Delicious and indulgent Double Chocolate Zucchini Muffins. These easy muffins can be made in just 35 minutes for a chocolate-filled, zucchini-packed, dairy, and egg-free sweet treat.
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Is your zucchini growing wild yet?
If not, any day now, that zucchini in your garden is going to start popping up and when it does, it will do so ferociously. From now until the end of August you will have more zucchini than you need. It is my job to make sure you are equipped with all the zucchini recipes you can handle. From salads to zoodles, and even desserts, I’ve got you covered, my friends.
But before we get too ahead of ourselves, let’s take a look at why you are here today. Why, it’s these ultra-moist, double chocolate zucchini muffins, of course.
As a retired professional baker and 12 years (and counting!) vegan, I make it my goal to make recipes for this blog that are fool-proof. That means recipes with simple-to-follow steps and no weird or hard-to-find ingredients. And these muffins fit that bill exactly!
Wanna know how to make these chocolate zucchini muffins? Let’s take a look
Recipe Video
Recommended Ingredients & Equipment
Similar to my zucchini bread, these muffins are incredibly moist. Zucchini, my friends, works as an automatic egg replacer meaning there are no weird or hard to find ingredients in this recipe.
Ingredients & Substituions
- Zucchini – This recipe calls for 1 1/2 cup which is typically 1 large zucchini.
- All-Purpose Flour – For healthier flour options, you can use 1:1 gluten-free flour blends, buckwheat, or spelt flour.
- Cocoa Powder
- Baking Powder & Soda
- Salt
- White & Brown Sugar – Check out my guide to vegan sugars and alternative sugar replacements. For a healthier sugar alternative, I recommend coconut sugar.
- Cinnamon
- Oil – This recipe calls for canola oil because it creates the best texture without added flavor. If you want to avoid hydrogenated oils, try avocado or melted coconut oil. Olive oil also works but adds a slightly savory flavor. If you want to eliminate the oil altogether, swap it out for the same amount of applesauce.
- Applesauce – This is the binder of the recipe. You could replace it with equal amounts of mashed banana, pumpkin puree, or a variety of other egg replacers.
- Non-Dairy Milk – I recommend thick, subtle-flavored milk like soy, cashew, or macadamia milk.
- Vanilla Extract
- Vegan Chocolate Chips
Recommended Equipment
For all my muffin recipes, you’ll need basic kitchen equipment such as a mixing bowl, utensils, a wire cooling rack, and a muffin baking pan. I also recommend using an ice cream scoop to evenly and cleanly scoop your batter.
You will also need a handheld shredder or a food processor with a shredder attachment. (<<affiliate links)
Check out the full list of my recommended kitchen tools and gadgets.
How to Make Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
Step One – Shred the Zucchini
Using the shredding attachment of your food processor or handheld grater, shred the zucchini. Using a cheesecloth or a fine-mesh strainer, squeeze any excess liquid out of the zucchini.
Step Two – Whisk the Dry Ingredients
In a small bowl combine your flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. In a separate bowl whisk together your wet ingredients. That’s your oil, sugars, apple sauce, milk, and vanilla extract.
Step Three – Combine the Ingredients
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and gently mix in until the flour is evenly hydrated. Gently fold in the chocolate chips.
Step Four – Bake
Generously spray a muffin tin. Fill each muffin mold 3/4 of the way full and bake for 25 minutes.
Serving and Storing
Let the muffins cool 10 minutes in the muffin tin before flipping them onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely. Otherwise, they may break apart as they finish setting.
Serve these muffins immediately. They come out of the oven warm, buttery, and hard to resist!
Store leftover muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. You can also freeze these muffins for up to 2 months. To thaw, pull the muffins from the freezer and let them thaw at room temperature for several hours.
Tips and Tricks
- The most accurate way to measure flour is to spoon it into your measuring cup, leveling it off with the back of a knife.
- Do not overmix your batter. Overmixing allows the gluten to develop and too much gluten will give you gummy and dense muffin.
- Squeeze out the excess liquid of the zucchini to prevent your batter from becoming too wet.
- Generously spray your muffin tins or use cupcake holders to ensure the muffins don’t stick to the pan.
- Looking for variation? Swap out chocolate chips for walnuts for a walnut chocolate zucchini muffin.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I make this recipe gluten-free?
Yes! I’ve had luck both with a 1:1 gluten-free flour blend as well as buckwheat flour.
Can I make this recipe oil-free?
Indeed! Simply replace the oil with an additional 1/4 cup applesauce for an oil-free bread.
While I haven’t tried it personally, I’ve had readers who have reduced the sugar by about 1/4 cup. You can also check out my guide on healthier sugar alternatives for some ideas on how to replace the sugar.
