This Healthy Zucchini Muffins recipe is the best!! It’s quick and easy to make, totally comforting and delicious, and it’s made healthier with a few simple ingredients.
These last few weeks have felt like a whirlwind.
Between two trips back home to Wichita to be with family, deadlines and projects galore due for work, and a host of morning coffee dates, impromptu lunches, margarita happy hours, evening grill-outs and late-night front porch talks filling just about every little hour in between…I feel like I have barely blinked…and the summer is already half over.
Poof.
How does that even happen?
Well, I guess the old saying explains it all. Time seems to be flying while having lots of fun, with lots of dear people in my life, and lots of fun memories already being made. All the better, of course, with that heavenly warm summer sunshine covering it all. Definitely a full but good start to my favorite season of the year. So as Tim Riggins would say, “no regrets.”
That said, though, as much as I love the time spent with my people, my little introverted heart has been waving the red flag this weekend, ready for some r&r. So in small and long stretches this week, I’m scheduling some much-needed downtime into the agenda, starting this afternoon on a lazy Sunday. Feet are up, glass of iced tea is in hand, pup is curled up by my side, sunlight is streaming in through the windows, and a nice weekend nap is just 10 minutes away. And my goodness, I can already feel my little heart re-charging. It’s almost as though we were designed to need rest or something. :) So good.
Anyway, on this note of time zooming by, somehow it’s already zucchini season. And anyone with a garden knows what that means: so much zucchini. Like, SO MUCH. It happens to be one of my favorite seasonal vegetables, so I’m always happy to saute and add it to just about any dish that I’m having for dinner. But for anyone looking to mix things up and maybe even incorporate it into breakfast, I thought I’d share my recipe today for these healthy zucchini muffins.
I’ve made three batches of them in the past two weeks, and still don’t seem to get tired of them. They’re made with white whole wheat flour, naturally-sweetened, deliciously spiced with cinnamon, easy to freeze, and — even though you won’t taste it — they are chock full of fresh shredded zucchini. I think you’re going to love them.
Healthy Zucchini Muffins Recipe | 1-Minute Video
Healthy Zucchini Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 2/3 cups white whole wheat flour (or all-purpose flour)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 cup plain milk (dairy or non-dairy)
- 1/4 cup melted coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) grated zucchini (no need to squeeze out excess liquid)
- 1/3 cups old-fashioned oats
- turbinado sugar, for sprinkling
Instructions
- Prep oven and muffin pan. Heat oven to 350°F. Prepare a 12-cup muffin pan by either greasing it with cooking spray or lining the cups with paper liners.
- Mix the dry ingredients. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, ground ginger and salt until combined.
- Mix the wet ingredients. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together egg, maple syrup, milk, coconut oil and vanilla extract until combined. Pour this mixture into the dry ingredient mixture and stir with a spoon until just combined. (Do not overmix.) Stir in the zucchini and oats until just combined.
- Bake. Portion the batter evenly between the 12 baking cups. Sprinkle the top of each muffin with a pinch of turbinado sugar, if desired. Bake for 16-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffin comes out clean. Transfer pan to a wire cooling rack for at least 5 minutes to cool.
- Serve. Serve warm and enjoy!
Did you make this?Let me know how it turned out in the comments below!
LOVE love LOVE these muffins! I’ve made them several times in the past (according to the recipe) & always thought they were perfectly sweet & super light & fluffy, but still moist, if that’s possible?
When I was searching to find the recipe to make them again this week, I stumbled upon another of your recipes (zucchini & carrot muffins) & as I had carrots to use up in my fridge, wanted to give it a try, BUT I love THIS recipe so much (& it is much healthier) that I decided to sort of ‘combine’ the two recipes to incorporate the carrots & added spices.
Basically, I used this recipe as a base & then used 1 cup zucchini & 1 cup carrots (instead of 1-1.2c zucchini), used a little extra flour (1-3/4c instead of 1-2/3) & a little extra oats (1/2 c. instead of 1/3 c.) & then added 1/4 tsp of both nutmeg & ground ginger, but left the rest of the recipe ‘as is’. They turned out great! I might add extra cinnamon, nutmeg & ginger next time as I realized the other recipe for was for 6 muffins & this one is for 12, but thought they turned out really good! :) Thanks for sharing!
