You'll love making easy zucchini muffins often when you find a recipe as unfussy as this one. I'll admit there isn't a long list of things that are better about getting old, but many years in the kitchen teach you some nifty time-saving tricks.
If that trick means fewer dishes to wash, it is definitely good. When a recipe begins with "in one bowl" and goes on to say "in another bowl," I start looking for shortcuts.
Whisking the dry ingredients together ensures that the leavening and spices are thoroughly blended into the batter. However, you can eliminate this step by combining ingredients differently, especially for simple muffins and quickbreads.
Zucchini contributes to the wonderful texture and yummy moistness of these delicious muffins without adding its own flavor.
Choose nice, firm, unblemished zucchini for your muffins. Young zucchini have small seed pockets so that you can shred and use the whole thing. If you use larger, more mature zucchini, discard the seed packet.
Don't peel them if you want the most nutrition. The gorgeous green flecks are part of the charm of these yummy muffins.
A food processor with a grater blade makes grating zucchini a snap, but I have used a good old box grater for many years and have the scarred knuckles to prove it.
As you begin, preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Put the wet ingredients—eggs, milk, vanilla, and oil—into a mixing bowl and whisk them together thoroughly. (Picture taken before the second egg, oops!)
Next, thoroughly whisk in the baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. This will ensure they're all well distributed without an extra bowl to wash.
Add the granulated and brown sugar and whisk them in until the ingredients blend well.
Add the flour and stir it in gently, just until no streaks of flour are visible. Overmixing can make the muffins tough. Who wants a tough muffin?
Finally, gently fold in the shredded zucchini until it's evenly distributed.
Fancy but easy bakery tricks, that is! This batter is just enough to make exactly twelve beautiful muffins.
I suggest you use cupcake liners to keep things neat. They also help keep the muffins moist if you don't eat them all in one sitting!
The easiest and tidiest way to fill the muffin cups is to use an ice cream scoop.
Mine is a #12. It holds two and two-thirds ounces, which is a scant one-third cup. Ice cream scoops have a unique numbering system! Ice cream scoops are sometimes called ice cream dishers!
Bakery trick #1: Once your muffin cups are full, a light sprinkle of coarse sanding sugar can add a nice sparkle and crunch to the tops of the muffins.
Look at that yummy, sweet, crunchy dome!
Bakery trick number two! Pop the muffins into your preheated 425-degree oven and bake them at that temperature for five minutes.
Then, leave the muffins in the oven and turn the oven down to 350 degrees. Continue baking them for another fifteen to seventeen minutes or until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Why do this? The high temperature at the start of the bake time makes the top of the muffins lift quickly for a beautifully lofty peak; then, when you turn down the heat, the inside bakes through.
Let the muffins cool in the tin for a few minutes, then remove them and let them finish cooling on a rack. You can also eat them while they're still warm, letting the butter melt into every crevice!
These easy zucchini muffins taste delicious and you can make them in just one bowl!
Right now, zucchini is plentiful. In fact, zucchini is so abundant that gardeners run out of ideas on how to use it, share it, freeze it, or store it! There's an old summertime joke in Nebraska about zucchini, "Keep your cars locked and your windows rolled up, or you will find zucchini in your back seat!"
Here are a couple of zucchini recipes I'm sure you will enjoy: Zucchini Brownies and the Easiest Zucchini Bread. Watch for more! Remember, though, that you are not limited to summer to enjoy these recipes because excellent zucchini is readily available in any good produce department all year long!
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Love, GB (Betty Streff)
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