Zucchini Muffins

Lesson of the Day: people like brownies. The brownie post from yesterday got me five times the number of hits I usually get on this site in a single day. Thanks, guys!

But, surprisingly enough, a few people also noticed the zucchini muffins tucked away under the brownies and were curious. So here's the recipe, adapted from Mark Bittman's "Basic Muffin" recipe on page 249 of How to Cook Everything.

Original Recipe

• 3 Tbs. melted butter of canola/other neutral oil, plus more for greasing pan
• 2 cups (9 oz.) all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup sugar, or to taste
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3 tsp. baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk

One change: I used whole wheat pastry flour instead of all-purpose. For most cakey things, I use WWP instead of all-purpose. WWP is ground more finely than your average whole wheat, so it's a great substitute and a nice way to sneak whole grains into desserts. You can sub out half of the flour for WWP or regular whole wheat as well.

My addition was a cup of shredded zucchini. Shred what looks like about three cups, then squeeze very well to get the water out. You should end up with one cup tightly packed, relatively dry zucchini.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease your muffin tin (or line with paper cups).

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Beat together eggs, milk, and butter. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients in along with the zucchini. Using a wooden spoon, stir together quickly, using a cut-and-fold-over method rather than a stirring rapidly in circles. The batter will be lumpy and thick but moist (like pancake batter). You can add a touch more milk if you think it's necessary, but remember moisture will come out of the zucchini.

Spoon the batter into the tins, filling two-thirds for normal muffins and almost to the top for big muffins. If you have empty cups fill them one-fourth full with water.

Bake 20-30 minutes until the tops are brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Because of the added moisture from the zucchini, the baking time tends toward the 30 minute mark. Let rest for five minutes, then remove to a rack for cooling.

Note: these muffins are NOT your average bakery muffins. They aren't very sweet, which is actually why I like them. There's a hint of sweetness, but they're savory enough for me to enjoy as breakfast. And if you want to make them a treat, just add some sweetened butter or jam to them. The whole wheat in my version means even a small muffin really sticks to your bones, all the while giving you a healthy dose of vegetables.