It's zucchini season, which means it's time to make the best gluten-free zucchini muffins recipe! These muffins are tender, flavorful, and loaded with goodness! Add some chocolate chips and walnuts for extra texture! The whole family will love this healthy muffin, perfect for breakfast or snacking!
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
These gluten-free zucchini muffins with chocolate chips and walnuts are slightly sweet, light and fluffy. This easy recipe is quick to whip up and freezes well. These muffins are perfect for a quick breakfast or after school snacks.
This recipe was tested many times to get the taste and texture just right, follow the simple steps in the recipe and the tips and tricks below and you will have the best results!
If you find yourself with more zucchini, this gluten-free zucchini banana bread is a great way to use it up! These gluten-free carrot muffins are another sneaky veggie-filled muffin! Gluten-free apple granola muffins and gluten-free lemon poppyseed muffins are two of our family favorites!
Wholesome Ingredients
- Shredded Zucchini: Grate fresh zucchini with a box grater or food processor. You can leave the zucchini skin on, which adds little green flecks to the muffins. If you find the zucchini to be very moist, place it in a cheesecloth or paper towels and squeeze some of the excess moisture from it before adding to the recipe.
- Gluten-free Flour Blend: I tested this recipe with Namaste Perfect Flour Blend and Bob's Red Mill 1:1 Gluten-free Flour. I am confident that King Arthur Measure for Measure would work fine as well.
- This recipe does not contain oat flour, so if you're sensitive to oats this will be a great recipe for you to try!
- Almond Flour: Almond flour is one of my favorite additions to my gluten-free cakes and muffins, like in this gluten-free peach upside down cake and these gluten-free lemon poppy seed muffins. Almond flour enhances the crumb and adds a subtle richness.
- Vegetable Oil or Butter: I tested this recipe with coconut oil, canola oil, and melted butter. All worked fine, so if you need a dairy-free option, use oil.
- Chocolate chips & walnuts add extra flavor and texture, feel free to leave one or both out. Love chocolate chips? Try these gluten-free double chocolate chip cookies!
Simple Steps
- Step 1: Whisk together the flours, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
- Step 2: Then mix together the oil, eggs, and grated zucchini in a large bowl.
- Step 3: Combine the dry ingredients into the wet mixture.
- Step 4 & 5: Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts.
- Step 6 & 7: Scoop the batter into a muffin tin lined with muffin liners.
- Step 8: Press extra chocolate chips and walnuts on top before baking, if desired.
Top Recipe Tips
- Storage: The muffins will keep at room temperature for a few days if kept tightly wrapped or in an air-tight container. Muffins can be frozen in a freezer bag or other freezer-safe container and will last several months.
- Don't overdo the zucchini. When you have a lot of zucchini to use up, it can be tempting to add extra zucchini to the batter. I urge you not to do this. In my many tests of this recipe, adding too much zucchini can result in overly moist, soggy, spongey muffins that are really not appealing.
- Drain the grated zucchini: If your zucchini is extra moist, you may wish to squeeze out the extra moisture before you use it. This especially applies to those over-ripe and enormous garden zucchini. They are full of tons of excess water and can mess up the recipe. If you're using a normal size garden zucchini or zucchini from the grocery store, which tend to have less moisture, you likely don't need to worry about this step.
- Spoon and level your flour or bake by weight for the most accurate results.
- Leave the skin on the zucchini. (Unless you have super picky kids you're baking for, well that's always a different story then isn't it?) Other than the cute green flecks in the muffins, you won't taste or notice a texture difference from the zucchini skin. Leaving the skin on reduces waste and adds extra fiber and nutrients to your muffins.
Recipe FAQs
You do not have to peel zucchini before baking with it. The skin will soften during baking and will add color and nutrients to the final baked good. Leaving the skins on also reduces waste.
If you are adding shredded zucchini to your baked goods, you will want to remove the seeds. The seeds will not break down and add unwanted texture to the final baked good. The seeds are located in the center of the zucchini, so you can cut around the core or slice the zucchini in half and scoop out the seeds. Do this before grating the zucchini.
The easiest way to shred Zucchini is with the small holes on a standard box grater. You can also use the grater attachment on a food processor.
One medium-sized zucchini will yield approximately one cup of shredded zucchini.
Zucchini vary greatly in size, so it's best to measure the amount of shredded zucchini needed for your recipe. To measure, lightly pack the shredded zucchini into a standard measuring cup. If the recipe includes weight measurements, this will be the most accurate method. Simply tare your kitchen scale and weigh the amount of shredded zucchini called for in the recipe.
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Recipe
Gluten-free Zucchini Muffins (Easy, Dairy-Free)
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup gluten-free flour blend, Bob's 1:1, Namaste Perfect Flour Blend, or King Arthur Measure for Measure
- ½ cup almond flour
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil, melted butter or coconut oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup shredded zucchini, drained if needed
- ¾ cup chopped walnuts, plus extra for tops if desired
- ½ cup chocolate chips, plus extra for tops if desired
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line muffin tins with parchment muffin cup liners or grease well.
- Combine flour, almond flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside
- In a separate bowl, mix together the oil and eggs. Then stir in the zucchini.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and stir until well combined.
- Then stir in walnuts and chocolate chips.
- Scoop ¼ cup of the batter into each muffin tin. Press extra walnuts and chocolate chips into the top of the batter if desired.
- Bake for 25-28 minutes or until lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Courtney Anderson
I had a ton of extra zucchini from my garden and I decided to try this recipe. They turned out great. Like all GF baking they are a little dense but I heat mine in the microwave before eating and they soften right up!
Kathy
Great post. Muffins look great too. ?