Name: Pumpkin Zucchini Muffins
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 40 min
Ingredients: 1 egg; 1 cup white granulated sugar; ¾ cup pure maple sugar; 2 cups all-purpose flour; ½ tsp salt; 2 tsp baking soda; ½ tsp cinnamon; ½ tsp cloves; ½ tsp nutmeg; 15 oz. can pumpkin puree or roughly 2 cups (NOT pumpkin pie filling); ½ cup applesauce (you may use oil such as canola, olive or avocado oil); 2 cups zucchini, shredded; 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips optional; Turbinado sugar to sprinkle on top (optional); semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional); ½ cup all-purpose flour (for cinnamon pecan streusel topping); ¼ cup brown sugar, packed (for cinnamon pecan streusel topping); ½ cup pecans, finely chopped (for cinnamon pecan streusel topping); ½ tsp cinnamon (for cinnamon pecan streusel topping); 3 TBSP melted butter (for cinnamon pecan streusel topping)

We obviously love pumpkin this time of year, but zucchini is also still in season, as it is in the squash family. I was just given a big bag of huge zucchini from a friend’s garden! Another friend recently told me that she made some pumpkin zucchini muffins. That sounded so good! I’ve adapted my mother in law’s pumpkin bread recipe to make these muffins that DO NOT disappoint! I even had enough to take some to my neighbors.

: Pumpkin, egg, sugar, syrup and applesauce

I’ve made some changes to make them “healthier” so we can feel less guilt when enjoying them for breakfast or putting them in my kid’s lunchboxes. Start by mixing the pureed pumpkin. (Canned pumpkin that is not pie filling.) Add in the egg, sugar pure maple syrup and applesauce.

You could do 2 cups of sugar and leave the syrup out. We opted to cut the sugar in half and add the 3/4 cup of pure maple syrup as a healthier substitute for the 2nd cup of sugar.

You COULD leave ALL of the sugar out and do 1 1/2 cups of Pure Maple Syrup instead.

We have decided to use unsweetened applesauce instead of oil, which worked great! The added flavor was perfect and the texture came out great!

Add in the flour, baking soda and salt. I next measured out the spices and added them into the batter. We love this blend of spices, which is another thing we changed and adjusted from the original bread recipe. The spices with the syrup was perfection!

I cut off the long end of one my friend’s huge zucchinis. It had a smooshy center with lots of huge seeds, so I scooped it out. You can use the large side of a box grater or a food processor to shred up the zucchini.

If the zucchini seems very wet, then press between sheets of paper towels to absorb some moisture before adding. Smaller zucchini seem to have more moisture are more wet when shredded. Fold the shredded zucchini into the batter. If you are adding chocolate chips use semi-sweet and fold them in with the zucchini.

This recipe perfectly fills 24 muffin cups. I chose to not use any paper liners. You may use muffin/cupcake papers or cut up parchment paper. Click HERE for instructions! We LOVE the parchment paper look! For today I wanted simple so I lightly sprayed all of the cups with olive oil before filing.

I bought these muffin tins about 20ish years ago at a secondhand shop, probably Goodwill! If you do not have muffin tins then look at a place like Goodwill first! If you can’t find any then we recommend these tins HERE.

TOPPINGS –

You can leave the tops plain, which is perfectly fine. Still delicious. This gives a healthy breakfast on the go vibe.
Top with a sprinkle of semi-sweet chocolate chips which is REALLY yummy!
Top with a sprinkle of Turbinado sugar, which is hard rock crystal sugar. When it bakes on top of the muffins it leaves a light crust over the top, kind of like a creme brulee look. It looks pretty and adds yummy texture.
Top with a cinnamon pecan streusel. THIS option is MY FAVORITE! Oh, it is SO good!

For streusel top, mix together the flour, sugar and cinnamon.

Finely chop the pecans. There is a fine line here. We do not want the pecans to be dust, but the pieces should not be too big either. We need small pieces that will work well on top of the muffins. Just bit enough to add a nice crunch.

Add the melted butter in to the streusel mixture. Use a fork to blend it well together. The final product with be quite dry still and like sand.

Sprinkle the streusel over the top of the muffins. Leftover mixture can be tossed or saved in a Ziploc bag for later.

If you choose the chocolate chip option – I recommend using semi-sweet. Sprinkle about 10ish chips over the top of each muffin.

Here is a phot of the Turbinado Cane sugar that I used. The Private selection brand can be found at your local Kroger. I also bought a large bag of Turbinado sugar at Sam’s Club recently. It is more available around the holidays.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. After they have cooled for about 5ish minutes then use a table knife around the edges if there is sticking. Tip the muffins in the tins so they can cool without the bottoms turning too soft. Even if you have used paper liners, do this step! After they have cooled for about an hour they can be removed to a cooling rack.

If you love this recipe, then check out these others that are similar!

ENJOY!

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