Most of the zucchini in my kitchen makes its way into zucchini breads (unless I happen to be making something savory with them, of course), but while zucchini bread may be the most common way to bake with zucchini, it isn’t the only way. These Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins are a wonderful alternative to a traditional zucchini bread when you find yourself with a couple of extra summer squash lying around.
The muffins are made with a fairly typical muffin batter, accented with vanilla and nutmeg – as well as with plenty of zucchini! Many zucchini recipes are chocolate based, which not only tastes good, but disguises the presence of zucchini in the finished baked good. In these muffins, you’ll clearly be able to see the zucchini. I certainly don’t mind the green-speckled look, but it is a little unusual at first glance! There are plenty of chocolate chips in the muffins, enough to get at least one in every bite. Both dark/semisweet chocolate and milk chocolate chips can be used. The muffins are not overly sweet, making milk chocolate chips a good choice if you have some in your kitchen that need to be used up. That said, I used semisweet chocolate chips and they brought plenty of rich chocolate flavor to every bite.
The muffins are at their absolute best on the day that they are baked, when they are still slightly warm from the oven and the chocolate chips are melty. Since these muffins are extremely moist, they should not be stored in a completely airtight container; they need a little bit of ventilation to prevent them from getting soggy when stored. If you want to add a bit of texture to them, feel free to sprinkle coarse sugar on top of the muffins before baking.
Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
1 1/4 cups shredded zucchini
1 cup chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 375F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, salt and sugar.
In a medium bowl, whisk together egg, buttermilk and vanilla extract. Pour buttermilk mixture into flour mixture and whisk until batter begins to come together, but some streaks of dry ingredients remain. Add in butter and shredded zucchini and stir until all ingredients are completely incorporated. Fold in chocolate chips.
Divide batter evenly into prepared muffin cups. Muffin cups will be quite full. If desired, top each muffin with coarse sugar.
Bake at 375F for 18-20 minutes, or until muffin tops spring back when lightly pressed and a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin comes out clean or with only a few moist crumbs attached.
Turn muffins out onto a wire rack and allow them to cool before serving.
Makes 12 muffins.
What do you think?