These soft and fudgy chocolate zucchini muffins are loaded up with a double dose of chocolate and get their incredible texture from shredded zucchini!
We’ve got the trio of absolute champs today in muffin land! Turns out a double dose of chocolate + zucchini makes for one stellar batch of muffins.
Hard to go wrong in the chocolate department but zucchini also more than holds its own here and makes these muffins everything they are.
This may be dramatic but you probably won’t want to eat any other muffin again after your first batch of these beauts.
If you’re new to baking with zucchini and slightly freaked about the green stuff, no worries! You can’t taste the zucchini flavor whatsoever in these muffins and all it’s doing is giving these muffins an incredible moist texture.
These Chocolate Zucchini Muffins feature…
- Double the amount of chocolate from cocoa powder and semisweet chocolate chips
- A perfectly soft, moist, and fudgy texture
- Minutes to make with freezing options as well
Making the Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
(scroll down to the bottom of the post for the full recipe)
Ingredients You Will Need
- Granulated sugar
- Vegetable oil
- Eggs
- Greek yogurt
- 2% or skim milk
- Vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour
- Cocoa powder
- Baking powder
- Salt
- Zucchini
- Chocolate chips
How To Prepare Zucchini
Use the large holes on a box grater to grate zucchini until you have about 1-1/2 cups. No need to peel the zucchini or blot it dry before adding to the batter, you want this extra moisture in your muffins!
Tips for Perfect Muffins
- Measure flour correctly – we use the spoon-and-level technique for measuring flour as this will prevent over-measuring your flour. Use a spoon to scoop flour into the measuring cup, then level with the back of a knife.
- Gently fold batter – use a light hand when mixing batter and gently fold so as not to overmix.
- Fill muffin cups to brim with batter – this will make for tall bakery-style muffins.
- Test muffins with toothpick – your muffins are done when a toothpick comes out clean from the center (be careful not to put the toothpick through a gooey chocolate chip)
Recipe Variations
Try these ideas for a different twist on these muffins!
- Try a different chocolate – instead of semisweet, try milk, dark, or white chocolate.
- Add nuts – fold 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans into batter.
- Top muffins with streusel – use your favorite streusel topping for an extra oomph to these muffins.
Storing and Freezing Muffins
These muffins may be stored at room temperature in an airtight container up to 3 days. For best results, we recommend reheating muffins in the microwave 10-20 seconds so the chocolate gets gooey.
To freeze muffins, allow them to cool completely then place in a single layer in a freezer-safe container. Freeze muffins up to 2 months and reheat before serving.
There’s truly no words to describe how incredible these muffins are, y’all. The texture is outta-this-world moist and fudgy and there’s no way anyone would guess there’s zucchini hiding inside.
Go get your zucchini on the right way!
Save this recipe using the ‘save to recipe box’ button below. If you make it, please let us know! Leave a comment + star rating below, or take a photo and tag it on Instagram with #wholeandheavenlyoven.
Watch these muffins made step-by-step on Google web stories.
More recipes where you get to bake with zucchini!
Double Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
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Ingredients
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1/4 cup Greek yogurt
- 1/2 cup 2% or skim milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
- 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
- 1-1/2 cups shredded zucchini
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with wrappers and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk sugar, vegetable oil, eggs, yogurt, milk, and vanilla until smooth. In a separate bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.
- Fold flour mixture into liquid mixture until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips and zucchini.
- Fill muffin cups to brim with batter. Bake muffins at 350F 20-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
- Cool muffins completely in pan on a wire cooling rack before serving. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
This post was updated with new recipe adjustments and photos on 8/4/23.
Cat W. says
I was looking for a way to use up some zucchini, found this on Pinterest and just made them tonight. Pretty good, but without the chocolate chips in them, they’d be just meh. (The muffin part just didn’t seem to have much flavor to me.) I think these might work better as mini muffins, since they were HUGE (awesome tip on baking high temp for 5 minutes, then reducing!). Any idea what the bake time for minis would be? If I try them again, that’s the route I’ll go.
Sarah says
If you were going to bake these muffins as minis, they would take probably 10-12 minutes at 375F. (and I’d bake them at the high temp for about 3 min beforehand.) Hope this helps! 🙂
LuAnn says
This is the first year I have had an abundance of zucchini. I’ve tested a few chocolate recipes, and this one if GREAT! I made 4 batches this weekend.
