Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Recipe: Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

Don't you love it when an experiment goes oh-so right? I had planned to make my Savory Zucchini Slice for my dinner guest, but had already prepared a savory starter and main, so why not something a little sweeter for dessert? I didn't want to use sweeteners, of course, so I used the next best thing - raw cacao powder! Playing on the inherent sweetness (to me) of zucchini, the resulting muffins tasted almost exactly like the carby rubbish (low fat, of course) I used to inhale on a regular basis. Moist, rich, tasty perfection, with visual appeal to boot!


Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

Ingredients:

3 small zucchini, grated finely
6 eggs
1 cup coconut flour or almond flour
1/2T baking powder (although the slice works well without it)
1T cinnamon
1/2 cup raw cacao powder (or unsweetened cocoa)
1/2 cup coconut oil or melted butter
1/2t salt (unless you're using salted butter, like I do)
Some chopped nuts and coconut flakes for topping

Optional - stevia or maple syrup to taste (or make available to add later upon serving, if desired)


Method:

1. Preheat oven to moderate - around 175 deg C.

2. Line and grease a muffin tray

3. Separate eggs, placing yolks in a large mixing bowl, and whites in a medium bowl for whipping. Whip whites until fluffy.

3. In the large bowl, combine zucchini, egg yolks, spices, and oil.

4. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa and baking powder. Add flour mixture to zucchini mixture, and stir until combined.

5. Fold egg whites into batter carefully, then pour everything into prepared pans.

6. Sprinkle with nuts/flakes, and bake for at around 50 minutes, watching carefully for burning. The mixture's density means that it will cook quite slowly, but if you see burning happening before the muffins bounce back when prodded with a finger, turn the heat down to 100 deg C and allow the centre to cook slowly.

Serve warm or cold with cream, fruit, and maple syrup if desired. I enjoy them alone, although coconut flour can be quite drying in the mouth.



The review from the panel? "They taste just like normal chocolate muffins - though it's good to know they've got zucchini in them, else the green bits inside would be a tad concerning..." True. And scrumptious!

10 comments:

fable said...

Oh, yum! These look incredibly delicious. Think I will try them out tonight. Thanks for the recipe.

Unknown said...

Love the ingredeints! Definitely going to try these. Thanks!

Unknown said...

I made these this weekend and I think there is room for improvement, BUT I do like them and am glad to find a GF muffin that actually has texture like "normal" ones. I used less baking powder (1/2-3/4T) b/c a tablespoon seemed like a lot and I did add 1T maple syrup to mellow out the cocoa powder. The thing it needs the most, though (which I didn't add), is a bit of salt to bring out the flavor more. Probably 1/2 teaspoon would do. As they are right now, warmed up with a pat of salted butter, they're pretty darn tasty. Thanks for giving us a great base to experiment with!

Jezwyn said...

Oops, thanks for the point-out Lauren - I use salted butter but do add salt if I'm using coconut oil instead. So I should put that into the recipe.

I'm not aiming to create GF foods, but foods that fit into my diet without overly impacting my blood sugar since I'm insulin resistant, so the recipes have to be fairly basic and all sweetening garbage can be added later if you're a sugar addict.

I must admit, I don't use any baking powder if I'm making a batch that I want to partake in, since it's made with rice flour and I don't do that! And when I do use it, I don't measure, I just use what looks right for the amount of coconut flour. So I'll trust your judgement there.

Peter Lee said...

I have just started to eat raw cocao and found this blog post to be very good because it explains the benefits of eating raw cocao powder

Anonymous said...

Just made these using almond flour. Added 1 T of agave nectar and 1/4 t. of concentrated stevia....too much stevia. In the future will use maybe an 1/8 t. Also, they cooked in 30 minutes, making 12 muffins and a very small cake on the bottom of a bread loaf pan. I'd imagine this would make about 18 muffins total.

Jake - The Unruly Patient said...

These are fantastic! Thank you! I made them into small cakes. The best use of coconut flour yet!

Amy Fallon said...

These look amazing! I wish I could make them but I don't have an electric mixer or anything... I don't think I have the arm power to whip egg whites by hand, but I still really want to make these -- any suggestions? Is there a substitution I could make or anything?? Thank you!

Jezwyn said...

Hi Amy,

You could use baking powder to try to boost the fluffiness, or just go for non-whipped eggs and see how you go. The muffins will be denser perhaps, but still tasty. :)

GGP

Unknown said...

Next time I have a plethora of zucchini, I am so making these!