These Chocolate Zucchini Muffin sound a little strange, but you’d never guess the sneaky zucchini add.  Best of all, these 100 calorie bites are vegan, gluten-free, and almost sugar-free.
This deliciousness took me a week to get right. Â But when I did… oh lawd they were good!
Judging from the reaction these chocolate muffins got at this week’s dinner party, I found the right combination of ingredients.
Chocolate-y and moist, these are muffins you could chow on for breakfast without guilt.
Why guiltless? Â Because you would be starting out your day with veggies!
The “secret” ingredient in these is zucchini! Â Fool your kids, your partner, your co-workers… yourself… you cannot detect a trace of the veggie. Â I’d put money on it.
I love making these as mini muffins.  It makes them perfect for snacking, and they remind me of those trashy-but-delicious brownie bites from  the grocery store.
These zucchini-filled treats please basically everyone.  They’re vegan, gluten-free, almost sugar-free, and a mere 100 calories!  Unicorn brownie bites!Â
I realize the ingredient list is long, but it doesn’t take much time to throw it together and the end result is well worth it!
Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
- 1/4 C cocoa powder
- 1/4 C coconut flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp guar gum (or cornstarch)
- 2 T Xylitol
- 2 T NuNaturals Fiber Baking Blend (or other sweetener)
- 1/2 tsp instant coffee
- Shake of salt
- 1 flax egg (1 T ground flax + 3 T water)
- 1/4 C unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or other milk substance)
- 2 T coconut oil
- 2 T unsweetened apple sauce
- 1 T almond butter (or other nut butter)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 C shredded zucchini
- 1/4 C chocolate chips
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Whisk together dry ingredients in a large bowl. Â Set aside.
In a small bowl mix egg, milk, oil, nut butter, and vanilla until well-combined. Â Pour the wet mixture into the dry and stir until just combined.
Squeeze out zucchini to remove excess moisture, then add to batter along with chocolate chips.  Gently fold to combine – don’t over-mix!
Place 12 muffin liners in a muffin pan (or lightly grease a mini muffin pan) and spoon the mixture into each tin so they are about 1/2 full.
Bake on the middle rack for 10-15 mins, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Â Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before serving.
Makes 12 small muffins or 24 minis.
Approximate Nutrition for small muffin: 100 calories, 7.4g fat, 9.5g carbohydrates, 3g fiber, 2g sugar, 1.5g protein
Notes:
- I have tried this with a full 1/4 C of coconut oil (rather than 2 T oil and 2 T apple sauce) and found it to be too greasy, but you could try it either way
- You could also leave out the guar gum; however, it helps the muffins to stay together better (coconut flour can result in crumbly baked goods)
- If you can’t find Xylitol or the Baking Blend, you can use any sugar/sugar-replacer
***
Thank you, thank you, thank you for all the Buzz… my “Beefy” TVP Chili made the FoodBuzz Top 9 today!
How do you sneak veggies in?
If you have worked with coconut flour, what’s your favorite recipe?
mmmmmm zucchini bread and muffins are so good! i make them all summer long!
Those sound really good. I can’t wait to make them. I’m going to bookmark this now. No, wait… i think I’ll pin it. 🙂
I know you said minis rose better, but I don’t have a mini muffin tin. Do medium muffins turn out well enough?
Definitely! Both sizes were just as delicious. Let me know how they turn out for you!
These muffins look so moist! I think I need to come to Georgia and enjoy one with you right now ;)! Have a great day!
I love that these are vegan!! I can’t have too much dairy so these are perfect 🙂 I’ve never heard of NuNaturals FIber Baking Blend? Is that at speciality stores or can you get something like it pretty much anywhere?
You can find NuNaturals at Whole Foods or order it online. Any sugar should work though!
Oh my. Those look amazing Laura!! I don’t tend to do enough “sneaking” of veggies because I love them so much that they’re usually a part of pretty much all my meals. But this is a great thing for when I have kids!
These look delicious and moist. I was wondering what else to use for the egg replacement. Does that equal one egg? Love learning vegan tricks. Thanks!
The egg replacement does equal one egg. You can do the same thing with chia seeds too!
Hey, Congrats on the Top 9. Thanks again for this new tip, chia seeds. That is interesting. Great job!
Ooh mama do I want to get my hands on those!! They look so moist and chocolatey…mmm…!
As must as I hate the word moist… OMG they were fantastically moist. 😉
Are you like Lily on How I Met Your Mother? 🙂
I don’t know that one… I’m so lame I don’t even have cable. #fail
aww, no! I am lame for watching as much tv as I do… here a link to explain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7xkPSVRc8Y I understand if you can’t watch the whole clip. if you hate the word moi**… well, it can be torture.
I was excited to see the recipe today! Zucchini muffins are so moist – who would’ve thought? I love adding beans to dessert recipes too – added protein and fiber without sacrificing the taste.
I second you on the beans! My favorite brownies are my Mexican Black Bean.
Is it sad that I didn’t think the ingredient list was that long? 🙂
Oh my gosh, these look insane!!! I need to make them pronto. I love sneaking veggies into my smoothies! Spinach or kale usually does the trick! It turns my drink into an ugly green colour but you can’t taste a thing 🙂
I do that same – everything I drink is green and I’m constantly promising people you can taste it at all. Have you tried avocado in your smoothies? It make them amazingly creamy!
