Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

Get your chocolate fix and and veggies all at once! These vegan double chocolate zucchini muffins with chocolate chips are filled with natural ingredients. 

Midsummer means massive amounts of zucchini coming out of our garden. While I love zucchini sauteed, spiralized, in Grilled Veggie Tacos, and as Baked Zucchini Fries, my family quickly tires of summer squash. One of my favorite zucchini guilty pleasures is baking zucchini bread or zucchini muffins. The zucchini adds moisture and nutrition, without any vegetable flavor.

This week a sudden brownie craving came over me and I needed to bake something fudge-y, rich, and chocolatey immediately. Chocolate zucchini muffins to the rescue! Chocolate muffins sound SO decadent and naughty. Really though, you can transform a basic muffin batter into a chocolate one by adding a scoop of unsweetened cocoa powder. Try it with banana muffins sometime!

These chocolate zucchini muffins have been lightened up. They’re much lower in sugar and oil then most zucchini muffins out there, and call for natural ingredients like coconut oil and maple syrup. So when the kids at our playdate yesterday asked for seconds, we were happy to let them take a second muffin. They thought they were getting a cupcake, and we knew they were getting some veggies in. That’s what I call a win-win.

Let’s talk about flour for a minute. There are so many options these days. I like whole wheat pastry flour best, which is lighter and more finely ground than regular whole wheat flour, but is still less processed than white flour. That’s what I have used here and recommend for this recipe. If you use all purpose it will yield a more cupcake-like muffin, while the whole wheat pastry flour will be a bit earthier. I would also love to try spelt flour here. For my gluten-free friends, this recipe can be make gluten free by using a cup-for-cup type of gluten free flour if you’re sure to also use gluten free chocolate. I tested this recipe using Arrowhead Mills gluten free all purpose flour. The texture did come out differently and they didn’t have that nice smooth dome you see here. They were still chocolaty and yummy, especially warm from the oven, but I think you could probably find a better gluten-free zucchini muffin recipe and then add some cocoa powder.

The next time you have extra zucchini but feel like eating chocolate, try these muffins and let me know what you think. I would love to try these with walnuts tossed in. I think it would add some nice crunch and a bit of a nutritional boost. Let me know if you try that!

Muffins like these that don’t have a lot of fat tend to stick to liners. As you can see from the pictures, I didn’t have this problem. I use unbleached parchment liners and they never stick. These are the absolute best! Amazon affiliate link:

Watch the quick video tutorial!

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Yield: about 12 muffins

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 25 minutes

These decadent vegan chocolate zucchini muffins are simple to make and delicious to eat!

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Ingredients

• 1 2/3 cup flour (all-purpose or whole wheat pastry flour)
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• ½ cup coconut sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 1/3 cups grated zucchini
• ¾ cup almond milk
• 2 tablespoons melted coconut oil
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1 flax egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ½ cup chocolate chunks (dairy free)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a muffin tin with parchment liners.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, coconut sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
3. In another bowl, whisk together the grated zucchini, milk, coconut oil, maple syrup, flax egg, and vanilla.
4. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients just until combined. If using a gluten-free blend or whole wheat pastry flour, you may need to add more milk, as these are more absorbent flours. Fold in the chocolate chunks, reserving a few for topping. Fill the muffin liners with the batter and sprinkle the extra chocolate chunks on top. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 266Total Fat: 7gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 21mgSodium: 196mgCarbohydrates: 44gFiber: 4gSugar: 16gProtein: 7g