Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Zucchini Muffins

I have always loved my mom's zucchini bread recipe, and looked forward to it every summer when there was a surplus of zucchini in the house. Now that I have my very own surplus, I can make it for myself!  Of course I wasn't about to let it go by unaltered, as I thought there were a few places that I could significantly clean up the recipe to make it more healthy.

After making a few batches, a friend mentioned how blueberries are fantastic in zucchini muffins/bread, so I picked some up to try. Seriously--they are awesome. I didn't grab a picture of the blueberry version, but it is SO worth making! I've been freezing the muffins and then taking one to work each day to enjoy with my morning cup of tea - it's perfectly defrosted by the time I'm ready for it.

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Zucchini Muffins
Source: Adapted from a recipe received from my mom
Yield: 2 loaves or 16-20 muffins
  • 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
  • 1 1/2 cups evaporated cane juice (such as bob's red mill)  
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 3 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 cups grated zucchini (not peeled, but gently squeezed to remove excess moisture)
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
  • 1 cup blueberries (optional but highly recommended!)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Prepare two loaf pans or two muffin pans with baking spray. 

Add applesauce, sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract to a bowl and mix with hand or stand mixer until combined. 

In a separate bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda and whisk to evenly distribute ingredients. 

Slowly add flour mixture to wet ingredients and mix on low speed with a stand mixer, or by hand until all the flour is incorporated. 

Gently fold zucchini, walnuts and blueberries into batter.  Pour batter evenly into loaf pans, or scoop about 1/3 cup batter into each muffin well in the muffin tins.  Bake loaf pans for 55 minutes, or muffin tins for 18-22 minutes.  Allow to cool in the pan on a wire rack. 

To freeze: wrap well with plastic wrap and store in a freezer bag. 

2 comments:

  1. Oh I like the idea of adding blueberries. I haven't made many muffins recently, but during the colder months, I always do what you mentioned. I love how my commute time plus however long it takes me to get settled at work is the perfect amount of time for the muffin to defrost.

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  2. I have 3 huge zucchini sitting in my kitchen that are begging to be made into muffins.

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