Ooooh, looks delicious! This might just be the way to get my wife to eat some veggies. Sigh.
Love the apple sauce and coconut flour use! I haven’t worked with coconut flour, but I’ve recently discovered coconut palm sugar.
I love veggies so much, I eat them for any meal. But I’m working on sneaking them in for my wife, though it’s been a challenge.
Ack, that was me.
You HAVE to try coconut flour. It gives baked goods a great silky texture, just be careful because it absorbs more moisture than regular flour.
Sneak some spinach in her smoothies! 🙂
My favorite coconut flour recipe was my 90 calorie pumpkin muffins – but these sound amazing!
Let’s just say that I’m greatly looking forward to whatever you bring to the party on Saturday….and despite the long ingredient list, I will find a way to make these.
Thank you!!!
P.S. I’m bringing these. 🙂
I sneak veggies in everywhere… sneaky sneak sneak. 😀 These look amazing and I don’t even like chocolate that much…… Congrats on Foodbuzz top 9 AGAIN!!! What is this, like 89273498237423 times?
LOL! Thank you, friend. 🙂
YUM! These are so going on my “to-bake” list! i don’t care how long the ingredient list is!
You are allowed to fool me any day! I love using zuchinni or carrot in recipes for moisture. I make this chocolate zuchinni bread during the summer when I have so many of them I don’t know what to do with and it is ALWAYS a crowd pleaser. Even for the picky Patrick who doesn’t like veggies that much. He hasn’t ever been able to tell haha
These look yummy–it’s great that they’re relatively guilt-free! Shredded zucchini is such a miracle ingredient.
I haven’t used a couple of those ingredients before but this is something I really want to try making. I have only started using coconut flour in the last month so I’m not sure of my fav recipe yet… Maybe this one? I did find what looks to be an awesome paleo pizza recipe that uses coconut flour though.
I want to hear about the pizza dough recipe when you try it. That sounds awesome!
I’m glad that you are bringing these on Saturday!
Also, totally random, but how do you change the color of your font of some words in your posts?
It’s a button on the WordPress screen… I can show you on Saturday if you’d like!
I’m very against talking of food as a source of guilt, but I will say these look magnificent! So dark dark glorious 🙂
*dies*
buzzed ya
Thank you, my Love!
P.S. Please come decorate my house. Seriously.
Um… chocolate AND gluten-free! Could you just send me a few? 🙂
I use coconut flour almost every single day ever since I started staying away from wheat. My favorite recipe using coconut flour is probably my various protein muffin/breakfast cakes. I heart them.
Although, these muffins sound fan-tas-tic! I’ve never used xylitol though–do you know if it is closely related to the other -itol sweeteners? Those do not like me.
I need to try one of those! I’ve never used it in a breakfast cake.
Not sure about Xylitol… I know it’s all natural and I’ve never had a problem with it (but my tummy isn’t sensitive). According to Wikipedia “Xylitol has a lower laxation threshold than some sugar alcohols, but is more easily tolerated than others such as mannitol and sorbitol.”
I cannot believe these are zucchini filled! They look as moist and decadent as the real deal 🙂
In fact maybe even more delicious!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
You can’t tell they aren’t the real deal! I just made them for the 3rd time in a week. 🙂
Ahh now these are my type of muffins!!! First chance I have had all week to catch up on my fave blogs and it seems I have been missing loads of good stuff!! Chocolate muffins with hidden veggies! Where do I sign?! We have guests at the moment but as soon as they leave and I get some time in the kitchen these are getting made! 🙂
Awwww… maybe one day we can make veggie-laces treat together. And then drink wine. 😉
I can’t eat chocolate or cocoa. what else could i use?
you could probably just leave it out… they’d just be zucchini muffins!
These look sooooo yummy, and the zuchinni! that’s an very interesting idea! You are very creative! I think i will bake some of these for my husband on Valentine’s day! I know he will LOVE them! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you! Please let me know how you like them. 🙂
Looks moist and delicious! Saving these! Thanks for sharing!
These look absolutely delicious! Can’t wait to try them! 🙂
Found the recipe this morning, and am making them now. I am confused because when I went to get them out of the oven at 10 minutes, they were boiling over! Looking at the almost black mess on the surface of the pan (not in the cups), I worried I had inadvertently burned the daylights out of them, however, scooping it up, it was just dark & delicious! Still, I lowered the oven temp to 300 & returned them to the oven for about 10 more minutes. Again, they came out sizzling & still don’t pass the toothpick test (better undercooked than burnt!)
Yes, I squeezed out the zucchini; yes, I’m pretty sure I used the correct volume of ingredients; I did have to make a couple of substitutions based upon pantry availability; yes, each cup was only 1/2 full to start. Any ideas on why they were boiling over?
They are quite oily, now that I have test-tasted one (okay two), which would account for the sizzling. They are absolutely delicious, despite the oil, and I will make them again, so I am wondering if you have any ideas on what I may have done to make them boil over. 2 tablespoons of c’nut oil, correct?
Hi! I am so sorry that happened! I have never had that occur… is it possible your baking soda or baking powder has gone bad? Or that there was too much? Mine also were not oily. Maybe the problem in with the flour? Please let me know if you do make it again and figure out the problem.