It’s that time of year! You know, the one where your friends bring loads of giant zucchinis to every social function, hoping you’ll take them home because their family is sick of zucchini as a side dish to every meal.

I love this time of year!

Giant zucchini from a friend. (Thanks, Debbie!) Adorable dog for scale.

This year I found the zucchini muffin recipe.

The recipe that I’ve made four times in the last week. The recipe that convinced Kai that zucchini has a redeeming quality. The recipe that prompted my teenage son to send me a text that said, “Thank you for cooking all the good food and loving us probably annoying boys,” which in turn prompted me to think “they do understand!”

I’m telling you, these muffins are good.

These fall-spiced muffins are the perfect treat to make you feel great about your healthy habits (look, Ma! Vegetables!) while indulging in a too-good-to-be-true-can-I-eat-all-twelve-myself chocolatey delight.

Here’s how you do it!

Chocolate Wave Zucchini Muffin Digest

First of all, you have options for how you want to handle your zucchini:
- You can shred the zucchini like cheese. This leaves noticeable pieces of zucchini in your muffins. This method is fast and easy. But Kai isn’t a fan of obvious zucchini.
- You can shred the zucchini with small holes on a grater. This leaves less obvious bits of zucchini in your muffins, but it takes forever to shred it. I didn’t like this option.
- You can put small chunks of zucchini in your food process and chop it to mush. Now you have another appliance to clean. But you have Kai-approved unnoticeable zucchini, and Kendra-approved ease and speed.
Now that we have In a medium bowl, mix together 1/3 cup of softened butter and 1 1/3 cup sugar. Add 2 eggs and mix well. Stir in 1 tsp. vanilla. Add 1 1/2 cups grated zucchini and 1/3 cups water. (No, you don’t need to drain your zucchini and yes, you really should add the water!)
Next add 1 2/3 cup flour, 1 tsp. baking soda (3/4 tsp. for high altitude), 1/2 tsp. salt, and 1/4 tsp. baking powder. Also add 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. ground cloves, and 1/4 tsp. nutmeg. Stir carefully until well mixed.
Pour half the batter into a smaller bowl. To one half of the batter, you may add 1/3 cup chopped walnuts. (I don’t do this, but Steve wishes I would. Maybe I should make him his own batch?) To the other half of the batter, add 3 tbsp. cocoa powder and 1/2 cup chocolate chips.
Prepare a muffin pan with cooking spray or paper muffin liners (for some reason I never have these on hand). Pour a small scoop of the yellow batter into each muffin cup. Then pour the chocolate batter directly on top.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20-22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffins comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Print Recipe

Chocolate Wave Zucchini Muffins

Feel good about your healthy eating habits while you pound four of these chocolatey muffins

Prep Time10

Cook Time20

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: bake sale, potluck

Servings: 12 servings

Ingredients

⅓ cup butter, softened
1⅓ cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1½ cup shredded zucchini*
⅓ cup water
1⅔ cup flour
1 tsp baking soda (for high altitude use ¾ tsp)
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp baking powder
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp cloves
⅓ cup chopped walnuts (optional)
3 tbsp cocoa powder
½ cup chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°.
In a medium bowl combine butter and sugar and mix until fluffy. Add eggs and mix well. Add vanilla, zucchini and water and mix well.
Add flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, and spices and stir gently to combine. Be sure to wet all the ingredients but don't overmix.
Pour half the batter into a small bowl. To one half add the nuts (optional). To the other half add cocoa powder and chocolate chips.
Prepare a muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray or muffin liners. Pour the yellow batter into the bottom of each muffin cup. Then pour the chocolate batter on top.
Bake for 20-22 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean.
Cool for 5 minutes before removing from the muffin tin to cool.

Notes

* Shredding your zucchini: You may use a cheese shredder to shred your zucchini, but we prefer to blitz it in the food process so the zucchini bits are less noticeable.

Chocolate Chip Streusel Banana Bread

This over-the-top banana bread turns out great even at high altitude!

Check out this recipe