I realize that it has been almost 2 months since my last post! Being busy sort of creeps up on you when you get back to school full time and work on the weekends. I can't believe that its almost Christmas holidays! I will try very hard to get a few more recipes up over the next couple of weeks (which will probably happen more and more as exams draw near, as one of my favourite study avoidance techniques is procrastibaking!).
For today I offer my healthy version of Chocolate zucchini muffins. I usually get one or two HUMONGOUS zucchinis from my mother-in-laws garden, that are perfect for baking with, but not so appetizing to eat. So this year I got my husband to grate the entire zucchini (we got about 6 or 7 cups worth of grated zucchini!) and I decided to make muffins, and I made TONS of them. We gave lots away, and I froze a bunch as well, which means that I have healthy & delicious treats to go whenever I want! Yum!
Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
1 c white flour
1 1/2 c multigrain or whole wheat flour
1/2 c dark cacao powder
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/3 c brown sugar or honey (or stevia)
3 eggs (or you can use 5 egg whites)
1 c unsweetened apple sauce
1/2 c skim milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 c shredded zucchini
3/4 c chocolate chips - optional (I usually use dark mint chocolate chips in mine)
1) Preheat oven to 350F
2) Mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda & cinnamon together in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre.
3) Add sugar or honey, eggs, apple sauce, milk & vanilla into well. Mix well.
4) Using your hands, gently fold in the shredded zucchini and chocolate chips until well mixed. Don't overdo the mixing here, the idea isn't to pulverize the zucchini, just get it nice and mixed in. The batter should be fairly wet, so if it is too dry add in a bit more apple sauce.
5) Scoop into muffin tins with liners (they stick horribly if you don't use liners, so plan on using a lot of grease and flouring the pan if you don't use liners) until the cups are 3/4 full.
6) Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the middle of a muffin.
7) You can also make this as a cake or a loaf, in which case, grease & flour the pan, and cook for 45-50 minutes.
This recipe should make about 24 cupcakes. You'll notice that there is absolutely no butter in this recipe, and a very minimal amount of any type of sugar. I sometimes make it without sugar altogether, but that is a much more bitter muffin. The apple sauce in the recipe substitutes itself very nicely as both a natural sweetener and moistener, meaning that it replaces both butter and sugar in the recipe! The apple sauce has a fairly mild flavour and hides very well in most recipes. You can substitute it basically at a 1:1 ratio for butter, although I usually add a bit more, just to help keep things moist.
Enjoy!
For today I offer my healthy version of Chocolate zucchini muffins. I usually get one or two HUMONGOUS zucchinis from my mother-in-laws garden, that are perfect for baking with, but not so appetizing to eat. So this year I got my husband to grate the entire zucchini (we got about 6 or 7 cups worth of grated zucchini!) and I decided to make muffins, and I made TONS of them. We gave lots away, and I froze a bunch as well, which means that I have healthy & delicious treats to go whenever I want! Yum!
Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
1 c white flour
1 1/2 c multigrain or whole wheat flour
1/2 c dark cacao powder
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/3 c brown sugar or honey (or stevia)
3 eggs (or you can use 5 egg whites)
1 c unsweetened apple sauce
1/2 c skim milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 c shredded zucchini
3/4 c chocolate chips - optional (I usually use dark mint chocolate chips in mine)
1) Preheat oven to 350F
2) Mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda & cinnamon together in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre.
3) Add sugar or honey, eggs, apple sauce, milk & vanilla into well. Mix well.
4) Using your hands, gently fold in the shredded zucchini and chocolate chips until well mixed. Don't overdo the mixing here, the idea isn't to pulverize the zucchini, just get it nice and mixed in. The batter should be fairly wet, so if it is too dry add in a bit more apple sauce.
5) Scoop into muffin tins with liners (they stick horribly if you don't use liners, so plan on using a lot of grease and flouring the pan if you don't use liners) until the cups are 3/4 full.
6) Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the middle of a muffin.
7) You can also make this as a cake or a loaf, in which case, grease & flour the pan, and cook for 45-50 minutes.
This recipe should make about 24 cupcakes. You'll notice that there is absolutely no butter in this recipe, and a very minimal amount of any type of sugar. I sometimes make it without sugar altogether, but that is a much more bitter muffin. The apple sauce in the recipe substitutes itself very nicely as both a natural sweetener and moistener, meaning that it replaces both butter and sugar in the recipe! The apple sauce has a fairly mild flavour and hides very well in most recipes. You can substitute it basically at a 1:1 ratio for butter, although I usually add a bit more, just to help keep things moist.
Enjoy!
About time! :-)
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