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
Ginger says
Very good, moist and tasty! I also used the half the sugar because I figured the chocolate chips would add a lot of sweetness. Smells wonderful while baking too!
Anna says
These came out so delicious and moist! Used half of the sugar for mine and they turned out perfect!
Maggie says
These are SO GOOD. Made them for the first time today, followed the recipe exactly and they came out absolutely perfect! I have nothing bad to say. Even my picky 5 year old ate one without blinking an eye then asked for another. 100% amazing and I can’t wait to make these a million more times.
Lou says
Thank you so much for this recipe! I’ve made it several times now, reducing the sugar content considerably with no issues with the outcome. I also like to add pumpkin seeds for some extra nutrition. I recently discovered oat flour, so will sub out some of the plain flour with this next time I bake.
Thanks again – fantastic recipe!
Eryn says
Oh my goodness. Okay, one of my coworkers makes a non-vegan chocolate zucchini bread that is incredible. But, again, non-vegan. I found this recipe and compared it to hers, and they were very similar except this one called for apple sauce instead of egg and some of the quantities were a bit different. These muffins came out incredible! Only change I made was cutting back on the sugar quantities. Thanks for this amazing recipe – will definitely make again!
Lori says
DELICIOUS!!!
Alicia says
I’ve made these multiple times for different groups (vegan and non-vegan) and it’s always been a hit!
Robin says
Super good, super moist, super chocolaty! I’m so excited to make more of these for friends and family.
Amanda says
These muffins are amazing! Better than cake, packed with veg!
Linda Coyner says
This made the best muffins! I used pecans instead of chocolate chips and earth balance margarine instead of canola oil. Will definitely make this again. ?
Emily Wilkes says
This recipe is wonderful!! My only concern was the amount of sugar, so I cut each sugar in half, using only 1/2 c. Total sugar (1/4 c. white, 1/4 c. brown) And the recipe was definitely sweet enough and was absolutely delicious!
My only issue with this recipe is that there are a couple of inconsistencies between the ‘ recipe card’ at the bottom and the recipe that’s written out within the body of the page. For example, the first time the recipe is shown it says to mix all dry ingredients as the first step and then the second step is to prepare the zucchini. I have worked with zucchini for this type of recipe many times, so I already knew that you should shred the zucchini first and set it aside so the water can drain out, but that instruction is only printed in the recipe card version of the recipe. also, one version says to spray the muffin tin lightly and the other version says to make sure you spray it thoroughly. Anyhow, not a huge deal and the recipe was so delicious. In fact, I’m going to make another batch tonight!
Sarah McMinn says
Thanks for pointing that out. I’ve corrected the text.
Amanda says
Dee-lish! I used coconut oil instead of canola. I will be making these again VERY soon.
Denise Edwards says
I have made these dozens of times and they are perfect every time!!
Kseniya Bondarenko says
These were really yummy. I used earth balance butter in place of oil. They came out sooooo fluffy and moist.
June Prior says
Could I leave out the oil
Sarah McMinn says
Yes, I would replace it with more applesauce.
Veronica says
My family hates most of my vegan baking (to be fair, I’m also not a great baker), and these were so easy to make and so delicious. These are honestly the best vegan zucchini baked goods I have ever had. I used sweetened apple sauce and reduced it to 1/3 cup of each kind of sugar.