Chocolate Chai Zucchini Muffins

Lauren — Fri, 19 Aug 2022 07:30:00 +0000

These chocolate chai zucchini muffins are a great way to start your day off right. Decadently moist and absolutely delicious, they have a double dose of chocolate and chai spices for an extra flavor boost. Your whole family will love these chocolatey muffins!

Double Chocolate Chai Zucchini Muffins Are Exactly What You Need to Use Up All that Zucchini

Do you ever get a recipe idea in your head that you just can’t shake?

That’s how I felt about these chocolate zucchini muffins with chai spices – once I dreamed up the idea, I couldn’t stop thinking about them! Rich chocolate and warm chai spices are delicious together and I had a feeling that they’d make an especially delicious treat when added to zucchini muffins.

It took me a few tries to perfect this recipe, but I’m glad I kept going until I nailed it.

The chocolate and chai flavors are nicely balanced, and the muffins are moist and cakey. I love that they’re healthy enough for breakfast, but decadent enough for dessert.

What you’ll love about this zucchini muffin recipe:

A great way to use garden-fresh zucchini with unexpected flavor from chai spices
Grab and Go. Muffins are a great option for a breakfast or snack on the go.
Under 200 calories each

What you’ll need to make them

To make these double chocolate zucchini muffins, you’ll need:

Unsweetened Coconut Milk. For this recipe, you’ll need refrigerated coconut milk beverage (not canned coconut milk). You could also use almond milk or dairy milk if you prefer.
Spiced Chai Tea bags. For the best flavor and texture, I found that using chai spice tea bags works best. I like the ones from Tazo a lot!
Zucchini. One medium to large zucchini should be plenty.
Coconut Oil. Cocout oil is a nice alternative to butter in this muffins. If keeps them dairy free and adds lots of moisture.
Unsweetened Cocoa Powder. My absolute favorite is Ghirardelli but you can never go wrong with Hershey’s either!
Chocolate Chips. Milk, dark, or semi-sweet. It’s your choice!

You’ll also need standard baking supplies like flour, sugar, eggs, and vanilla.

Substitutions:

Try applesauce instead of coconut oil
For a healthier muffin, use whole wheat pastry flour in place of all purpose flour
You can also use a cup for cup gluten-free flour blend.

Handy tip for shredding zucchini!

For zucchini that all but disappears into muffins, use a fine grater, like you would use to zest citrus fruit. A coarser cheese grater will give you larger ribbons of zucchini that are still delicious but a little more obvious.

How to make them:

1. Brew the chai. Heat the coconut milk until it’s lukewarm, then steep the tea bags until it take on a deeply spice flavor. Press as much moisture form the tea bags and as you before discarding them.

2. Combine the dry ingredients. Be sure to whisk everything well so you don’t end up with clumps of baking powder in your muffins!

3. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. The method of adding wet ingredients into the dry ones is key to muffin-making and is one of the key differences between muffins and cupcakes!

4. Scoop the batter into your muffin pan. I like to use a large cookie scoop or ice cream scoop for this. It’s less messy and means all of the muffins will be the same size. If you want, sprinkle the top of each muffin with a few chocolate chips.

5. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the top of a muffin comes out clean.

Frequently Asked Questions

How should I store these Chocolate zucchini muffins?

Store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week, or freeze the muffins after they’re baked. They’re delicious cold, or you can pop them in the microwave for 10 seconds to warm them slightly.

Due to the high moisture content of these muffins, I don’t recommend storing them at room temperature.

Do I have to peel the zucchini?

Nope! You can peel it if you want, but once the shredded zucchini is mixed into the batter you won’t even notice a piece of peel here of there.

Do I have to drain the zucchini?

Nope, that extra moisture is what makes these muffins so rich and tender!

Can I prep these ahead of time?

The batter won’t keep well once it’s mixed, but you can freeze shredded summer zucchini for use all winter. Just let it defrost and you’ll be ready to make these muffins whenever a craving strikes!

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