I never considered myself a big zucchini fan until this summer. Farmer’s market zucchini is what really sold me; before then, I could take it or leave it. I was used to buying small, shriveled up zucchini from the grocery store, so when I tried freshly picked zucchini it was a game changer. My favourite way to prepare it is to sauté green and yellow zucchini with patty pan squash in a bit of olive oil, Herbamare, and pepper. It’s so simple and incredibly tasty.
This morning I took advantage of our holiday Monday and made zucchini muffins for breakfast. I’ve had great luck in the past with oil-free zucchini bread and I hoped these muffins would follow suit. They are fairly low in sugar, completely oil-free, and have a nice dose of crunchy walnuts for healthy omega-3 fatty acids. These aren’t your typical heavy and dense muffins; they are light as a feather and almost cupcake-like in texture. I enjoy them with a pat of soy-free Earth Balance to add a bit of moisture and buttery flavour.
From start to finish, they were ready in 30 minutes flat. Not too shabby!
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Oil-Free Chocolate Zucchini Walnut Muffins
Yield
12 muffins
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Lightly sweet, whole wheat, and oil-free, these muffins make a special breakfast or take along snack. I love them with a pat of soy-free Earth balance to add a bit of moisture. Whole Wheat Pastry Flour works well in this recipe to create light muffins that are still 100% whole grain. You can also use all-purpose flour if that’s all you have on hand. I don’t recommend subbing the pastry flour for regular whole wheat flour as the muffins will likely turn out too dry and dense
Adapted from: Oil-Free Zucchini Bread.
Ingredients
- 1 flax egg (1 tbsp ground flax + 3 tbsp water)
- 1 & 1/4 cup lightly packed shredded zucchini, skin left on
- 1 & 1/4 cup almond milk
- 2 tsp apple cider vinegar (or lemon juice)
- 3 tbsp pure maple syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or all-purpose)
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp fine grain sea salt
- 1/2 cup cane sugar
- 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips (I used Enjoy Life mini chips)
- 2/3 cup walnuts, chopped
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350°F and lightly spray muffin with oil or grease with Earth Balance.
- Mix flax egg in a small bowl and set aside. Grate zucchini using a grater box (regular grate size). Set aside.
- Mix almond milk and apple cider vinegar (or sub fresh lemon juice) in a small bowl and set aside. It will curdle, but this is the point as we’re making vegan buttermilk.
- In a large mixing bowl, mix together the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar).
- Mix together the wet ingredients (flax egg, almond milk mixture, maple syrup, and vanilla) and then pour over dry ingredients. Stir until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips, walnuts, and shredded zucchini.
- Spoon batter into prepared muffin tin filling each tin 3/4 of the way full. Bake for about 15-17 minutes at 350°F, or until muffins slowly spring back when touched. A toothpick should come out mostly clean. Cool in tin for 5 minutes. With a knife, loosen around the muffin edge and transfer to a cooling rack until completely cool.
Have a great Civic Day to those of you celebrating the long weekend! I’m off to enjoy the last couple hours of the afternoon by the water. Why does three days of weekend always seem to fly by just as fast?
Wow–those look awesome! And with zucchinis around everywhere right now, it’s the perfect time to try out the recipe. :) I will also look at the loaf recipe!
Aw man! I’ve never tried zucchini bread before! I definitely need to get on it! These look amazing! :)
They look amazing! Yumm… do you think subbing white whole wheat flour would work?
Thanks :)
Oh my gosh — those sound AMAZING! :D I’ve heard of putting zucchini in chocolate muffins — what a great way to sneak in your veggies! ;)
Those look delicious! I’ve always wondered what the point of whole wheat pastry flour was – thanks for clearing that up!
Zucchini notoriously take over everyone’s garden this time of year – luckily it’s perfect for throwing in just about anything and everything! :) I’ll have to try a gluten free version of these chocolate muffins!
Oh goodness…these look so good! I like how you made it oil-free, especially because store-bought zucchini muffins or carrot cake muffins are always SO oily!
those look just magnificent!! wow yum!!
I loooove zucchini nut bread but have never made anything with chocolate and zucchini! I will have to try these!! Thanks for the great recipe!
Oh wow, these look so good. Perfect timing too, just as I was on the look out for zucchini recipes :)
Great idea to add cocoa powder! I always have lots of zucchinis to use up in the summer – so much better from the market!
Another good way to eat them – sauteed zucchini and mushrooms with kale. Add some lemon juice and 1/4 cup water to help steam kale. Toss with walnuts and tamari! So good.
I think this is now at the top of my “recipes to try” list – I have a produce drawer full of zucchini and am quickly running out of ideas for them. Thanks so much for the great idea!
Can’t wait to give these a try. I have been making little mini muffins a little healthier for my 5 year old that likes to have a couple as a snack. I love the veggies in it since he is one of those kids that turn their nose up at any and all veggies unless it’s hidden in his food.
Hi Angela, I am not vegan but I do eat dairy-free. So I was just wondering, can you sub in a regular egg for the flax egg? Or will this give the recipe too much of a different texture? They look delicious!
Made this today. Turned out great and I even reduced the sugar and used Coconut Palm Sugar instead. Thanks for the great idea and recipe. I’m spending the day making breakfasts for the kids for the next week as tomorrow starts school here in Florida. Making a bunch of grab and go stuff and I know they’ll LOVE these muffins!!
WOW! These look incredible!!
definitely need to try these… such incredible ingredients! I’ll have to sub the cane sugar with coconut sugar (what I have on hand) and use oat/buckwheat/brown rice flour to make them gluten free, I think it will work perfectly!
I have kind of a dumb question about flour. I mostly always use whole wheat, sometimes white wheat and on occasion white flour. I just noticed at the store the other day, Walmart had Organic white flour. (We don’t have a large selection of grocery stores & the ones we do have don’t have many organic items). Anyway, I guess I never thought about buying organic flour before. I like to buy as much organic as I can afford, but flour never crossed my mind. Is it hard to find organic whole wheat flours? And is there an advantage to buying that? I have never seen it before. thanks
and I will be making these muffins real soon. Yummy!!
I have a ton of zucchini thanks to my garden. I made these last night and they are great! I even added a scoop of protein powder and handful of blueberries to pump up the health factor. Love the chocolate kick for breakfast! :)
These muffins look delicious! They’ll be a great way for me to sneak a vegetable into my brother ;)
Can’t believe I just tried them out but are they ever good :) This totally satisfied my cake batter craving ( dont even want to think about how much I inhaled in a very short time) :)