Don’t let the word zucchini scare you away from making this recipe. Chocolate zucchini muffins are moist and chocolatey and an absolutely delicious way to get in some vitamins and minerals. Who wouldn’t want to eat chocolate to get in some micronutrients?! The zucchini doesn’t just add extra nutrients, it keeps the muffins moist and soft. With the chocolate covering all the flavor, you won’t even know it’s a “veggie” muffin.
Zucchini is a great veggie to bake with because it adds moisture to the baked item without messing with the flavor. Zucchini is a bland vegetable, so it can take on other flavors – chocolate in this instance. The veggie is an excellent source of vitamin C and vitamin B6. So bake a bunch of these and stock them in the freeze to snack on the first few weeks that school starts. The vitamin C will help fight off flu season. We could all use an immune boost – why not have it in a chocolate muffin form? 
Three reasons why you need to make this recipe!
These are perfect for kids’ snacks.
Just don’t tell them what’s in it! They’ll love these healthy chocolate zucchini muffins, and you’ll feel good about getting some veggies into the kids finally.
They’re great for breakfast, snacks, or dessert.
Muffins make a great breakfast or snack on the go. No need to heat it up or carry a fork or spoon. And the chocolate flavor makes it work for a healthy dessert as well.
They’re much healthier than traditional chocolate bakery muffins.
If you get a chocolate muffin at a bakery or coffee shop like Starbucks, you’re going to be ingesting tons of sugar. A Starbucks chocolate chunk muffin has 39 grams of sugar!! These chocolate zucchini muffins have under 10 grams of sugar per muffin. You’re not going to get a crazy sugar crash after eating one of these. Instead, you’ll be energized!
Ingredients you need to make Chocolate Zucchini Muffins:
- 1 3/4 cups diced zucchini
- 1 medium mashed banana
- 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 Tbsp honey
- 2 Tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 cups flour
- 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips
How to make Chocolate Zucchini Muffins (step by step):
- Preheat the oven to 375F and spray a 12 hole regular size muffin tin with nonstick spray.
- In a bowl, whisk the eggs and add in the brown sugar. Whisk in the mashed banana, applesauce, honey and vanilla.
- Then mix in the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and baking powder. Fold in the diced zucchini and chocolate chips.
- Pour the batter into the 12 cups and bake for 22 minutes or until the muffins are golden brown.
- Let them cool completely before removing them from the muffin tin by running a butter knife around the edges. Enjoy!
Makes 12 muffins. Nutrition info for 1 muffin: Calories 142, Fat 3 g, Saturated fat 1.7 g, Carbs 27 g, Fiber 2 g, Sugars 9 g, Sodium 155 mg, Protein 3 g.
WW Points
- Diced zucchini 0 points
- Medium mashed banana 0 points
- Unsweetened applesauce 0 points
- Honey 5 points
- Brown sugar 5 points
- Vanilla 0 points
- Eggs 0 points
- Cinnamon 0 points
- Baking powder 0 points
- Baking soda 0 points
- All purpose flour 26 points
- Mini chocolate chips 17 points
4 points per muffin based on the WW app recipe creator.
If you’re using an older version of WW, check out these points below.
Personal Points- 4-5 depending on your 0PP foods
Freestyle SP- (blue & purple) 4 using WW recipe builder
Smart Points- (green) 5 using SP calculator
Points Plus- 3 using PP calculator
Different ways to change up this recipe:
- You can use Kodiak buttermilk pancake mix instead of the all purpose flour, baking soda, and baking powder for a quicker version.
- Use Lily’s no sugar added baking chips – there are a lot of flavors to choose from. And it’ll lower the sugar content.
- If you don’t have applesauce you can use extra banana, non-fat Greek yogurt, or pumpkin puree. Same for the banana – if you don’t have that you can use pumpkin puree.
- The honey adds a good flavor, but you could use sugar free maple syrup if you wanted to lower the sugar content or add an extra tablespoon of brown sugar if you don’t have honey.
- To make them gluten free, use a gluten free flour blend like Bob’s Red Mill instead of the all purpose flour. Add an extra ½ tsp of baking powder to help it rise.
- Add 1-2 scoops of vanilla protein powder and take out ¼ cup of the all purpose flour for a protein boost.
Tips and Tricks for Making Chocolate Zucchini Muffins:
- You can choose to leave the chocolate chips out to save on points, but a few extra points are worth the chocolatey flavor.
- These muffins will freeze well and are best stored in the fridge after a day or two. Make sure to keep them in an airtight container or ziplock bag.
- If you’re worried that you won’t like the zucchini diced, I suggest grating it onto some paper towels before starting to make the muffins. Let the paper towels soak up water from the zucchini while you assemble the batter, then add the grated zucchini when you add the dry ingredients. You can give the grated zucchini a good squeeze with the paper towels to remove excess moisture. However, if you dice the zucchini small enough, it’s very similar to grated zucchini.
- You can make this into a Chocolate Zucchini Loaf by putting the batter into a nonstick loaf pan and baking it for about 45-50 minutes.
Similar recipes you’ll enjoy:
Chocolate zucchini muffins
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups diced zucchini
- 1 medium mashed banana
- 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 Tbsp honey
- 2 Tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 cups flour
- 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375F and spray a 12 hole regular size muffin tin with nonstick spray.
- In a bowl, whisk the eggs and add in the brown sugar. Whisk in the mashed banana, applesauce, honey and vanilla.
- Then mix in the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and baking powder. Fold in the diced zucchini and chocolate chips.
- Pour the batter into the 12 cups and bake for 22 minutes or until the muffins are golden brown.
- Let them cool completely before removing them from the muffin tin by running a butter knife around the edges. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Are these regular size muffins or mini muffins? They look delicious!
Hi Linda, they are regular size 🙂
Thanks so much for a great recipe. My husband likes these as much as I do. I keep extras in the fridge in a container and I think they get even better the next day. Thanks again
That is so great to hear! So glad you both enjoyed 🙂
I baked these today, so delicious. Thank you for the recipe
You are very welcome, so glad you enjoyed them 🙂
My hubby is allergic to bananas. Can I substitute something else please? Thank you for your delicious recipes.
Hi, you can try applesauce or pumpkin maybe?
I am wondering if altitude has anything to do with the baking. The mix was rather thick as another poster said. They tasted fine. But I think next time I will grate or process the zucchini. The diced pieces were somewhat raw. I added another cup of applesauce to thin the mixture. Thanks for all you do! Amazing recipes and ideas.
Hi Jennifer, it might.. It’s so hard for me to access issues when I am not there in the kitchen with the person baking them.. I did dice my zucchini really small as you can see in the picture.. Thank you for your kind words, glad you are enjoying the recipes 🙂
Making them again, today! 🙂
Awesome, happy baking 🙂
Do you need to remove the water at all from the zucchini??
Hi Tanja, no I did not remove the water from the zucchini
Hi
Wondering if a gluten free flour would work for these muffins or any of your muffin recipes?
Hi Linda, all I can suggest is to try, I personally have never baked with GF flour
They are in the oven now and smell so good! Did a couple substitutions. I used whole wheat flour instead of white, used 2 tbsp of Splenda brown sugar in place of the honey & brown sugar and used regular chocolate chips (didn’t have any mini). Was worried about how thick the batter was, but looks like they’re doing well. My recipe builder on the WW app has them at 3 on blue with my substitutions. Thanks for the recipe!
Thanks for sharing 🙂 I hope you enjoyed them!