Say hello to zucchini season with these gluten free zucchini muffins! They're soft and tender with loads of chocolate chips sprinkled throughout and a hint of cinnamon flavor. Made with healthy ingredients like oat flour, coconut oil, and coconut sugar.
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Recipe Characteristics
- Moist and tender texture
- Made gluten free and dairy free
- Secretly loaded with veggies
- Kid approved
- Loaded with chocolate chips
If you love zucchini , you'll also love my zucchini involtini dish and my zucchini chicken enchiladas.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Zucchini - Use a ripe, fresh zucchini and make sure to wash it well before using. You will need 1 large zucchini or 2 medium-sized zucchini.
- Oat flour - The gluten free flour used in these healthy zucchini muffins. Store bought oat flour is best if you want that smooth texture on top of the muffins. I like Bob's Red Mill which you can usually find at a specialty grocery store. You can also make your own oat flour at home by blending up rolled oats in a food processor. You will have a few little lumps and bumps on your muffins if you use homemade oat flour but they will taste the same!
- Coconut oil - Provides moisture to the muffin batter. Any type of oil will work like avocado or vegetable oil or you can use melted butter.
- Coconut sugar - This is how we sweeten the muffins. The molasses in the sugar give the muffins a warm and caramel-like flavor. Swap with light brown sugar if needed.
- Eggs - These help bind the muffins together so they don't fall a part. I haven't tried these with flax eggs but they should work just fine.
How to Make Gluten free Zucchini Muffins
These chocolate chip zucchini muffins are simple to make. You will need a box grater, large mixing bowl, stiff whisk, and a muffin tin.
Step 1 : Grate the zucchini. Cut the top and bottom off the zucchini and grate it into small pieces with a grater. No need to squeeze out the excess moisture from the shredded zucchini, it helps to keep the batter wet. Set aside.
Step 2 : Mix the wet ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, coconut oil, vanilla extract, and coconut sugar.
Step 3 : Fold in the dry ingredients. Add the oat flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and grated zucchini. Use a rubber spatula to gently fold it into the batter. Stop when there is still a little bit of flour left in the bowl and add the chocolate chips and continue to fold.
Step 4 : Scoop into muffin liners. Place liners into the cavities of a muffin tin. Use a large cookie scoop to scoop batter into the liners. You can fill them up about ¾ of the way. Because these are gluten-free muffins they won't rise as high as normal muffins and we can fill up the liners more. Sprinkle a few extra chocolate chips on top and bake the pan in the oven until golden brown on top.
While the muffins are still warm, sprinkle with coarse sugar on top if desired.
Expert Tips
- Grate the zucchini on the large side of the box grater for best results. You want large shavings in the batter. I found that the small side of the grater instead just pushes out the water from the zucchini and creates mush (not ideal for zucchini muffins).
- Make sure to fill up the liners almost to the top. Remember, gluten free muffins don't rise like regular muffins!
- Take the muffins out of the tin once they have cooled down enough to touch. Place them on a wire rack to cool down completely before enjoying. They key here is to not leave them in the muffin tin for too long. This is how you get soggy almost wet muffins. If they cool all the way down in the muffin tin, the condensation will bleed into the bottoms of the muffins.
How to Store
Once the muffins have cooled to room temperature, transfer them to an airtight container. They will keep for up to 4 days out on the counter or a week in the fridge. If you store them in the fridge, I recommend warming them up in the microwave for 15 seconds before enjoying to take the chill off.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, gluten free 1:1, all purpose flour, or whole wheat flour will all work in this easy muffin recipe.
Use dairy free chocolate chips to make these muffins dairy free.
Yes! Chopped nuts like walnuts or pecans would be another great mix-in option. You can also throw in a few raisins.
For more muffin recipes, check out my:
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Recipe
Gluten free Zucchini Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 cup grated zucchini - approx. 1 large zucchini
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup coconut sugar
- ¼ cup coconut oil - melted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup oat flour
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup mini chocolate chips - divided
- Coarse sugar - optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 F. Cut the top and bottom off the zucchini and grate it on the large side of a box grater. You want small pieces of zucchini to come through. No need to remove the excess water. Set aside.
- In a large bowl or with a stand mixer, whisk together the eggs, coconut sugar, coconut oil, and vanilla extract until well combined.
- Fold in the oat flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and grated zucchini. Stop folding when there is still a little flour left in the bowl. Add ⅔ cup of the mini chocolate chips to the batter and continue folding until well distributed.
- Place muffin liners in a muffin tin. Use a large cookie scoop or large spoon to fill up each liner ¾ of the way full (this will be more than you normally would fill up a muffin liner). Sprinkle the remaining ⅓ cup of mini chocolate chips over top of each muffin. Bake in the oven for 15 - 17 minutes until the tops of the muffin are golden brown and you can stick a toothpick into the center and it comes out clean.
- While the muffins are still warm, sprinkle a little coarse sugar on top, if desired. Let the muffins cool down slightly in the muffin tin. Once they are warm enough to touch, transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely. Don’t let the muffins cool all the way in the muffin tin, this is how you get soggy and wet muffins.
Hi, after making these I found the bottom half to be uncooked and a bit soggy, any tips on how to fix this next time?
Hi! Oh no, nobody likes soggy muffins! I would increase your oven temp to 375. Muffins can be tricky since they are like mini cakes - you have to adjust the temp and baking time so they cook all the way through buy don'y dry out. Try increasing the temp first and stick a tooth pick in one to make sure it's done before you pull them out. Hope that helps!