Why I love these chocolate zucchini muffins
We officially have a sick baby in our house (insert sad face here). Ellie has come down with some sort of bug, and she’s been running a fever and feeling pretty blah for since yesterday. It’s so sad to see her suffering, but I’m really thankful that it hasn’t been too bad.
When I’m sick, I absolutely love to eat. Anything and everything, mostly lots of junk food, even if it’s not the best for me. Luckily, these chocolate zucchini muffins are packed with veggies – which means vitamins. So that means they’re the perfect cure of anything, right?
Okay, maybe not, but they really satisfy a chocolate craving, especially when they’re fresh out of the oven and the chocolate chips are all gooey and warm.
If you like this recipe, you have to try these zucchini muffins, and these chocolate banana muffins and this healthy morning glory muffins.
Ingredient notes:
- Dairy free milk – Any unsweetened, dairy free milk alternative will work great for this recipe.
- Oil – You will want to use a light oil with a mild taste. Try ones like canola oil, sunflower oil, or just plain vegetable oil if that is what you have.
- Applesauce
- Splenda Brown Sugar Blend – If you want to use a traditional brown sugar, you will want to double the amount written in the recipe card.
Making changes to a recipe can result in recipe failure. Any substitutions listed are simple changes that I believe will work in this recipe, but results are not guaranteed.
The following is a detailed overview of the recipe steps with added tips and tricks for recipe success. For a simplified and printable version, including ingredient amounts and more formal instructions, see the recipe card below.
How to make these chocolate zucchini muffins
Prep the veggies. Shred the zucchini and carrots using a box grater or food processor. Pat or squeeze the zucchini gently with a paper towel or clean kitchen towel to expel the moisture inside. Set aside.
Whisk the dry ingredients. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
Combine the wet ingredients. Using an electric mixer on the low setting, combine the oil, brown sugar, vanilla extract and eggs. Add in the zucchini, carrots, applesauce, and dairy free milk, continuing to mix on the low setting. Next, in ½ cup increments, mix in the dry ingredients, followed by the chocolate chips, continuing to mix on the low until ingredients are well combined.
Bake the muffins. Scoop the muffin batter into a line muffin pan, and bake for 22-25 minutes at 350˚F. Remove from the oven and allow muffins to cool before transferring to a cooling rack.
More dairy free breakfast recipes: dairy free blueberry muffins with crumb topping / iced brown sugar latte / lavender blackberry scones / lemon blueberry pancakes / breakfast pizza / dairy free quiche lorraine
Frequently asked questions
Always bring the refrigerated ingredients to room temperature, that will help you achieve a lighter fluffier texture. And, only mix until the ingredients are combined, over mixing can lead to dense, tough muffins. This is the reason for using the low setting on the electric mixer, you could also mix the batter by hand.
See the note above.
Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons canola oil
- 3 tablespoons Splenda Brown Sugar Blend, 6 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 1 egg white
- 1 cup shredded zucchini
- 1/2 cup shredded carrot
- ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce
- ½ cup unsweetened dairy free milk
- ½ cup dairy free chocolate chips, or semi-sweet
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350˚F (180˚C) and line a muffin tray with paper liners.
- Squeezed excess water from the shredded zucchini using a paper towel, set aside.
- In a bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt, set aside.
- In a large bowl with an electric mixer on a low setting, beat together the oil, brown sugar twin, vanilla extract and eggs, until combined.
- Add the zucchini, carrot, applesauce, and almond milk, mixing until combined.
- Slowly add the dry ingredients, beating until smooth and scraping sides when necessary.
- Fold in the chocolate chips.
- Using a cookie scoop, evenly fill the muffin liners with the batter.
- Top with extra chocolate chips (optional), and bake for 22 – 25 minutes.
- Remove from oven, and all the muffins to cool for about 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this? Leave a comment below!
I love this – these muffins look so delicious, but they’re full of veggies!! I totally must try these. Pinned!
yummy. but stuck to my liners.
used avocado oil instead of canola, organic brown sugar instead of stevia and oat flour instead of white. I also added apple to the last 1/4 cup of zucchini.
cooked in convention toaster oven 24 mins. Filled cups 99% full. maybe shouldve cooked 26.mins or drained carrots apple too. maybe was too wet and why stuck to liners, was cake like….
would make again maybe add raisins too.
I think the difference in the brown sugar vs stevia made a big difference. Brown sugar has a lot of moisture which probably needed a extra flour to compensate. Do you mean you swapped 1/4 cup of apple for the remaining zucchini or that you added it to the original amount of zucchini? Sometimes with baking, even the littlest change can make a huge difference! Hopefully next time they won’t stick. Thanks for sharing your version!
hi, thanks for the reply. i used 3/4 cup zucchini, 1/4 cup apple. didnt know brown sugar had all that moisture. apples were wet too….
my 3 yr old loves these, helped make them but thinks they are chocolate cupcakes lol
Haha. I’m glad you were able to trick him 🙂
Love it. I had bought a carrot zucchini version at Target and liked it. So I wanted to make it at home. These came out moist and not too sweet, which is great. I used Spanish olive oil instead of canola oil and used dark chocolate chips instead of semi-sweet. Kids loved it too. Good way to sneak veggies in.
i made this with almond flour, monk fruit sweetener, added mushroom coffee and raisins. Absolutely delicious. and healthy.
The muffins are great and the taste of the vegetables are not very strong. I would definitely recommend this recipe. The only downside is it takes a while to shred the zucchini and carrots. To make mine I used mashed banana instead of applesauce. I also used dairy milk and choclate chips.