These healthy Double Chocolate Zucchini Muffins are made without any butter or oil, but so soft and tender that you’d never be able to tell! Greek yogurt and shredded zucchini keep them moist, while a double dose of chocolate makes them taste super decadent. A healthy and delicious way to satisfy those chocolate cravings!
Those days where you get hit with a sudden urge to whip up a batch of healthy double chocolate zucchini muffins at 10pm only to realize that you only have about 2 tablespoons of flour left to your name…
No? Never happened to you? Lucky ducky. Picture this…
It’s about 9:45 on a Tuesday night. I’m hanging out in my pjs (complete with fuzzy slippers), but I can’t sleep thanks to this strange new thing my body is trying out.
It wants to be both an early bird and a night owl, which means I’m super productive in the early morning and late at night, but basically useless from 1-5pm. At least creatively. I’m pretty sure my brain falls asleep and I go into autopilot.
Anyways, it’s 9:45pm and I’m just putzing around until I get hit with the bright idea to do some baking. So I:
- check “The Big List of Blog Recipe Ideas;”
- see “chocolate zucchini muffins” scrawled in there;
- think “zucchini would be perfect for spring!” (which officially starts tomorrow);
- remember that I conveniently happen to have zucchini in my fridge;
- go about gathering up the remaining ingredients;
- come to “The Big Bucket of Flour” and realize that… womp womp… it’s basically empty.
Now, if you know me, you know I’m not a die-hard zucchini fan.
I’ve learned to tolerate it when it’s paired with masked by chocolate, but it’s not something I normally (read: ever) have on hand… so the fact that I had zucchini but NO FLOUR made me feel like I was in the twilight zone.
It also meant that I couldn’t make any muffins, so I scrapped the idea, kicked off the fuzzy slippers, and stayed up until around 12:30am goofing around learning the ins and outs of Lightroom… only to wake up bright and early the next morning so that I could run to the store and [finally] make (and EAT) these…
Like all my other Greek yogurt muffins, these ones are made without any butter or oil, but stay super soft and moist thanks to the killer combination of yogurt, applesauce, and zucchini.
They’re naturally sweetened with maple syrup and coconut sugar, and you can make them even healthier by subbing out the chocolate chips for some dark chocolate chunks.
If you’re worried about tasting the zucchini, don’t. You’re looking at a girl who’s got the squishy squash on her veggie hit list (right up there with eggplant), and I can promise you that you won’t even know it’s in there. All you’ll taste is a deliciously decadent chocolate muffin that’s
I’d love to know if you make this recipe! Leave a comment and rating down below to let me know what you think, and subscribe to our mailing list to receive new recipes in your inbox!
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Healthy Double Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
- Total Time: 27 mins
- Yield: 12 muffins 1x
Ingredients
- 1 cup (120 g) whole wheat pastry flour*
- 1/2 cup (40 g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup (115 g) plain Greek yogurt
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) maple syrup**
- 1/4 cup (50 g) coconut palm sugar
- 1/3 cup (80 ml) unsweetened applesauce
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup (110 g) grated zucchini
- 1/2 cup (80 g) semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350F (176C) and prepare a muffin pan by lining the cavities with paper liners or greasing them with cooking spray or oil. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and chocolate chips. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, beat the eggs until they become slightly frothy before whisking in the yogurt, maple syrup, sugar, applesauce, and vanilla. Mix until well combined before folding in the grated zucchini.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, mixing gently until just combined. Be careful not to overmix.
- Divide the batter evenly among the 12 muffin cups, filling until they’re about 3/4 of the way full. Top with additional chocolate chips, if desired.
- Bake for 17-19 minutes, or until the tops of the muffins are firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow the muffins to cool in the pan for ~10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.
Notes
* You could also make this with all purpose flour or use a mix of 1/2 cup (60 g) whole wheat and 1/2 cup (60 g) all purpose. ** You can sub this with regular brown sugar. *** I like to place a handful of shredded zucchini between two paper towels and lightly squeeze it over the sink to get some of the liquid out. You don’t want to get it all out, but you don’t want it to be wet and soggy either.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 17 mins
Looking for more healthy Greek yogurt muffin recipes? Try one of these!
