Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins


(adapted from a recipe in British Country Living)

6 oz. dark chocolate (70%)
1 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup dried cherries, chopped
1 cup finely grated zucchini (I peeled mine)
2 medium eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350 F. Melt chocolate in a double boiler-keep warm. Whisk together eggs and oil; blend in melted chocolate. Add the grated zucchini. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Add the sugar and the dried cherries. Combine the wet ingredients, and the dry ingredients. Pour into 18 prepared cupcake tins. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until risen and skewer comes out clean.

I originally saw the recipe for these muffins on Deb's blog, Homespun Living, and then saw that Kelli (There is No Place Like Home) substituted chocolate chips for the cherries. I followed Kelli's suggestion, as I'm not a huge cherry fan. I think next time I'll make the recipe the original way.

12 comments:

Lori said...

OH these look yummy. Thanks for sharing the recipe and the photo too.
Now I'm hungry.

Karen said...

Thank you for sharing this recipe! My sister sent me four baseball bat-sized zucchini from her garden in Iowa. So I'm very interested in zucchini recipes right now!

Front Porch Society said...

Karen,
You can also fry zucchini. Use cornmeal as the batter. It is so yummy!!

Karen said...

Thank you, usaincognito, for the fried zucchini idea! I thanked you as well on my blog just now. And, as I mentioned there, I'm grateful for your work in law enforcement. God bless you!

Karen said...

Tracy (or anyone else), do you happen to have any ideas for using an excess of homegrown cucumbers? My sister gave me a bunch of those as well, and I already made two batches of refrigerator pickles (one spicy and one sweet). I'm a loss to know what to do with the rest of them. There are too many for my husband and I to eat them cut up on lettuce salads.

Tracy said...

Karen,

Under the salads on my sidebar, you will see Sour Cream cucumbers, and Vinegar cucumbers. These are both very tasty, and since you aren't eating them ON a salad, you'll use more.

Tracy

Karen said...

Thank you, Tracy! I'm going to look at those recipes you mentioned. I also read yesterday on the Light & Tasty magazine website that you could try using shredded cucumber instead of zucchini, even in baking recipes. So...I'm thinking about trying a zucchini muffin recipe with shredded cucumber...I'm anxious to see how it turns out. I'm going to try this over the weekend. Thank you again! :-)

Jen said...

Those look so great....yummy.

Karen said...

These look so moist and delicious I'm going to have to try them. I don't like most muffin recipes because of them being too dry. I do a lot of them with leftover oatmeal to keep them more moist.
I also love the milk "glass". I have a cabinet full of them! ;0)

Katie @ Frugal Femina said...

Do you think you can make these as bread instead of muffins? My muffin pan is in storage.....

Tracy said...

Katie,

Possibly? I guess you'd just have to continue to check it to see if it was done. Let me know!

Katie @ Frugal Femina said...

I ended up getting my hands on some muffin tins. :-) I'm not a big fan of cherries, either, but they work in this recipe. They lighten up that intense chocolate flavor.