Double Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

In another riveting round of ‘what’s growing in Andrea’s garden,’ zucchini has arrived on the scene. I couldn’t believe it when I found three ripe, bordering on too-large zucchinis when just a day or two before there was nothing but blossoms on the vines.

I wisened up this year and planted the zucchini plants in the garden boxes instead of directly into the ground. This has thwarted the voles that typically eat the roots and kill the plants before they ever have a chance to blossom and produce anything.

I was feeling quite proud of myself and decided to celebrate by making a batch of lovely

double chocolate zucchini ‘muffins.’ I use quotes around the term muffin because it feels a bit misleading to call them muffins. They might be chock full of shredded zucchini but they also happen to be very chocolaty and probably fall more into the cupcake category. I’m sticking with my muffin claim though because they don’t have any frosting and they do have three full cups of shredded zucchini in them. While they might be a decadent treat, they still fall into the muffin category.

I promise this space won’t always be filled with what’s happening in the garden, there’s just always a lot of excitement at the beginning of the summer. And also, you know well if you’ve ever planted a zucchini plant, once they start pumping out zucchinis, it can be hard to keep up with them. I’ve got a few tried and true zucchini recipes on my website, thesaltandstone.com (or right here in the Herald’s archives) such as a lovely pasta dish with a zucchini cream sauce and the always tried and true zucchini bread but after a quick scroll, I noticed I was missing some kind of sweet treat.

I poked around at a few recipes online and ultimately set out to make up my own. The end result is a light and fluffy cake made tender from the abundance of shredded zucchini. I added mini chocolate chips to the batter to amplify the chocolatey flavor but they could easily be skipped altogether or swapped for dark chocolate morsels, chopped walnuts or even blueberries. This recipe made 18 muffins in a standard muffin tin. I like to slightly overfill the tin for full, rounded muffins. I sprinkled a few extra mini chocolate chips on the top of each muffin and I could barely get them out of the oven before my family was hovering around the hot pan, begging for a taste. Needless to say, the batch didn’t even last the entire day.

Double Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

• 1/2 cup melted salted butter

• 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar

• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

• 2 large eggs

• 3 packed cups shredded zucchini (about 2 medium zucchini)

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1/2 cup cocoa powder

• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

• 1 teaspoon baking power

• 1 teaspoon Kosher salt

• 1 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips divided

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a muffin tin lightly with cooking spray and line with paper liners. Using a cheese grater, shred the zucchini. Set aside. In a small microwave safe bowl, melt the butter in 15 second increments, stirring after each time until completely melted.

In a large bowl combine the melted butter and sugar. Whisk vigorously for a minute or two until the sugar dissolves into the butter. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix again. Using a spatula, gently stir in the shredded zucchini.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and powder along with the salt. Mix until well-combined. Gently stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until a batter forms and the flour mixture is completely incorporated. Stir in one cup mini chocolate chips, reserving the last quarter cup to sprinkle on top of each muffin. Mix the chocolate chips into the batter until just barely combined.

Use a spoon to transfer the batter to the muffin tin, filling the tins up to the rim. Sprinkle each muffin with a few mini chocolate chips. Bake in the 350 degree oven on the middle rack for 18 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Allow the muffins to cool for 5 to 10 minutes in the pan before transferring to a cooling rack to finish cooling down. Serve and enjoy!