Blueberry Oat Greek Yogurt Muffins
Banana Oat Greek Yogurt Muffins
Carrot Oatmeal Greek Yogurt Muffins
Greek Yogurt Muffins
Apple Oat Greek Yogurt Muffins
The muffins were quite bitter, and I followed the directions exactly. Is there any way to fix this?
You could add more sugar, Sam. Another 1/4 cup (so 1/2 cup total) should do the trick.
Look great! If I wanted to make these for a babies 1st birthday could I cut out the coconut sugar too or would it not be sweet enough? Add some banana for natural sweetener?
Thanks for the recipe. I subbed 1/3 cup coconut flour for the reg flour. To cut the carbs down. Turned out pretty good. Very moist reminiscent of molten lava cake.
Can I replace the whole wheat pastry flour with gluten free flour?
Thank you in advance.
That should be fine, Amber, as long as it’s an all-purpose blend!
I”m curious how the gluten-free version came out….
Thanks so much for sharing this recipe! Just made them this morning and they were delicious!!
I’m so glad you liked them, Andee! Thanks for taking the time to let me know 🙂
These are delicious! I used honey instead of Maple syrup and milk Chocolate chips. Like cake.
I am making my second double batch of these in a week. My family loves them. I made a lot of mini muffins and they are like a healthy version of the one-bite brownies. Thanks for a great recipe!
I love the idea of mini brownie bites! I’m glad your family likes them, Laura 🙂
These look delicious and I have a ton of huge zucchinis in the garden. I am planning to make these and wanted some input on substitutions based on ingredients I already have, for convenience. Can I substitute blue agave for the maple syrup and brown sugar for the coconut palm? If so, do you know if they are 1:1? Lastly, I only have whole wheat flour but I believe it would yield a denser muffin. I intend to substitute the WW pastry flour with plain WW flour and I assume either a portion of cake flour or all purpose or the addition of cornstarch. Do you have any suggestions on the ratios for this? Thanks!
Did you end up trying this with brown sugar? I’d like to know if it worked or not.
Thanks!
Brown sugar would be fine to use, Lauren.
Blue agave and brown sugar would be fine to substitute, Erin. And the ratio would be 1:1. And if you wanted to use whole wheat flour, I recommend subbing out 1/2 cup of whole wheat and 1/2 cup of AP.
Thanks for your reply Amanda. I made these tonight with the above modifications and they were delicious. They were moist and had a deep chocolate flavor. I used a nutritional calculator and was impressed as the healthiness since they tasted so good! I’ll be making these again.
I’m so glad that you liked them, Erin! They’re definitely a bad snack staple to have 🙂
I know it’s not as healthy but can I use regular sugar instead of the coconut sugar
Yup! That should be fine, Jessica.
Hey there! I went to make these today and realized I can’t find our muffin tins (so strange)!! Do you know if this recipe would work just in 1 or 2 loaf pans as zucchini bread instead? Thanks 🙂
Hi Katherine! It should work fine in one loaf pan. I would probably bake it until 40 or 45 minutes and start keeping an eye on it then.
I feel like these have a bitter taste to them. Is there something else I can add to curb that?
I love how the addition of zucchini makes baked goods moist. And you can never go wrong with chocolate!
Have you ever subbed coconut flour for the whole wheat flour?
I haven’t tried it, Paige, but I don’t think it’d work with this recipe without making other major adjustments. Coconut flour is a lot more absorbent than wheat flour, so you’d need to change up the ratios of liquids too.
I made these tonight! I was out of coconut palm sugar so i used sucenat sugar instead, and did everything just like you did by weight. Oh and i used dark chocolate cocoa so my muffins are black. They are so fluffy, like an oily cupcake recipe. Great flavor! Sweet and chocolatey! Another fab muffin recipe! Thanks Ms Spoons!
