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"A gourmet who thinks of calories is like a tart who looks at her watch." - James Beard


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Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Zucchini Muffins


As I've mentioned, we currently have a lot of yellow zucchini growing in our garden.  I knew about zucchini bread but I'd never made it before. I wasn't sure how much zucchini I could use up in the recipe, so I was happy to find that one huge zucchini makes about 2 cups grated zucchini that the recipe calls for.  


For the recipe, I looked to my trusty Joy of Cooking cookbook, which is a great resource for basic/classic recipes like this.  I adapted the recipe a bit and I'll continue to adapt it each time I make it until it's perfect for me, but the recipe is a great start.

Mix together in a medium bowl:
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon (the recipe called for only 1/4 tsp! I'd use 2 tsp at least next time)



In a separate bowl, mix:
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil 
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt


You'll also need 2 cups grated zucchini squeezed of excess moisture (1 very large or 2-3 medium zucchini). I grated it in the food processor but you can do it by hand with a box grater. Zucchini is very easy to work with. 


When you mix all this together the batter seems really thick at first, but the zucchini will continue to release moisture and make a workable muffin batter.


Now, you can bake this in a 9x5 inch loaf pan for about 40 minutes, or you can make it into muffins.  I made 2 batches - 24 mini muffins that are nut-free...


And 12 regular sized muffins with walnuts.


I had to keep an eye on the baking times to adapt the recipe, but for the mini muffins I baked them for about 15 minutes, testing them with a wooden skewer at 10 minutes.

For the full sized muffins, it was about 25 minutes.  


Once done, cool them in the muffin tins on a rack for about 20 minutes then carefully remove them.  I didn't use muffin cups for these and they didn't stick too badly, but you could use paper muffin cups to make it easier.  


These are really tasty and a great, easy, inexpensive way to use up extra zucchini.  I love the ones with walnuts.


I plan to experiment with the recipe.  I've had a request to add chocolate chips next time, so we'll see how that goes. I may also try dried cranberries or sunflower seeds.  But for now I'll freeze these for snacks and breakfast for the next few weeks.  



1 comment:

  1. They are a perfect snack to have at the office, says the guy who made the request for chocolate chips.

    ReplyDelete