumb, right now it’s covered in layers of baby wipe residue, finger paint, and dough from weekly loaves of sandwich bread. In other words, it’s simply not the time and I freely admit that I can’t do all the things.
So you’ll understand why when I tell you that we do have a garden this year, and it is in fact producing vegetables, it is also a little overrun with weeds and “occasionally” we neglect to go out and pick the produce in time– resulting in mammoth zucchinis only fit for shredding.
Last week, when I went out to gather vegetables to toss in a simple fresh pasta primavera, I also came across one such overgrown zucchini. The appropriately picked zucchini went into our dinner, and the other was saved for muffins.
I have made about five dozen of these muffins in the last week. I’ve done a lot of recipe testing and tweaking, and a lot of sharing them with friends to review.
The overwhelming consensus is that these muffins are delicious! It’s been great to see kids gobbling them up, asking for seconds or thirds because they are just so good. And with only a little maple syrup to sweeten them, and a heap of fresh zucchini, I’m happy to acquiesce to their requests for more.
I am a HUGE fan of muffins in the summer, mostly because I love bringing them along on picnics. It is easy to make up a batch in the morning while I am doing my morning kitchen chores (unloading the dishwasher, making breakfast, etc). Then the muffins are ready to be packed up with some fresh fruit and cheese.
My favorite picnic muffins are hearty and not too sweet. Carrot raisin muffins have long been a go-to for picnics and hikes. And now chocolate zucchini muffins will be another quick option.
(If you want a sweeter muffin, feel free to add a cup of mini chocolate chips to the batter, or top with cinnamon sugar before baking).
Of course, you don’t have to use overgrown zucchini for this recipe. Any size will do. But if you are like me, and happen upon a giant zucchini in your garden, don’t feel bad. Just make muffins.
Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 12 muffins 1x
- Method: Baking
Ingredients
- 2 C flour
- 1/2 C cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 Tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 C milk (I use whole milk)
- 1/2 C maple syrup
- 1/2 C applesauce
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 C shredded zucchini
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 400°. Grease a 12 cup muffin pan.
2. Combine the dry ingredients in a medium size mixing bowl. Whisk the milk, syrup, applesauce, eggs, and vanilla together in a small mixing bowl. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir just until blended and no streaks of flour remain.
3. Add the shredded zucchini to the muffin batter, squeezing out the excess moisture before measuring. Stir until the zucchini is evenly incorporated into the mixture.
4. Scoop batter into the greased muffin pan using a 1/4 cup measuring cup. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
5. Let the muffins cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing. Transfer muffins to a wire rack.
Annie says
Delicious! We also had a super size zucchini that needed to be used. We have a day planned at the water park so I baked these muffins while I did morning kitchen work. They came together easily with ingredients I had on hand. My son says they taste like brownies and devoured a couple as soon as they were cool enough to eat. They’re delicious!
★★★★
Tammara says
I made these this morning. Used cacao powder in place of cocoa and added 1/2 cup mini carob chips and 3/4 cups chopped walnuts. They turn out perfect. I did get 18 muffins instead of 12, but not complaining at all.? Highly recommend this recipe. Who knows, I may deliberately let another zucchini overgrown just to have another reason to make these.
★★★★★
Sara Dutilly says
My son just noticed that when clicking the “x2” and “x3” on the recipe, all ingredients get multiplied except the eggs. Is that accurate or a glitch in the program? I have made banana bread and zucchini bread before and I think I have always multiplied all ingredients when doubling but I wasn’t sure if there is a reason you wouldn’t multiply the eggs. Thank you!! We are looking forward to making these!
Heidi says
Made these with my kids this morning. They loved it and everyone enjoyed the muffins ?
★★★★★
Mandy says
These muffins are really good!! Thanks for all the amazing recipes and your blog!!
Kimberly Linsley says
Great! Loved that my kids helped too!!!
★★★★★