These Zucchini Muffins are moist, delicious, and perfect in just about every way. Adding shredded zucchini to muffins is simple! This recipe is a keeper that you will use all summer long.
I’m so excited to share this delicious zucchini muffin recipe with you today. It is a favorite with my kids. In fact, when we make these, we like to double the recipe. Then we freeze them and they grab one out of the freezer on school mornings. By the time their snack time rolls around during the day, the muffin is thawed and delicious. These muffins are incredibly delicious and delightfully dairy-free.
These muffins are the best! I add a teaspoon of vanilla just because! My family and friends love them!
Adding Zucchini to Muffins
Adding zucchini to your muffins is easy. Zucchini adds such great moisture and flavor to muffins, and is nutritious too!
The key to making this recipe work perfectly is to use enough flour and baking soda! When you do that, you account for the extra moisture that you are getting by adding zucchini. You get a nice fluffed up muffin every single time, without needing to drain any moisture from the zucchini.
A medium zucchini is about 12 inches long. One medium zucchini yields one cup of shredded zucchini. So you will need three medium zucchini for this recipe.
How to Make Zucchini Muffins
Here is a brief overview of how this zucchini muffin recipe comes together. For the full recipe including all measurements, scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of the post.
- Combine wet ingredients. Whisk together the sugar, eggs, vegetable oil, and shredded zucchini in a large bowl.
- Whisk together dry ingredients. While you could make this recipe in one bowl, it is better to do the flour, salt, cinnamon, and baking soda in a separate bowl so that they get fully incorporated with each other before being mixed into the wet ingredients.
- Combine all ingredients. Stir the flour mixture into the zucchini mixture, mixing until just combined. Make sure not to overmix.
- Bake the muffins. Add the batter to the lined muffin tins and bake for 22 to 28 minutes, rotating the muffin tins halfway through. Remove when the edges of the muffins are golden brown and when you can stick a toothpick into a muffin in the center of the muffin tin and it comes out clean. Allow to cool. Enjoy!
Adding Chocolate Chips
To make chocolate chip zucchini muffins, fold in a half cup of chocolate chips to the batter after the flour mixture. You could also add some chopped pecans or walnuts to this muffin recipe.
How to Shred Zucchini for Muffins
Shredding zucchini to add it to your muffin recipe is easy! Wash the zucchini and cut off both ends. Grab a cheese grader and grate it with the small holes. If you have a box grater, don’t use the super fine holes on the side. Those are for zesting and we don’t want to zest our zucchini.
You don’t need to squeeze the moisture out of the grated zucchini because we accounted for that extra liquid in the recipe already.
Box Grater
How Long to Cook Zucchini Muffins
My muffins took about 26 minutes to bake, but I really encourage you to start checking on your muffins around 20 minutes for a few reasons.
Ovens vary greatly in temperature, which will impact how long your muffins need to bake. The way muffins cook in different pans also greatly impacts how long they will take to bake.
Rather than relying on your timer, go by how your muffins look.
- They should have a nice rise to them.
- They shouldn’t look wet in the middle.
- You know they are done when you stick in a toothpick to a muffin in the middle of the pan and it comes out clean with just a few crumbs sticking to it.
Tips and Substitutions
- Measure the flour correctly. This will ensure the proper amount of flour and prevent packing and excess flour in your recipe. See more on how to measure flour without a scale below.
- Keep baking soda fresh. Make sure your baking soda is still playing at the top of its game. Test it by adding a little to some vinegar and making sure it reacts immediately with bubbles.
- Grab the right pan. This will be controversial, but I really like using a silicon muffin tin. It allows the muffins to pop right out without cooking spray or a paper liner. You can see me using it in the video for these Ham and Cheese Egg Muffins.
- Rotate those muffins! Rotate your muffins halfway through baking. This way if you have hot spots in your oven or it gets a little hotter in the back than the front, your muffins have a better chance at cooking evenly.
- Swap some of the oil for applesauce. To make these muffins a little healthier, you can swap some of the oil for apple sauce. It will change the texture of your muffins by making them a little more dense. However, it is a worthy trade-off when you are looking to make a recipe lighter. I recommend only substituting half of the oil with applesauce rather than all of it.
