Chocolate Zucchini Muffins (Gluten-free + Dairy-free)

These muffins are a staple of my kitchen, and I've been making them on a regular basis for years. My family eats them within a day or two, and we have to ration them out so everyone gets a fair amount. These are so delicious that they can pass as a treat, but it's comforting to know there are some vegetables hidden inside as well.

Almond flour is the secret ingredient. I used to make this recipe without almond flour, because I hadn't discovered it yet, but once I did, the almond flour took this recipe from nice to delicious. The trick is to use almond flour AND another flour, because by itself, almond flour doesn't hold together well. It's almost too delicate. But nothing else I've used in gluten-free baking comes close to the oh-so-scrumptious crumb of almond flour. Paired with gluten-free oat flour and tapioca flour, it turns into YUM.

Important Ingredients

• Gluten-free flour blend — Almond flour is our hero ingredient, while gluten-free oat flour and tapioca flour balance the texture and lightness.

• Gluten-free oat flour — I buy Bob's Red Mill gluten-free oats and blend them in the blender to make flour. I like to do this in a big batch, as much as the blender will hold, and store the flour in a plastic container in the freezer until ready to use.

• Cinnamon — Wait, what? Cinnamon in my chocolate muffins? The cinnamon in this recipe adds depth and warmth to these muffins.

• Coconut oil — This can be replaced with vegan butter if preferred, but coconut oil is generally cheaper than vegan butter. I buy this large tub of coconut oil.

• Apple Cider Vinegar — Vinegar reacts with baking soda and helps add rise to these muffins. Baking soda rise is short and sweet, however, so try to get them in the oven as soon as you can after blending.

• Unsweetened cocoa powder — I use Hershey's unsweetened cocoa powder, but any unsweetened cocoa powder will do.

How to Make this Recipe

Mix dry ingredients. Add the almond flour, gluten-free oat flour, tapioca flour, brown sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, sea salt, and cinnamon in a bowl. Lightly stir. It's okay if the brown sugar isn't fully mixed, because we'll be putting all of the ingredients in the blender shortly.

Melt coconut oil in milk. I like to warm my milk and coconut oil together. This prevents the coconut oil from solidifying again when blended with cold milk. Warm it on a low power (10-20 percent) for 1 to 2 minutes in the microwave until the coconut oil is just melted.

Add wet ingredients to the blender. Grated zucchini, melted coconut oil and milk mixture, egg, apple cider vinegar, and vanilla all go into the blender. Blend them together till well incorporated.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. If you haven't already, preheat your oven so it will be ready when your muffins are in the pan.

Add dry ingredients to the blender. Add a cup or two of the dry ingredients at a time into the blender, and blend till combined, adding in more dry mix until all of the ingredients are incorporated. Don't overmix.

Pour your muffin mix into a greased muffin pan. To make 12 muffins, pour about 1/3 cup batter in each muffin cup.

Bake the muffins. Bake the muffins at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 17-20 minutes. If you are at or near sea level, I recommend 17 minutes. If you are at a higher elevation, I recommend 20 minutes.

Cool. Cool for 15 minutes before removing from the muffin pan. The muffins will be soft, and it's best to remove them from the pan with a thin spatula. This Norpro spatula is my favorite for this purpose.

Let's Talk Pans

My favorite pan for this recipe is a ceramic muffin pan, but any standard muffin pan will do.

I recommend a mini-muffin pan if you'd like to make this recipe vegan and withhold the egg. I made this without eggs for years, and what I noticed is the mini-muffin pan helps the delicate flours hold together better, because they form a yummy crust on the outside of the muffin. Just remember to decrease your bake time from 20 minutes to 15 minutes for the mini-muffin pan.

Shortcuts

Weigh the zucchini. If you want to skip the grating step, I recommend using a kitchen scale to weigh the zucchini in grams. Place your blender cup on the kitchen scale, use the tare function to set the grams to 0, and then add large chunks of zucchini at a time until you reach the required amount in grams. No grating!