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Chocolate Zucchini Muffins [Grain-Free]

June 11, 2020

As a healthy paleo breakfast or snack, these Grain-Free Chocolate Zucchini Muffins will become a summer staple all season long! Enjoy fresh or freeze for later.

I love how certain ingredients are a true sign of summer. Zucchini is one of those ingredients! We always had tons of zucchini on hand growing up thanks to all of our friends with gardens. I feel like if you grow zucchini you end up having more than you know what to do with! My family happily took any extras and had a variety of zucchini treats on hand at any given time. Ironically zucchini is one of the veggies we chose not to grow this year. According to our friends it has a habit of taking over your garden so we opted to just get leftovers from friends rather than grow it ourselves. There’s still been no shortage as zucchini season has just begun. I’ll be returning the favor with a batch of these chocolate zucchini muffins!

Baking With Zucchini

If you’re scared to add a vegetable to your baked goods, don’t be! Zucchini is similar to adding banana or applesauce. It adds a wonderful texture while adding extra nutrients too! It is super mild in flavor so doesn’t distract from the main flavor profiles of the treat. In this recipe, you won’t even be able to taste the zucchini! They’re basically just healthy chocolate muffins. 

Chocolate Zucchini Muffin Ingredients

  • zucchini – the star of the show! 
  • almond meal and coconut flour – to keep these muffins gluten-free and grain-free I’m using a combination of almond meal and coconut flour. Be sure to pick up almond meal and NOT almond flour.
  • unsweetened cocoa powder 
  • baking soda and baking powder 
  • sea salt 
  • banana – make sure it’s super ripe!
  • unsweetened almond milk – can sub in a different dairy-free milk if you prefer. 
  • eggs 
  • honey 
  • vanilla extract 

 

How to Make Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

STEP 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl combine almond meal, coconut flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and sea salt. In a separate bowl combine mashed banana, almond milk, eggs, honey and vanilla extract. Add wet mixture to dry mixture and stir to combine.

STEP 2: Place grated zucchini between two layers of paper towel or a dish towel and squeeze out liquid.

STEP 3: Add zucchini to batter and stir to combine.

STEP 4: Grease a 12-cup muffin tin or place a muffin liner in each and distribute batter evenly between cups. Bake for 25 mins or until tops spring back when touched.

STEP 5: Let cool for 10 minutes before removing and allowing to cool completely on a wire rack.

 

Tips [Baking + Storage]

  • It’s super important to squeeze out as much liquid as possible from the shredded zucchini. I like to put the grated zucchini in a clean dish towel or a few paper towel sheets to absorb the excess moisture. 
  • Make sure you use almond meal not almond flour!
  • Don’t try to replace the coconut flour. There is no 1:1 sub for coconut flour. 
  • Feel free to replace the banana with 1/2 cup of applesauce or pumpkin. They won’t be as sweet but will keep a similar texture.
  • We love these reusable silicone muffin liners!
  • To store these muffins, first let them cool completely on a wire rack and then store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for a week or in the freezer for up to 3 months. 
Print

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins [Grain-Free]

As a healthy paleo breakfast or snack, these Grain-Free Chocolate Zucchini Muffins will become a summer staple all season long! Enjoy fresh or freeze for later.

  • Author: Davida Lederle
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 25 minutes
  • Total Time: 35 minutes
  • Yield: 12 muffins 1x
  • Category: Breakfast
  • Method: Bake
  • Diet: Gluten Free

Ingredients

Scale
  • 2 cups almond meal*
  • 1/4 cup coconut flour
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp sea salt
  • 1 large ripe banana, mashed
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
  • 3 eggs
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 large zucchini (about 1 cup), grated

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. In a large bowl combine almond meal, coconut flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and sea salt.
  3. In a separate bowl combine mashed banana, almond milk, eggs, honey and vanilla extract.
  4. Add wet mixture to dry mixture and stir to combine.
  5. Place grated zucchini between two layers of paper towel or a dish towel and squeeze out liquid.
  6. Add zucchini to batter.
  7. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin or place a muffin liner in each and distribute batter evenly between cups.
  8. Bake for 25 mins or until tops spring back when touched.
  9. Let cool for 10 minutes before removing and allowing to cool completely on a wire rack.

