Double Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

Vegan double chocolate zucchini muffins. I made mini muffins and this recipe will yield about 20 mini muffins.

Ingredients

• Zucchini
• Whole wheat flour or all-purpose flour
• Cocoa Powder
• Baking Soda
• Baking Powder
• Salt
• Sugar (white or brown)
• Vanilla Extract
• Vegetable Oil (avocado or olive)
• semisweet chocolate chips or chunks
• instant coffee or espresso/ristretto (cooled)

Steps

1. Finely grate the zucchini
2. Dry ingredients: Sift together 1 c flour + 1/4 c cocoa powder + 1 tsp baking powder + 1 tsp baking soda + 1/2 tsp salt
3. Wet ingredients: Mix together 1/4 c oil + 1/2 c sugar + 1 tsp vanilla extract
4. Add Dry ingredients to the Wet ingredients + 1 Tbsp Coffee/Espresso. Mix with spatula or fork until combined (not a mixer). Do not overmix.
5. Add 1/3 c – 1/2 c chocolate chips (adjust to preferred chocolatey-ness)
6. I allowed the mix to sit for a few minutes and heated the oven at the end. Heat oven to 350ºF.
7. Spray muffin pan with avocado or olive oil.
8. Spoon batter into muffin pan – I fill mine all the way so it yielded 21 muffins instead of 24

TIPS

Grating zucchini – given the size of zucchini, I instinctively used the larger grater first but noticed the chunks as I mixed it into the batter, so the fine grater is best so that the zucchini essentially melts as it bakes and is not noticeable at all. Also, do not pat dry or drain the zucchini; its moisture is essential to the muffin mix. Smaller zucchini yield more moisture.

Sugar – I used brown sugar. I also tend to use less sugar when adding chocolate chips so if foregoing the additional chocolate, use 2/3 c sugar. Always mix sugar into your fats (oil/butter) first, not into dry ingredients.

Flour – In general, I always use whole wheat flour which works as a 1:1 substitution in most baked goods

Chocolate chips – I found allergen-free chips at Kroger (Simple Truth Brand)

Coffee brings out the chocolate flavors in muffins, cakes, and brownies. Either use 1 tsp instant water mixed with 1 Tbsp cold water or an Espresso/Ristretto shot if you have an espresso machine (Ristretto is a 0.5 oz concentrated espresso)

Adjust bake times for container – Large muffins would bake for 15 minutes whereas Mini muffins will burn if cooked that long. Also, darker pans require less time to cook. Check muffins at 10-12 minutes: if tops appear done then stick a fork (or toothpick) in it to check for doneness — if completely dry then obviously done; if only melted chocolate returns then remove and allow rest of it to cook through in the pan on a cooking rack; if wet batter, then cook an additional 2-3 minutes and recheck

If your fork/toothpick is dry when checking doneness, remove the muffins from the pan and cool on a cooling rack. If it is slightly moist (essentially melted chocolate), allow to cool about 5 minutes inside the pan (to continue cooking through) and then remove muffins and place on a cooling rack.

WARNING: Making mini muffins does not ensure you will eat less. You just end up justifying eating five teeny tiny muffins instead of just one large one. If making larger muffins, double the recipe proportions.

Adapted from @iambaker — visit her site for so many more zucchini baked goods

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