Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

I love chocolate zucchini muffins and so does my toddler - such a great way of getting some green vegetable into him when he's being fussy!  These literally took me 10 minutes to mix up and put in the oven so they're super simple and really not very fussy to make.

You could put beetroot in instead of zucchini, or apple, or carrot, but I think zucchini works best as it's flavour is so minimal that it doesn't tkae over like beetroot can. Apart from making them more nutrititous, having the grated zucchini in them keeps them really moist for a few days after you've made them too which is great.

I'm a big fan of home cooked muffins because you can decrease the amount of sugar in them and increase the amount of egg (and therefore protein) to make them more filling and even more nutritious, and they only make one bowl dirty, woohoo!

These particular muffins work well as:

• Gluten Free
• Dairy Free
• Nut Free
• Toddler Friendly

Sooo, to the recipe!

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 Fahrenheit)

You will need:

• 1 cup self raising flour (or add 2 teaspoons of baking powder to plain flour)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (I use organic coconut sugar/palm sugar or rapadura, but brown works just as well)
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 2 zucchinis grated (around about 2 cups of grated stuff - this recipe isn't too fussy though, if it's less just add some more milk)
• 2 large eggs (3 if they're little)
• 1/4 cup oil (I use rice bran oil, but whatever you normally use)
• A dash of milk/water if dairy free (varies according to how big your eggs were and how wet your zucchini was)

Mix your flour, cocoa and sugar together

Add the zucchini and mix to coat it

Make a hole in the centre and crack your eggs in

Mix your eggs a bit in the centre first then mix with the rest of the dry ingredients

Add your oil

Look at the mixture, it should be fairly runny, if it isn't add your dash of milk til it gets to a running off the spoon consistency

Place into your patty pans (make sure you use patty pans or silicone moulds as this is a super sticky recipe to clean the tray of - yes it will stick to your paper but better that than burning to your tray)

Bake for around 20 minutes

When made with gluten free flour they don't really rise much, but they're still really moist and fluffy anyway.

I recommend getting the white patty pan liners rather than the coloured ones too, as the coloured ones are a bit smaller and it's harder to keep the mixture off your tray!!

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Recipes for Quick, Easy and Nutritious
Meals and Snacks

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