Oh me oh my – these are just so dang MOIST! My salivary glands went on auto-pilot and made me spill drool all over – I must admit, am scared to make these cos I think I just might eat them all – in one sitting – even if it’s 10pm! 🙂
Please excuse me while I go DIE right now from the sheer NEED to have these. Seriously I have been CRAVING a zucchini chocolate muffin for ages now and these are absolutely perfect! You’re a genius, and I love you 🙂
These pictures Amanda…I AM DYING OVER HERE.
I am def a morning person in general – I tend to just flake out in the evenings and think I am being productive but often just make a mess …
These look so moist and delicious!! I love that they’re healthy, too 🙂
What a delicious looking muffin! And bonus that you incorporated zucchini 🙂
I need the productivity in the morning AND evening. Heck, I’ll take productivity any time 🙂 These look delicious, though I never expect anything less! Zucchini does have a lot of water when you shred it so I’m glad you made note to squeeze some of it out!
OH yeah. I learned that the hard way 😆 Nothing like making a batch of muffins and having it basically turn into a puddle 😯
You just need to make eggplant chips or ratatouille, both of which change the texture and flavor of eggplant for the better. But since this post is about zucchini, I think we should talk muffins, like how I want to make these (because I have oodles of frozen zucchini) and how I have every intention of whipping up a batch, but how it might not happen because pregnancy = zero energy and even less motivation. Oh well, I’m going to defrost the zucchini anyway in case I get a shred of motivation or am able to convince the Hubby to bake, although the latter might be stretching it.
I think I need someone to make those two things for me and tell me there’s no eggplant in them. I feel like my dislike of eggplant is totally a biased mental thing at this point 😆
Yum!!! These look so good! I can’t say I’ve recently been hit with the urge to bake/cook that late at night, though. 😉
😆 I probably wouldn’t be if it wasn’t for the blog. But I figure, since I’m up, might as well get some work knocked out.
I’m on such a chocolate fix so these look perfect!!
Big list of blog ideas success!!! Yes! And zucchini and chocolate and I’m… Totally coming over. Thanks for all the inspiration. Per usual
Between 1-5 PM you should nap! Prime time! I’m definitely an early bird 🙂
These look so decadently chocolatey!!! I can’t believe they’re healthy 😉
Anything with double chocolate…I’m in 😉
Finally another night owl in the blog world! Or at least a semi-night owl. I feel like the odd one out here many times with all the early birds. Granted, I secretly wish my creativity hit earlier because working typical office hours blogging interferes with my day job/sleep schedule.
These muffins look fantastic. I bet the maple syrup/Greek yogurt/zucchini combination works amazingly here.
I’m more productive in the morning, but sometimes I just don’t want to be… Like, I like the ideal “lazy morning” but if I have a lazy morning, it usually turns into a lazy day 😳 And I love zucchini in breads and muffins! These look delicious!
I totally know what you mean about the lazy morning turning into the lazy day. I try to give myself a set amount of time to do my own thing in the morning before I Get to work. Sometimes it works better than others though 😆
I’m totally more productive in the morning! Drooling over the chocolate in these pictures. Love the lighting too, absolutely perfect 🙂
Thanks Michele! The weather was actually cooperating with me. For once 😆
Well,don’t these just look gorgeous– and made with some of my very favorite things! LOVE.
OMG these look amazing. SO CHOCOLATY!!!! And I LOVE the pictures too. What do you use for editing and for your pinnable graphics?
Thanks Kaila! I’m actually still just using iPhoto for editing, and then I do the long pin in PicMonkey.
I’m productive in the early morning. I do all of my thinking before I run. Then I run and let it settle. After running I normally go to work.
My mom used to make the best chocolate zucchini bread. It’s one of my favorite recipes because it does get so dense. These look great Amanda!
I find that workouts always help me with productivity. Even in the afternoon when I feel like I might fall asleep where I sit 😆