You should see the reactions I get……”Yum! These are great muffins! So moist, so delicious….but what are those little green specs? ”
And when I tell them it is zucchini they really don’t know what to say. It’s either “can I have the recipe?” or “I don’t like zucchini but I like these!” My Mom’s friend Butch loved these muffins last time I made them but made a point of telling me that next time I made them to be sure NOT to tell him there was zucchini in them and “ruin” it for him–but to be sure to bring some by.
Make no mistake–these are not “health food” muffins–they have their share of sugar, chocolate and white flour but if you are looking for a treat with a full four cups of zucchini in them this is the way to go. I was thinking some walnuts would be delicious too but I have a lot of “no nuts” people in my life so I went with extra chocolate bits.
Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 cups grated zucchini
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 24 muffins tin cups with paper liners and set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, salt and baking soda and set aside.
In a large bowl, beat together granulated sugar, brown sugar, melted butter and canola oil until well mixed. Add eggs, one at a time until combined. Stir in vanilla and grated zucchini and mix well.
Mixing by hand, add the flour mixture and milk alternately in two batches and stir until nearly combined with a few flour streaks visible. Add all but 1/4 cup of the chocolate chips and finish stirring until just combined.
Scoop in to prepared cups (I used a large ice cream scoop) and fill cups almost to the top. Sprinkle a few of the remaining chocolate chips on top of the batter.
Bake for 18-24 minutes until just cooked through, rotating the baking pans half way through the cooking time if your oven heats unevenly like mine does. Insert a toothpick into the center of one of the middle muffins and if it comes out nearly clean they are done. Do not over bake.
Allow to cool completely in the pan. The strange white looking things in my muffins are store brand chocolate chips that turned light in color when I baked them–I will NOT be buying those again.
If you want to call these cupcakes, make a nice chocolate buttercream and frost them or just pipe a large swirl of icing right on the top. Makes 24 muffins.
As always, if you have any questions please feel free to ask and if you make this recipe let me know what you think. Thanks!
Good Morning Gloucester 