Sarah says
I’m thrilled to hear that you love these muffins, LuAnn! Awesome that you made so many batches! 🙂
Dorothy says
Just made these and promptly ate 3 for lunch! They’re yummy and I can’t believe I haven’t ever eaten or made chocolate zucchini muffins before – love the combo. One note, I had enough batter for 12 muffins plus a mini loaf pan, just cooked the bread a little longer?
Sarah says
Yay! So happy to hear that you made these muffins and loved ’em, Dorothy! Thanks for letting me know! 🙂
Estefany says
Hey i would love to do these can i use regular purpose flour?
Sarah says
I have not tested this recipe with all-purpose flour, so I am unsure of the exact measure you would use, however you can certainly try subbing it in! Just make sure that the batter is fairly thick.
Kim says
These are amazing!!! Made them today with all-purpose flour and they were a big hit in my house 🙂 Will definitely be making again.
Sarah says
Happy to hear that Kim! Thanks for letting me know. 🙂
Natalia says
Hi I was wondering if these freeze well, would love to send one to kinder for my son.
Sarah says
Hi Natalia! Yes, these muffins freeze great!
Cindy says
I clicked on this recipe because it said “gluten free”. No flour listed in the ingredients. Then when I clicked on “make it”, I see whole wheat flour! Sorry, not gluten free! Is an all purpose gluten free blend ok, and if so, is the quantity the same as whole wheat? Thsnks!
Sarah says
I apologize, Cindy. That must have been a typo on Pinterest’s end. So sorry! Gluten-free flour blend should be an ok sub for wheat flour!
Kateri says
These are so good!! I made a half batch this morning and this recipe will be going into the favorites book.
Sarah says
Glad to hear it Kateri!! Enjoy. 🙂
Heidi says
Do you peel the zucchini skin?
Sarah says
Nope! There’s no need to peel the zucchini skin. 🙂
Heidi says
I just made these and they were absolutely delicious!! My kids loved them! (They had no clue the zucchini was in there)! Great recipe, thanks so much!!!
Sarah says
So glad to hear that, Heidi! I’m happy your kids loved them too. Thanks for letting me know!
Elizabeth Batista says
Hi! My name is Liz Batista, and I’m writing from Santa Catarina, Brazil. I made the zucchini chocolate muffins today. Your recipe mentions on step 2 that the batter will be very thick… well, my batter was very runny instead. I’m sure I used the correct ammounts of each ingredient. I used 1 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup of all purpose flour. That was the only difference. Well, when I put the muffins in the oven, the batter overflowed big time, messing up the oven floor quite a bit, but I persevered until they were baked. My family absolutely loved them. I’m just wondering if I should make some chemical changes to the recipe to avoid the overflow and thicken the batter a bit, like maybe add an extra 1/2 cup of all purpose flour and decrease the ammount of baking powder to 3 tsp. What do you think? I’d appreciate your input, since you’re the creator of these babies… Xoxoxoxo from Southern Brazil.
Gem says
These were absolutely delicious and came out as exactly as the picture on the recipe! Thank you
Kay says
These were yummy!! My kids enjoyed them- not sweet, but the perfect amount of chocolate!!! Definitely a keeper. I was skeptical with the whole wheat flour but it was subtle once baked.
Miriam Bois says
I just made this recipe and they are delicious!!! Not too sweet. I do recommend to not scip the chocolate chips as they add the perfect balance of chocolate and sweetness. I would think that without them the muffins would be quite dull. I followed the recipe to a “T” and this gave me 2 dozens instead of dozen like the recipe says and the bake time was exactly the same. ?
All in all this recipe is a keeper!
Beverly says
Made these this a.m. and this recipe is a keeper. I made a couple of changes though, due to the fact I had to use frozen shredded zucchini. They were well drained, squeezed, etc and I had about 1.5 cups so due to that, I cut back on the milk by a 1/4 cup. I used I cup white flour & 1 cup whole wheat and added 1/2 cup sugar instead of 3/4 (I am not into really sweet muffins so decided to reduce it). I greased the hell out of my muffin tins but the muffins still stuck. I think it’s due to the fact I used skim milk AND the oil content is low. The muffins however are super moist and perfect. I have to admit – next time (and there will be a next time!) I will add the amount of sugar called for as I think it does need that much. Also, maybe using liners instead of greasing the pan might be a better idea. I ended up with 12 good sized muffins. Hubby will love them!
Lorraine says
I left out the chocolate chips because I didn’t have them and I used the Truvia plus brown sugar product. Other than that I followed your recipe. They are excellent!
Sarah says
Thanks for sharing, Lorraine! So glad you loved these muffins. 🙂