Zucchini Muffins - Simply Made Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to moist muffins? ›

Make sure the butter is melted and slightly cooled and the eggs are at room temperature. You don't have the peel the zucchini before shredding. Also, don't squeeze out the liquid in the zucchini. If you do, you will end up with dry muffins.

If you've ever wondered if you should try and squeeze out some of the water from your shredded zucchini before adding it to batter or dough, the answer (happily) is no!

Overmixing the batter.

When you overmix the batter, it crushes the air bubbles and ruins the fluffy texture. → Follow this tip: To ensure a batch of light, fluffy muffins, mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients until just barely combined, and no more dry flour is visible.

The best bakery-style crumb muffins start with cake flour

Cake flour is more finely ground and has less protein, which leaves the muffins with a fine, light crumb and soft texture. Using cake flour is an easy way to avoid heavy, dense muffins even if you end up stirring just a bit too much.

You need 2 cups of grated zucchini for the recipe, so you will need about 3 small zucchini, 2 medium zucchini, or 1 large zucchini.

Salt causes zucchini rounds to release excess water. This important extra step helps the zucchini to sauté rather than stew in its own juices.

In fact, salting before cooking is actually Daniel Boulud's tip for prepping crispier eggplant, and zucchini is much the same. Science is on the side of salting in advance. When salt is sprinkled on the flesh of a water-dense fruit like zucchini and left to sit for a while, a process known as osmosis occurs.

The secret to zucchini with the best flavor and texture is roasting it in a 450°F oven. Roasting zucchini at a high temperature instead of baking or sautéing helps develop browning and a slight char on the outside, which keeps it from getting soggy.

Why didn't my zucchini muffins rise? ›

There are a couple of reasons why your zucchini muffins may not have risen. If you used old leavening agents you may have issues with rising, so be sure to use fresh ingredients. If you didn't squeeze the zucchini to remove the excess moisture, this can also cause the muffins not to rise.

The most common reason for zucchini breadand other quick breads (and cakes) to collapse as they cool is the ingredients are too vigorously or quickly mixed, which incorporates lots of less stable air bubbles into the batter.

There are multiple ways to shred zucchini, whether it's with a box grater, food processor or blender. While there is no wrong way to do it, I personally do not recommend the last two. Using a food processor or a blender might seem faster, but they actually require more cleanup in the long run.

Add greek yogurt to your muffin mix for extra moistness. Top with a vanilla glaze or sugar sprinkles. Or if you prefer, crush graham crackers on top for a crunchier texture. This muffin mix can also be used to make delicious berry pancakes.

If the muffins are dry, it is possible that they were baked for slightly too long. The oven temperature is slightly higher that you would normally use for cakes, as this helps to give the muffins nicely domed tops, a good crust and a moist interior. This means that the baking time is only 15-20 minutes.

The main cause of dry, hard muffins is over-mixing the batter and overcooking the muffins. So the the 3 simple secrets for beautifully soft and moist blueberry muffins are: use butter AND oil -butter makes things tasty but oil makes things moist. So use both!