Zucchini Muffins

This final zucchini muffin recipe is the actual recipe from The Zucchini Cookbook by Paula Simmons. This, too, was a bit on the dry side. However, the book is from 1975 so I'm sure we've changed how we like our muffins over the last thirty something years. This is a sort of struesel muffin (that's what it became called as everyone was determining which muffin was which) with a cinnamon sugar top. I will warn you that the muffins will go bad after a few days if left on the counter.

Zucchini Muffins
2 cups flour
2 teas baking powder
3 TB sugar
1/8 teas ground mace, opt
2 TB butter or margarine
1 cup zucchini, finely grated
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teas cinnamon
1 TB sugar
Mix flour, baking powder, sugar and mace. Cut in butter with a fork. Add zucchini, mix. Add egg beaten lightly with milk. Spoon into greased muffin tins. Mix cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle on top of muffins. Bake at 400 for approximately 20 minutes.

Coconut Zucchini Muffins

I love coconut flour. It's a bit pricey but always takes me a long time to go through a bag since I use it sparingly. I don't substitute all the flour in a recipe for coconut flour even though I hear you can. It's a high fiber flour and can cause some upset stomachs if not used to it. I like the subtle coconut flavor, however you can add more flavor by adding shredded coconut to the muffin. Remember to add extra moisture. These still were a bit dry so I'll be trying them with a little applesauce next time.

Coconut Zucchini Muffins
1 1/2 cups AP flour
1/2 cup coconut flour
1 TB baking powder
3 TB sugar
2 TB oil
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1 teas vanilla
Mix together dry ingredients. Blend in oil and egg. Drizzle in milk and vanilla, stir until completely wet. Spoon into greased muffin tins and bake at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins

I wanted a muffin with zucchini that reminded me of the chocolate chocolate chip muffins from Costco. These weren't them but they were still rather tasty. I will admit they were a little dry so perhaps some applesauce in the mix will help later. I adapted the recipe from The Zucchini Cookbook by Paula Simmons for Zucchini Muffins.
I used frozen grated zucchini - if you use frozen as well, let thaw just enough to make it measureable but not enough so that it's soupy.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins
2 cups flour (I used 1 1/2 cups AP flour and 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour with 2 TB flax meal)
1 TB baking powder
4 TB cocoa
1/2 cup sugar
2 TB butter or margarine, soft
1 cup finely chopped zucchini
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1 cup chocolate chips
Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix in butter until resembles really dry crumbs (it won't all combine which is okay). Add zucchini and mix some to break up zucchini into the flour. Add egg and mix well. Drizzle in milk and mix. Stir in chocolate chips.
Spoon into greased muffin tins. Bake at 400 for 20-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Mini Vegetable Cakes

I have to admit I have no idea where this recipe came from but I was intrigued when I discovered it amongst my recipes. I had originally planned to make this with carrots until I found two cucumber sized zucchinis in the bottom of my basket (I had thought they were cucumbers when I first saw them). I opted to use the entire Jiffy Cornbread box and make these like muffins which came out great. I, also, used pickled beets which weren't bad but I think my son would have liked them better with some other vegetable.

Mini Vegetable Cakes
1 package (8.5 ounces) corn-muffin mix
1 egg white
3 tablespoons water
3/4 cup shredded zucchini
1/2 cup chopped canned beets
2 tablespoons canola oil
Combine half corn-muffin mix with egg white and water. Stir in shredded zucchini and beets. Drop batter by the tablespoon in hot canola oil. Cook 2 minutes; turn and cook 1 to 2 minutes more, until browned.

My version:
1 package corn-muffin mix (Jiffy)
1 egg
2 med. sized zucchini (cucumber sized) shredded
1/2 cup chopped pickled beets
Mix egg into muffin mix. Mix in vegetables. Drop into muffin tins (I use silicone liners in my tins). Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes or until done.

Pumpkin Muffins

This recipe is from Gluten-Free Baking with the Culinary Institute of Art. This recipe is really good and tastes good the next day (after that I can't tell you because I never got them in the freezer).
Flour Blend #5
1 3/4 cup White Rice Flour
1 1/4 cup Tapioca Starch
1 3/4 Soy Flour
1/2 cup Whey (I used powdered milk this time but you can use soy milk powder)

Pumpkin Muffins
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup + 1 TB oil
2 eggs
1 cup pumpkin (canned works fine - a can that makes 2 pies makes 3 batches)
3/4 cup + 2 TB flour blend #5
1 TB cinnamon
1 1/4 teas baking soda
Preheat oven to 350. Mix sugar, oil, eggs and pumpkin with a whisk until fully combined. Add in flour, cinnamon, and baking soda. Mix by hand until fully combined. Pour into prepared muffin tins (I used paper cups and they peeled away really nicely). Bake 15 minutes of until skewer comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes and then remove from pan. If you use a loaf pan bake 50-60 minutes.
You can ice with cream cheese frosting but these were great with just butter (or nothing).