These double chocolate zucchini muffins are a great back-to-school treat. This easy recipe contains shredded zucchini and whole wheat flour for nuttiness. They are made with lots of cinnamon for a twist on the classic chocolate muffin.
Preheat the oven to 350ºF (175 °C). Line 12 wells of a muffin pan with paper liners and set aside for later.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.
Squeeze the grated zucchini over a strainer and leave it to drain while you work on the rest of the recipe to remove as much water as possible.
In a saucepan, melt together the butter with the Ocoa chocolate pistoles on medium-low. Take your time and stir often to avoid burning the chocolate. Remove from the heat and transfer the melted mixture to a large bowl.
Stir in the sugar and the eggs, one at a time, the vanilla, and then the milk. Mix this well so it's quite smooth and evenly mixed. Pour in the dry ingredients and stir them in gently. Give the shredded zucchini a good final squeeze before adding it to the bowl with the muffin batter. Fold it in. Then fold in the Alunga chocolate.
Using a #12 scoop (like this on Amazon), divide the batter among the 10 muffin cups.
Bake on the center rack of the preheated oven until a cake tester inserted into the center of the muffin comes out clean. This takes about 20 to 25 minutes because the muffins are quite large.
Let the muffins cool about 5 minutes in the pan to set, then transfer them to a cooling rack.
Notes
I baked these muffins with Cacao Barry Ocoa (70 % dark chocolate) and Alunga (40 % milk chocolate), which you can find at IGA grocery stores in Quebec, or online at Vanilla Food Company. You can use different brands of chocolate but for the dark chocolate, make sure to stick to good quality chocolate bars with 70 % cocoa mass (as opposed to chocolate chips which contain other fats and more sugar).
Substitutions/Variations:
Cinnamon - I love pairing cinnamon with chocolate but if that isn't your thing, skip the cinnamon!
Zucchini - you could replace the grated zucchini with grated carrot or even grated beet. Both should work, but obviously, they wouldn't be zucchini muffins anymore!
Flour - if you want to omit the whole wheat flour in the recipe, simply replace it with the same weight of all-purpose.
For oversized muffins with a good muffin top, use a big #12 scooper, like this one on Amazon, and scoop 10 muffins instead of 12. This will result in a more pronounced muffin top