More Vegan Muffin Recipes
More Vegan Zucchini Recipes
- Mexican-Style Stuffed Zucchini Boats
- Zucchini Noodles with Vegan Pesto
- Zucchini Noodle Lasagna with Seasoned Tempeh
- The BEST vegan Zucchini Bread
Double Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup zucchini, shredded (about 1 large zucchini)
- 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 cup canola oil
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/3 cup apple sauce, unsweetened
- 1/4 cup non-dairy milk, I use soy
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 F. Generously spray a standard muffin tin and set aside
- With a handheld grater or in your food processor with the shredder attachment, shred your zucchini. Using a cheesecloth or a fine-mesh strainer, squeeze any excess liquid out of the zucchini.
- In a medium bowl combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together oil and both sugars. Add apple sauce, milk, and vanilla extract. Stir to combine. Fold in shredded zucchini.
- Add the wet ingredients to dry and mix until the dry ingredients are fully incorporated and a uniform batter has formed. Fold in chocolate chips.
- Evenly scoop batter into the prepared muffin tin. The batter should be nearly to the top. Bake for 20-25 minutes until a knife inserted in the middle come out clean.
- Remove from oven and let the cake cool for 10 minutes before flipping it out onto a wire cooling rack to let cool all the way.
Video
Notes
- The most accurate way to measure flour is to spoon it into your measuring cup, leveling it off with the back of a knife.
- Squeeze out the excess liquid of the zucchini to prevent your batter from becoming too wet.
- Generously spray your muffin tins or use cupcake holders to ensure the muffins don’t stick to the pan.
Hi, I’m Sarah. I’m a 14-year (and counting) vegan, professionally trained photographer, former pastry chef, founder of My Darling Vegan, and author of the
Patti says
These muffins are sooo unbelievably moist and chocolatey, oh my sweet goodness!!! My hubby loves them too! Super easy recipe?
Will definitely make this recipe again!!! Thank you!
Patti says
Ohhh myyy sweet goodness!!!! These are sooooo good!!! So moist and chocolatey! My hubby loved them too? Hard to believe they are vegan. Pretty easy to make ??
Kelsey says
These are great! So moist.
I used winter melon in place of zucchini, also swapped coconut oil for canola. Used slightly less sugar, and used pear puree instead of apple. Ended up adding more sauce and milk to the batter. And a splash of coffee. Quadruple thumbs up.
Tara Gallimore RD MSc @ Plantae Nutrition says
This recipe is delicious, although they taste more like cupcakes than muffins! I used less than half the recommended sugar for myself (1/3 cup total), and they were perfectly sweet. When making the recipe for a potluck, I used 3/4 cup total sugar and people loved them. Thanks for a great dessert recipe!
atari breakout says
I am happy to find this post very useful for me
vex 3 says
I like chocolate so I like it
Brenna says
I just made these this morning and they turned out great! I used grape seed oil instead of canola and split the cocoa with cacao just because i like the flavor. I didn’t have apple sauce so I made a flax egg instead (1 tb ground flax in a 1/3 measuring cup and filled with water, to keep the same liquid). I also made these into mini muffins (took about 15 minutes to bake). They are so good!
They definitely came out more like cakes than muffins, but i’m not complaining. They are light and fluffy, not dense at all. In the future, I would make these as a dessert or cut back some sugar. Thanks for the recipe!
bonk.io says
Those cakes look so attractive, thank you for sharing.
Dorothy says
Looks delicious! I tried out your banana bread and it was insanely good!
What do you think of swapping canola oil for coconut oil?
And do you think there’s a way to make this recipe sugar free without affecting the texture too much?
Sarah says
It would be fine to swap out the canola oil. I wouldn’t recommend eliminating the sugar but you could swap it with coconut sugar for a healthier option.
chicken says
You put really very helpful information. Thank you for posting such a great article!
run 4 game says
My highly allergic granddaughter begs me for these on a regular basis. Thanks so much for your recipes and guidance. Can i use home made oats flour, how is the best way to make it?
Sarah says
You can make oat flour by grinding oats up in a food processor – however, swapping it out with AP will affect the texture. If you try it, let us know how it goes!
NannyCat says
My highly allergic granddaughter begs me for these on a regular basis. Thanks so much for your recipes and guidance.
Sarah says
So glad she is able to enjoy them!
Anita says
I rarely leave comments but these were SO good that I just had to tell you! My kids aged 8 and 11 devoured them too… Thanks!!
Sarah says
Thanks for taking the time to let me know 🙂
Geraldine says
Can i use home made oats flour, how is the best way to make it?
Sarah says
I would not recommend swapping out the all-purpose for oat flour – it would change the texture too much.
happy wheels says
These look so chocolatey and so moist! Delicious- pinning!
Christine MacLeod says
Hello! Have you tried to make this with GF flours?
Thanks 🙂
Sarah says
I haven’t, but if you are going to I would recommend using a 1:1 ratio GF flour like Bob’s Red Mill.