The Best Silicon Muffin Pan
Measuring Flour
Knowing how to measure flour correctly is such a valuable part of cooking and baking. Flour packs easily, which makes it easy to get too much and really dry out your muffins. If you don’t have a kitchen scale and can’t weigh your flour, follow these steps to get the correct amount of flour every time.
- Whisk the flour in its container.
- Use a spoon to scoop the flour into the dry measuring cup.
- Use the flat edge of a spatula or knife to level off the flour to be equal with the rim of the measuring cup.
How to Measure Flour
Storing and Freezing these Muffins
These muffins can be kept in an airtight container on the counter for up to four days. This recipe freezes so well. This is a great recipe to double! Eat one batch and freeze the other! Piper loves them for snacks. I thaw a muffin the night before and send it to school with her the next day.
- Once the muffins have baked and cooled, put them on a wax-lined plate in the freezer for an hour.
- After this flash freezing, move the muffins to an airtight container and return to the freezer.
- Freeze for up to three months.
More Great Zucchini Recipes
If you are looking for more great zucchini recipes, try these!
Please let me know in the comments if you make this zucchini muffin recipe and what you think! I hope your whole family loves them!
Zucchini Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar (300 grams)
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup vegetable oil (198 grams)
- 3 cups shredded zucchini about three medium zucchinis (see note)
- 3 cups all purpose flour read about how to measure flour in the post (360 grams)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line 2 muffin tins with 16 muffin liners (12 in one and 4 in the other). Set aside.
- In a large bowl whisk together the sugar, eggs, vegetable oil, and shredded zucchini.1 1/2 cups granulated sugar, 2 eggs, 1 cup vegetable oil, 3 cups shredded zucchini
- In another large bowl whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon.3 cups all purpose flour, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- Mix the flour mixture into the zucchini mixture, mixing until just combined. Make sure not to overmix.
- Add the batter to the lined muffin tins, putting a heaping 1/4 cup of batter in each one.
- Bake for 22 to 28 minutes, rotating the muffin tins halfway through. Remove when the edges of the muffins are golden brown and when you can stick a toothpick into a muffin in the center of the muffin tin and it comes out clean.
- After a few minutes, remove the muffins from the muffin tins and allow them to cool completely before storing. Or enjoy once cool enough to touch.
- Store in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
Notes
Hope says
If I wanted to do a loaf instead of muffins, would I need to make any adjustments other than time?
I would have to try it as a loaf before I could tell you the adjustments. I do have a a Banana Zucchini Loaf you might like!
Mary says
Can I make this with gluten-free flour and is it the same ratio?
I don’t have a lot of experience cooking with gluten free flour, but from everything I’ve read you can’t replace all purpose flour with it without changing anything else. Sorry!
Monique says
When making these muffins for toddlers can we cut down the sugar or replace it with something else?
You can replace it with half the amount of honey. It will change the consistency of the muffin, but definitely cuts sugar content. If you do that let me know how it goes.
Lisa G says
These muffins are the best! I add a teaspoon of vanilla just because! My family and friends love them!
I’m so happy you liked them!
Sandy says
If II wanted to use applesauce instead of oil, how much should I use?
When I do that swap, I always use 1 for 1.
Tammy Smith says
I just made these. I tweaked it just a little. I made a double batch. I used 1 1/2 cups sugar and 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar. Plus instead of using cinnamon I used all spice, and a bag of mini chocolate chips. They turned out awesome.
I’m glad you liked them.
Laura says
I’ve made these once, and they were good. Nice moisture and texture, but I just tweaked the recipe when I made them again. I doubled the cinnamon, added half a teaspoon of nutmeg, a quarter teaspoon cloves, and a teaspoon of vanilla. I also backed off the sugar by a quarter cup, and the muffins turned out next level!
Eve Novosel says
Would appreciate the nutrition information for the zucchini muffins. They are delicious, but am interested in calories, fat grams, carbs, protein grams and fiber. Just made a batch… Thank you!
If you go to the bottom of the recipe card and click the arrow next to “Nutritional Information” it will all show up for you. I’m glad you like them!
Deanna says
I tried making these this morning & all the oil seemed to seep out of the liner, my muffins were swimming in oil! I was so sad
Hi Deanna, I’m so sorry, I’m not sure what happened here. I’ve never experienced anything like this with these muffins.