Zuc­chini is one my favourite plants to grow in the gar­den. It doesn’t require the best of soil and can take in the heat of the Texas sum­mer . One of my zuc­chini plants grew about 4 feet wide this spring and was pro­duc­ing some great and sweet fruit. We only grow organic at home so the fruits are a lit­tle sweeter and have a creamier tex­ture than store bought. With all this deli­cious zuc­chini we have been look­ing for a way to incor­po­rate it into more daily meals. We added Smit­ten Kitchen’s lemon zuc­chini pasta to our menu and also started grilling zuc­chini with olive oil and salt more often.

Since zuc­chini can be both sweet and savory, we had been look­ing for way to use it beyond zuc­chini bread in a dessert. I recently came across a recipe tucked in the back of Cooks Coun­try mag­a­zine for choco­late zuc­chini cake. We adapted a lit­tle to make muffins. We pre­fer all our desserts less sweet so that they can be served with tea, cof­fee, and to a 3 year old. Thanks for Tamara Ander­son of Road Island for the inspiration:

This recipe makes 8 cupcakes

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour.
1/4 cup non-sweet dark cocoa pow­der.
1/2 tsp. bak­ing soda
1/4 tsp bak­ing power
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. ground cin­na­mon
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
4 tbsp. soft­ened unsalted but­ter (1/2 stick)
1/4 cup veg­etable oil
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup but­ter milk or (1/4 cup whole milk + 1 tbsp while vine­gar)
1 medium zuc­chini shred­ded.
1/2 cup semi-sweet choco­late chips
1/4 cup wal­nut pieces (optional)

Pre­heat oven to 325 degrees. Add cup­cake paper to the muf­fin tins — no need to grease. Com­bine flour, cocoa, bak­ing soda, bak­ing pow­der, salt, cin­na­mon, and cloves in a bowl. In a stain­less steel bowl using a wooden spoon or using an elec­tric mixer com­bine the but­ter, oil, and sugar until smooth. Add eggs, vanilla, and but­ter milk and mix until blended. Stir in dry ingre­di­ents, stir in shred­ded zuc­chini. Pour mix­ture into pre­pared tins.

Top bat­ter with choco­late chips and wal­nuts if desired. Bake for 22–24 min­utes. Use a tooth­pick as your indi­ca­tor (poke and see if the tooth­pick comes out clean).