WHAT a great recipe. I’m NOT baker mainly because I have a hard time following recipies, but we bought a fancy stove so I started taking advantage of it. This was my first ‘bake’ and now I’m addicted! Thank you!
Loved the muffins, they came out perfect although I live in the Emirates so it was hard to find maple syrup I swapped it with date syrup…. delicious!
Question- can I substitute the zuchinni for bananas and strawberries? Very curious. Let me know. Thanks again!
Thank you for your sweet comment, Camila — we’re so happy you enjoyed these and that you were able to make them with the date syrup! :) We haven’t tried strawberries and bananas in place of the zucchini, so it’s hard to say if that would work or not. However, we think it’s worth a shot — let us know if you try it!
Wow! I spend quite a while converting from cups to grams to ml and so on ?finally i converted maple syrup into stevia, then it went very fast and easy. My feedback for anyone keen to try with stevia, I’d say don’t use any more than1tsp max. Still tastes very nice with butter once cooled down. I will defo try again aiming to make it savoury by leaving the sweetener out entirely and increasing salt. Will let you knowhow they turn out ? thanks for recipe!
Hi Sengul – we’re happy you enjoyed these! :)
I made these yesterday for my son and I! I used whole wheat flour, and about 1/3 cup cane sugar because I didn’t have enough syrup. They had just a touch of sweetness, and I love getting in a little extra veggies for him. I’ll definitely make these again!
Thanks for sharing with us, Kate — we’re so glad you and your kiddo enjoyed these!
These are SOOOO good! I doubled the batch and used whole
Milk instead of almond milk. I used white sugar instead of maple syrup, because I was going for the cheap factor. 3/4 c was suggested for each batch (which I doubled for mine) and it was spot on perfect for sweetness. I also used white flour because I forgot to pull out the whole wheat. So less healthy, :). But the coconut oil makes these so decadent. I don’t fuss too much about heathy and more prefer delicious. Thanks for the recipe!
Thanks for sharing, Merilee — we’re so happy you enjoyed them!
Excellent! I am not a fan of the maple flavor so I subbed a quarter cup of applesauce and a quarter cup of sugar/brown sugar mix. In addition, I added a quarter cup of cooked quinoa for increased nutritional value.
I am just hoping I don’t eat them all before I deliver them to my in-laws!
Very cool, Cyndie! We’re glad you enjoyed them! :)
Thank you for the recipe. My only substitution was that I didn’t have the correct flour however I read that sifting WW Flour could also work. I sifted WW flour a few times and the muffins turned out soft and a little moise. I like to bake using maple syrup or honey to sweeten and this was perfect as I don’t like much sweetness. Would love to find similar type recipes on your site!
These are good but they could be a bit sweeter. I used honey instead of Maple syrup. I will drizzle some honey on top of each before we eat them.
We appreciate your feedback, Kathy — thanks for giving these a try, and definitely feel free to add more sweetener next time if you like. :)
Hi, I’ve already commented on loving these, but yesterday I made them with shredded pumpkin instead of zucchini, and they turned out great! Again used cocoa powder with chocolate chips. Just letting you know in case someone would be wondering if this would work out.
Thank you again!
Jana
I read in one of the comments that someone ask what to use instead of coconut oil and you suggested olive oil, 2 questions about that:
-Would the olive oil affect the flavor of the muffins?
-How much olive oil?
Since a lot of people commenting say that the maple syrup doesn’t add a lot of sweetness to it, can I do 1/2 maple syrup 1/2 honey for extra sweetness? Or would that make them too sweet? Thank you!
Yes, using olive oil would affect the flavor of the muffins slightly. You’re welcome to use canola or vegetable or grapeseed oil (or some other more neutral-tasting oil) if you’d like. And yep, just sub in the same exact amount.
As for the sweetness, you’re welcome to sub in some honey or even brown sugar if you’d like them even sweeter. (Or sprinkle some turbinado sugar on top!)
Hope you enjoy them!