Chocolate Chunk Zucchini Muffin Cakes

So if someone would have told me “Yes, you can eat muffins for breakfast AND have them be healthy for you!” I would have thought they were plastered, nuts, pulling my leg or completely clueless. That was until I made these.

Oh dear Heavens-To-Betsy (um.. who’s Betsy anyway in this colloquialism?  Why are we giving her Heaven???? – yes, these are the things that I ponder on.)…

sorry, I got distracted.  As I was saying, these things are SINFUL with a capital “HOLY HELL YES” Sinful!

I had found a straggler zucchini in the fridge from when I made that Tomato Zucchini Tart the other day and realized I had to use it.  I didn’t want deep fried zucchini (well, okay I really, REALLY did but my conscious {and thighs} said no) and I didn’t want anything heavy with it.  I was tired of roasted veggies, didn’t want zucchini Parmesan (though I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE it) and I didn’t want to stuff it.

So I went about doing housework and just tossed around some ideas in my head.  In the end I decided to go with muffins – 2 ways.  One regular for you lucky ducks that can eat anything and everything without gaining a single friggen ounce and the other I would make low-fat and diabetic friendly (I have family members that are diabetic).

Today I took some into work (gotta love guinea pigs at work) to try but I didn’t let 2 people know that it had zucchini in them.  Now before you go all “OMG what if they were allergic???” no worries.  I knew these people had no food allergies as I always ask people about food allergies before they try something I’ve made.  I took 5 in for people to try.  One for moi (yes, even though I rarely eat sweets, I will partake in these as they are THAT friggen good) and 4 for others.  2 people knew about these per Facebook and the other 2 were pleasantly surprised with the treat on their desk when they arrived.  The 2 that knew about zucchini absolutely LOVED them.  They couldn’t get over how moist they were.  So about 8am I get an IM from the one guy saying “OMG, these are the BEST chocolate cupcakes I’ve ever had!  They don’t need frosting they are THAT good!”  I chuckled and said “Well they aren’t cupcakes.  They are Chocolate Chunk Zucchini Muffins.”  His response was “Say what???  No <bleep> way there is vegetables in that!  Seriously?  Wow these are amazing!  Can I have another???”  lol

About 9am the 2nd person calls me saying “Oh wow, that was so awesome!  It was AMMMAAAAAAAAAAAZING!” So then I proceed to tell her what it was and dead silence…

I mean you could hear a pin drop dead silence..

Finally she goes “That’s not possible!  I loathe zucchini.  You can’t make stuff like this with THAT in it!”  I laughed and said “No really, it has about 1 1/2 cups of shredded zucchini in it.”  All of a sudden I hear a click and she hangs up.  Well I swear she must have ran over to my desk in disbelief wanting me to look her in the eye, pinkie swear up down and all around that it really had zucchini in it.  I’m not sure if she believes me still but I did tell her to read the website tonight as I’ll post the recipe.

So yes Virginia, there really is a Santa Claus!  LOL

The recipe below shows both versions – regular and low-fat/diabetic friendly.

Chocolate Chunk Zucchini Muffin Cakes

• Author: The Kitchen Whisperer

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Ingredients

• 1 cup flour (all purpose)
• 1/2 cup dutch cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (not kosher or sea)
• 1 teaspoon espresso powder
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil or 1/2 cup natural apple sauce for lowfat version
• 1/2 cup sugar or 1/4 cup Splenda White Sugar for diabetic friendly version
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar or 1/4 cup Splenda Brown Sugar for diabetic friendly version
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cup shredded raw zucchini (pressed) – *see note below*
• 1 1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chunks

Instructions

1. In a medium bowl whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
2. Using your stand mixer, beat the oil/(applesauce), sugars, eggs, vanilla extract and espresso powder for 3 minutes.
3. Add the shredded zucchini to the dry ingredients and toss to coat the zucchini evenly.
4. Add in chocolate chunks and combine gently.
5. In batches add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients using a spatula to incorporate everything until just mixed. Do NOT use your mixer.
6. Cover the muffin cake batter with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour (you can go overnight for this).
7. When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 425F
8. Spray the tops of the cupcake pan with non-stick spray (you want to spray around the tops of the pan to prevent the muffin cakes from sticking when they rise).
9. Line with cupcake liners – start off by lining 6 and add more as you go.
10. Remove the muffin cake batter from the fridge and using an ice cream scoop, fill the tins almost to the top of the paper liners. Don’t go over. You want to see about an 1/8” of an inch of paper. If you don’t have enough batter to make 12 cupcakes, fill the empty cavities ½ way full with water.
11. Bake for 9 minutes at 425.
12. Reduce the heat to 350 and bake for 7-9 minutes or until a toothpick comes out barely clean (crumbs are OK). *IMPORTANT – do not open the oven door to drop the heat. Let the heat drop down naturally.
13. Remove from oven and cool in the pan for 1 minute.
14. Gently remove the muffin cakes from the pan and cook on rack. Do not leave them in the pan to cool completely as they bottoms and sides will become soggy. Leaving them in the pan builds up too much moisture.

Notes

Pressing zucchini

Put your shredded zucchini in a strainer and gently press down to remove any excess liquid. You won’t get a lot but you may get a few tablespoons. Discard the liquid.

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