Double Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
If your neighborhood is anything like mine, August and September are the only months of the year that you actually lock your car doors, unless you want a passenger seat full of zucchini! But that doesn’t mean you won’t still be the recipient of a neighbor’s generosity, unless you can somehow find a way to lock up your front porch, too.
If you haven’t grown zucchini before, you might not understand the desperation that harvest causes, when you literally have to pick zucchini more than once a day to keep from accidentally letting them get humongous and woody and fibrous. And you might not understand my obsession with finding ways to use up this bumper crop.
But trust me, this recipe is not one you will associate with needing to use something up. Your family and friends will never even know that you used your extra huge, unwanted zucchini to make these delicious morsels, loaded with chocolate. In fact, that’s exactly why I call them ‘Double Chocolate Zucchini Muffins’ because the chocolate batter is packed with chocolate chips.
My youngest calls these cupcakes, and I have no doubt that I could slap some frosting on top, serve them at a birthday party, and no one would even know they were eating zucchini. That’s how yummy they are! Zucchini is the perfect way to keep baked goods moist without having to add extra oil or fat, and the mild flavor blends perfectly with delicate spices and sweetness.
These muffins aren’t just delicious. They’re also cheap at under twenty cents per serving, and super easy! I make the entire recipe in my food processor, because I’m lazy like that. If you, too, have an enormous food processor, just follow the easy directions below and you’ll only have one dish to wash! Can’t beat that!
Double Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
This recipe makes 24 muffins
Ingredients
- 2 cups (1 large or 2 small) shredded zucchini, drained (shred it super fine so it disappears in the batter)
- 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 3 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray 24 muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray or line with paper liners.
- Cut off and dispose of the round end of the zucchini and the core if the zucchini is overly grown. You don’t want the tough parts in your muffins. Finely shred the zucchini in your food processor. Change the blade from the shredder to the mixing blade.
- Add the sugars, oil, eggs and vanilla and pulse until thoroughly combined.
- If your food processor is large enough, add the dry ingredients and pulse only until mostly combined. If your food processor is too full, dump the wet ingredients from the food processor into a mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients, and mix until mostly combined. Don’t overmix if you want tender muffins.
- Spoon the batter into the muffin tins until each cup is about three-quarters full. Sprinkle tops with a few extra chocolate chips to make them pretty. Transfer to the oven and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Pull the muffins out and poke them in the middle with a toothpick or knife. If it comes out clean, they’re done. If not, bake the muffins for 5 more minutes.
- Let the muffins cool on the countertop, then refrigerate overnight (the flavor and texture of sweet breads improves with overnight refrigeration), if you can! My kids always want to tear into them the minute they come out of the oven. These also freeze well so you can eat chocolate for breakfast all week long!
>>> Need more meal ideas (and recipes) for pennies? Click here! <<<
Cost Breakdown:
1 zucchini: $0.60 (or FREE during zucchini harvest)
sugar: $0.30
oil: $0.20
eggs: $0.30
flour: $0.30
cocoa powder: $0.45
spices: $0.20
chocolate chips: $2
Total Cost: $3.35 for 24 muffins, or ~$0.17 each
>>> Check out my other favorite ways to use up extra zucchini! <<<
Creamy Zucchini Casserole: Less Than 45 Cents Per Serving
Easy Zucchini, Sausage, Mushroom Frittata: Less than 80 Cents Per Serving
Italian Zucchini Casserole: Under 60 Cents Per Serving
Pin these chocolate zucchini muffins for later!
Do you grow zucchini? Or is that just a weird thing we do out here in Utah?