*Make sure you’re using almond meal and not almond flour.

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  • Reply
    Annai
    October 7, 2020 at 2:37 pm

    Hi Davita! I hope your disconnect in 2014 was a good one!
    Im trying to avoid the store…can the almond meal be left out or subbed with something else?

    Cheers!

  • Reply
    Albertina Geller
    June 19, 2020 at 9:39 am

    That muffins look really great and yummy! Thank you for sharing the recipe

  • Reply
    Eva @ Cooking Goals
    June 12, 2020 at 11:14 am

    Delicious!! will have to try it out

  • Reply
    Jael
    June 12, 2020 at 1:54 am

    Hi,
    I am going to be making this recipe but I do not want to use Almond meal. Can I use Coconut flour in place of the Almond meal?

    Thanks 🙂

    • Reply
      Davida Lederle
      June 12, 2020 at 12:12 pm

      Hi Jael – unfortunately no! Coconut flour is super absorbent so you’d need to add a lot of other liquids (the ratios of which I wouldn’t know without testing!) to make sure they turn out.

      • Reply
        Jael
        June 23, 2020 at 8:04 pm

        Ok, thanks
        I am going to try a few different things…. I will let you know if it works out 🙂

  • Reply
    Anne
    February 8, 2016 at 5:53 am

    Tried the Muffins last week, but instead of Zucchini (As I didn’t had them) I used cooked beetroot! And they are sooooooo goood! To die for!

    • Reply
      Davida Kugelmass
      February 9, 2016 at 7:24 am

      What a great substitution! I definitely have to try that!

  • Reply
    shelaine
    May 25, 2015 at 2:13 pm

    I tried this muffin recipe last night but had to substitute the almond flour with whole wheat flour and the banana with 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce. But my batter was SO thick… the dry ingredients took forever to mix into the wet mixture so I think I ended up over-mixing. I had to add extra almond milk just so I could get everything stirred together! So in the end my muffins ended up tasting good but they were quite dense. Is there anything I could have done to make this better? Should I have added more milk into the wet mixture to begin with? Or more applesauce? (I was hoping these would be moist and fluffy like chocolate cake…)

    • Reply
      Davida Kugelmass
      May 26, 2015 at 5:41 am

      Hi Shelaine. Unfortunately whole wheat flour cannot be substituted for almond flour. They have very different consistencies and change the batter immensely if substituted for the other. I’m gluten-free so I don’t use whole wheat flour and wouldn’t know the appropriate measurements for using it in place of almond flour unfortunately. Wish I could be more helpful! But if you do find almond flour I’d highly recommend making the original version since they’re delicious!

  • Reply
    Lilli @ sugar and cinnamon
    August 24, 2014 at 3:58 am

    These look so good! I’ve never tried zucchini in cake before but i’m sure with all that chocolate it would be awesome!

  • Reply
    Nora (A Clean Bake)
    August 21, 2014 at 11:14 pm

    I hate to think how exhausted you were the next day but I am so glad you posted these because they look wonderful! I have been eating a lot more grain-free/almond flour based treats lately, due to some health issues so I am thrilled to have a new recipe to add to my repertoire! The photos look awesome by the way!

  • Reply
    Dixya @ Food, Pleasure, and Health
    August 19, 2014 at 1:08 pm

    i hope you are having a wonderful time…i should really be not here reading this but oh well….

  • Reply
    Brittany
    August 17, 2014 at 12:05 am

    I should be making these muffins instead of reading blogs, BUT it’s 9PM and I should actually be asleep. These look legit, and I have a zucchini the size of Texas in my fridge. Consider these baked.

  • Reply
    Karey @ Nutty About Health
    August 16, 2014 at 10:02 pm

    These look great!! I love grain-free recipes, plus zucchini… that’s a definite win right now since it’s everywhere now!
    Hope you have a great week!! 🙂

  • Reply
    Chelsea @ Chelsea's Healthy Kitchen
    August 16, 2014 at 8:30 am

    I should be applying for jobs… at least that’s how I feel all the time now. But realistically I can’t spend all my time applying to jobs so I gotta let myself just enjoy this time in my life I guess.

    Have an awesome trip! 🙂

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