An easy and simply delicious way to get your kids (or adults) to eat their veggies! Our Easy Zucchini Muffins taste like a fluffy, moist vanilla-cinnamon muffin, but they’re packed with fresh zucchini. You won’t feel guilty letting them have seconds and thirds. This extra moist muffin is the perfect breakfast or snack, easy to take on the go, and something good for you that still lets you feel like you got a treat from the bakery. Whether it’s zucchini season or you just want something sweet that’s a little lighter and fresh when coming out of the holidays, these muffins will be your new go-to.
Do you know the muffin man? We don’t either, but we do know recipes for delicious muffins like our Best Blueberry Muffins Ever and our Bakery Style Pistachio Muffins.
Why Our Recipe
- Super easy to make in a one-bowl recipe.
- 31 minutes from start to perfectly baked finish.
- Fluffy muffins packed with zucchini and a little cinnamon.
Many folks compare the taste of this bald cupcake to pumpkin bread, thanks to the added cinnamon. Cinnamon is an incredibly special ingredient that you shouldn’t skip when it comes to zucchini bread and muffins. It also makes these Easy Zucchini Muffins a perfect base to add in some extras like chocolate chips or nuts – disguising that healthy zucchini even more. Zucchini is a blank canvas and will take on whatever flavors you add to it, so you get to taste the warmth of the cinnamon, the sweetness from the sugar, and the vanilla that pulls them both together.
Warm these babies in the microwave for 10 seconds, top with a little butter, and sprinkle cinnamon sugar over it, and you have a tasty little dessert that has some added health benefits.
Ingredient Notes
- Zucchini: Grated using the fine side of the cheese grater. Don’t waste time peeling it first.
- Butter: Use salted or unsalted with an additional pinch of salt.
- Brown Sugar: Contains more moisture and a deeper flavor than granulated white sugar.
- Eggs: Room temperature is best for baking, just place them on the counter 30 minutes prior to starting your batter. If you add your eggs to the batter straight from the fridge you’ll just have a denser muffin, but still perfectly tasty.
- Baking Powder: Not to be confused with its cousin Baking Soda.
- Vanilla: We love the smell of vanilla extract! Feel free to use either Pure Vanilla Extract or Imitation Vanilla Extract, both will give the good vanilla flavor.
- Flour: All-Purpose White Flour is what we like in these muffins, but you can substitute wheat flour for an even healthier muffin. Just make sure to start by only using half the amount of wheat flour as it’s much denser and absorbs more liquid than white flour.
Baking Requirement
Reduce the oven temperature from 450 degrees to 350 degrees after the first 5 minutes of baking. Do not skip this step! If you continue to cook at such a high temperature you’ll end up with charcoal muffins. Set a timer so you don’t forget!
All Things Zucchini
You can get about 2 cups of grated zucchini from 2 store-bought zucchini or one medium-large sized garden zucchini. Some zucchini like to be giants, so if you have one of these from the garden, you’ll want to remove the skin and seeds before grating.
We like to grate our zucchini on the fine grater for smaller pieces that bake more into the muffin. If you want a little more texture in your muffins, you can definitely grate yours using the normal size of the cheese grater and still get the same taste from these baked goods. But our sneaky side shows up here because the finer the grating, the easier it is to hide the healthy addition from the kids.
Zucchini is made up of mostly water! Can you believe that about 95% of that green squash is actually liquid? Mother Nature did this because she knew it was the secret to keeping your zucchini bread and muffins moist and fluffy. Do not drain your grated zucchini, you want that liquid in the batter.
Storage and Reheating Instructions
Store leftovers at room temperature in an airtight container or wrapped in plastic wrap on the counter or pantry for up to 3 days. If you haven’t eaten them as fast as we have, you can also refrigerate leftovers as well for up to 1 week!
Freeze completely cooled muffins by placing them in an airtight container or resealable plastic freezer bag, and you can enjoy these up to 2 months later. Thaw in the fridge overnight, and then you can reheat (if desired) in the microwave for about 30 seconds.
Warm these babies in the microwave for 10 seconds, top with a little butter, and sprinkle cinnamon sugar over it, and you have a tasty little dessert that has some added health benefits.
Just made these muffins and they turned out amazing. I exactly followed the recipe.
Yummy😋, very nice recipe chef 👍👌👏. Thank you for your effort 🌞😎
I recently made these Zucchini Muffins for my Family and they loved them. They turned out so yummy that I took them to a friends house where some of us girls were hanging out and I came home with nothing. I took a little over a dozen. Everyone raved about them. I am getting ready to try the Banana Muffins today. Thank you Rachel for such great recipes and your presentation is great and easy to follow. I’ve tried many of your recipes and always have great success! Keep up the great work and thanks for sharing 🙂