Marisa's Healthy Kitchen

Crazy Blizzard prep! Been playing inside all day, what else to do! Bake 🙂 I love to cook & bake with my kiddos. It can often be twice my mess, sometimes involves a meltdown or 2 but it really is fun and I love teaching them about their food. We wanted to bake but I still wanted to keep it healthy. Thank you Oh She Glows for these Oil-Free Chocolate Zucchini Walnut Muffins!  They were super excited to make (and eat!) muffins! We loved grating the zucchini together and measuring all the ingredients.

I used twice the zucchini so ended up with 10 mini muffins on top of the dozen full size ones. But my kiddos loved the “baby muffins” too.

Oil-Free Chocolate Zucchini Walnut Muffins
Recipe adapted from Oh She Glows
Yield: 1 dozen muffins

• 1 flax egg (1 tbsp ground flax + 3 tbsp water)
• 1 & 1/4 cup lightly packed shredded zucchini, skin left on (I doubled this) 
• 1 & 1/4 cup almond milk
• 2 tsp apple cider vinegar (or lemon juice)
• 3 tbsp pure maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or all-purpose) (I used 1 1/4 WW Flour and 3/4 cup AP)
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp fine grain sea salt
• 1/2 cup cane sugar
• 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips (I used Enjoy Life mini chips)
• 2/3 cup walnuts, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350F and lightly spray muffin with oil or grease with Earth Balance.

2. Mix flax egg in a small bowl and set aside. Grate zucchini using a grater box (regular grate size). Set aside.

3. Mix almond milk and apple cider vinegar (or sub fresh lemon juice) in a small bowl and set aside. It will curdle, but this is the point as we’re making vegan buttermilk.

4. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar).

5. Mix together the wet ingredients (flax egg, almond milk mixture, maple syrup, and vanilla) and then pour over dry ingredients. Stir until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips, walnuts, and shredded zucchini.

6. Spoon batter into prepared muffin tin filling each tin 3/4 of the way full. Bake for about 15-17 minutes at 350F, or until muffins slowly spring back when touched. A toothpick should come out mostly clean. Cool in tin for 5 minutes. With a knife, loosen around the muffin edge and transfer to a cooling rack until completely cool. (Mine took a bit longer because double the zucchini made it a little more moist, so took about 5 extra minutes to bake)