These chocolate zucchini muffins are double chocolate, with cocoa in the batter and chocolate chips folded in and sprinkled on top. They have finely shredded zucchini which is easily “snuck in” to satisfy even the non-veggie lovers. The non-veggie lover in our house did question the “little bits of green” in the muffins, but still gave them a thumbs up after finding out that they contained zucchini.
For those who are avoiding/limiting grains, or are interested in trying something new, these are made with coconut flour. You might be wondering if they have a coconut flavor. They don’t. Nobody who ate them even realized they were grain free. Cooking with coconut flour is simple. It is VERY absorbent so only a small amount of the flour is actually needed and there are a lot of eggs, plus a bit of applesauce in these to provide extra moisture.
If you are used to a very sugary muffin, you may want to add a little more sweetener, but we found them to be perfectly sweet as a muffin. They’re not a cupcake, but the chocolate chips do make them feel like a treat :) Bake these up as mini’s and you can have a little chocolate fix without going over the top. These freeze really well. If you pop a frozen muffin in a bag in the lunchbox, it should be perfectly defrosted by snack time. Thanks so much to Real Food Freaks for introducing me to this recipe that they found over at Foodie and Family.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup melted butter
- 1/4 cup rapadura sugar (or sugar of your choice)
- 6 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup coconut flour
- 1/4 cup cocoa
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 cup applesauce
- 3/4 cup shredded zucchini (about 1 medium zucchini)
- 1/4 cup Enjoy Life chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 and line 24 mini muffin tins with liners.
- Cream together butter and sugar and whisk in eggs and vanilla and applesauce.
- In a separate bowl mix coconut flour, cocoa and baking powder. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Don't worry about over mixing. Baking with coconut flour is different than using wheat. Fold in zucchini and chocolate chips.
- Divide batter evenly among muffin tins and bake for about 12-16 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with only a moist crumb.
Thank you for providing so many recipes using coconut flour. I try to limit my use of almond flour because it is so expensive and it seems to get used up quick! I will be making these this week!
Almond flour is super expensive! I always like using coconut flour because you get such a healthy dose of eggs and the amount of flour is actually very little.
Hi!! I saw your recipe today and had to make it!! After pulling all the ingredients together, I realized I didn’t have any paper liners for my muffin tin, so I used a cake pan instead. I have a large family, so I doubled the recipe and popped it in the oven. The cake is beautiful and prompted one of the kids to ask “Whats the occassion?”. I melted some Enjoy Life Chocolate chips and poured it on top to create a frosting of sorts. The result: delicious and beautiful!! I sliced my piece and topped it with some pomegranite seeds and let my tastbuds revel in the grain free deliciousness of your recipe.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
~Leigh
You’re very welcome, Leigh! Your version sounds delicious!
Leigh, I like your idea. Did you use 2- 9″ cake pans with that?
Did you adjust the baking time any? I want to do the cake version myself.
OMG Katie, this looks so amazing! I am going to make mine into mini loafs…oh my can’t wait to try this :)
Hope you all enjoy them, Halle! :)
These look amazing! I’ll be making them as soon as my Whole30 is over this weekend!
Thanks, Samantha. Hope you like them! What is whole30? I’ve never heard of it.
This came out nice and fluffy looking. Fantastic Katie.
Thanks, France. We definitely enjoyed them and didn’t feel too bad about eating them :)
It’s a strict paleo challenge. Sort of a whole body re-set. It’s not too hard to follow, but I really miss baking for the month I do it!
Oh, ok. Thanks for the info!
I used a springform pan, greased with coconut oil, then lined (bottom only) with parchment paper and oiled that too. Then floured the pan with coconut flour and poured batter in. Baked til done – sorry I didn’t notice the time it took to bake it. The center was soft and sprang back to the touch. I took it out of oven and placed on cooling rack, then removed outer sides of springform pan, leaving cake on bottom or pan (I ran a knife around the outside to make sure it let go before I removed the sides). Melted chocolate chips with a bit of coconut oil and almond milk, then spread it over the hot/warm cake and seved my slice immediately as I love warm baked goods!! It was amazing and my husband said it was the best cake he’d had in a long time! The kids loved it too and when guests showed up that day to visit our horses, they had some too. Initally, those kids were skeptical of the green flecks, but the chocolate won them over and they ate it all!! I’m making it again today with the intention of freezing some this time!
Thanks again for the wonderful recipe!
Warmly,
Leigh
Thanks for the feedback, Leigh. That sounds fabulous! You all are making me want to attempt a cake/loaf pan version :) Have a blessed day!
Would almond flour work in this? I haven’t been able to find coconut flour locally and really would like to make this for this weekend.
Sharon, unfortunately you can’t sub in almond flour for coconut flour. Coconut flour is SUPER absorbent and soaks up liquid in the recipe like crazy. You may be able to find coconut flour at a health food store and you can definitely order it online from Amazon.com.
I made 12 muffins with this recipe and used raw honey instead of the sugar. I also used my own raw honey sweetened chocolate chips. They came out awesome and are so delicious. Thank you so much for a great recipe!