St. Patrick’s Day is a pretty big deal here in Jackson. There’s a big parade, featuring a phenomenon called Sweet Potato Queens, which I won’t even try to explain, especially because being a newcomer I don’t really understand it myself. Suffice it to say that there are a lot of big-haired, gaudily-clad women with artificially enhanced chests parading through the streets. I mean bigger hair and more gaudy and enhanced than usual! Here’s a shot of a few ladies who weren’t even part of the parade:
Since we were planning on being at the parade during lunchtime, I knew I needed to get a hearty breakfast into my two girls (E. plus a spare), and since one of the two isn’t a vegetarian (her favorite breakfast is bacon) I figured I’d probably better stick to sweeter breakfast foods. So, to honor the day, I made muffins with a “secret St. Patrick’s Day fruit.” Yes, they figured out that zucchini is really a fruit, but by that time they were happily chowing down on these lemony muffins with cinnamon crumb toppings.
Zucchini Muffins with Cinnamon-Crumb Topping
There’s just a little bit of margarine in the crumb topping which, divided over 12 muffins, doesn’t even affect the fat count. But leave the topping off if you want–or double it, if you’re feeling decadent.
Ingredients
Dry ingredients:
- 2 cups white whole wheat flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup raisins
- 1/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
Wet ingredients:
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Ener-G egg replacer
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 1/4 cup shredded zucchini, packed
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon agave nectar (or other liquid sweetener)
- 1 1/4 cups fat-free soymilk or other non-dairy milk
Optional Cinnamon Crumb Topping:
- 1 teaspoon margarine
- 1/2 tablespoon demerara sugar
- 1/2 tablespoon flour
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 F. Line a muffin pan with paper or silicone liners or spray well with non-stick spray.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk the Ener-G egg replacer powder with the water until foamy. Add the remaining wet ingredients and stir to combine.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir just until combined. Do not over-stir. Batter will be very heavy. Spoon into muffin cups, dividing batter equally among the cups. Combine the topping ingredients with a fork until crumbly, and sprinkle the center of each muffin with a little topping, if desired. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 20 minutes.
Total time (duration): 30 minutes
Number of servings (yield): 12
Makes 12 muffins. Each muffin without optional ingredients contains 126 Calories (kcal); trace Total Fat; (2% calories from fat); 3g Protein; 29g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 241mg Sodium; 3g Fiber.
With walnuts but without topping, each contains 142 Calories (kcal); 2g Total Fat; (11% calories from fat); 4g Protein; 30g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 241mg Sodium; 3g Fiber.
With walnuts and topping: 148 Calories (kcal); 2g Total Fat; (12% calories from fat); 4g Protein; 30g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 245mg Sodium; 3g Fiber.
Copyright © Susan Voisin 2011. All rights reserved. Please do not repost recipes or photos to other websites.
As a special tribute to St. Patrick’s Day (and to get my daughter and her friend to try the muffins) I sprinkled some of them with green sugar. It worked!
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{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
This recipe was awesome! my husbands favorite when it comes to zucchini bread- oh, I divided my batter up into 3 parts for mini-loafs- baked them for 35-40 mins @ 350 degrees. I'm making more and popping them in the freezer! Thank you for another great recipe!
I made these and they are delicious! I do have to say though they stuck a lot to the paper liners so I think next time I'll spray the liners with a little canola or bakers joy. Any one else have this problem?
Hello
I've been following your blog for quite a while now, but this is the first time I've made a sweet backed good of yours. I made these muffins this afternoon and they are delicious! I subbed a few things, dried blueberries instead of currants, cinnamon instead of nutmeg, and a white wheat and gluten free flour instead of plain flour. The only down point was what a few others have pointed out as well – they've stuck to the paper liners pretty badly…is this less of a problem with silicone liners?
Finally, also just wanted to say thankyou so much for so many amazing recipes!
Hi Kate and Nadia–Sorry about the liners sticking! I really shouldn't have mentioned paper liners in the instructions because the truth is I never use them. With fat-free muffins, they always stick. I prefer silicone liners, silicone muffin pans, or metal non-stick pans sprayed with a little oil.
Hi,
What do you mean by white whole wheat flour?
Im from Australia, and we have white flour or wholemeal flour, both either in plain or self raising…….
Thanks!
Rin, white whole wheat is a special variety of wheat that's lighter in taste and color but still a whole grain. Here's a link to it: White Whole Wheat Flour. If you can't find it there, you can use regular whole wheat flour or even a combination of whole wheat and unbleached white flour.
This recipe looks amazing! However, I would be cautious of using agave nectar as it is now been scientifically discovered that is just another man-made artificial sweetener similar to high-fructose corn syrup. Just an FYI.
As a result, when I make these, I'll use honey or just increase the raw cane sugar. I hope that produces that same effects.
Nlovin, there's a lot of false information going around about agave. Don't believe everything you read, positive OR negative.
Another great recipe! This is our second one and it everyone loves it….even the picky 15 month year old.
I made these last night, and they taste amazing! I added a 1/4 tsp of cinnamon to the batter, because I love cinnamon. They were a little gooey and dense, so I cooked them for about 10-15 minutes longer. I used flax seeds instead of Ener-G, so that may have been why they took longer to cook. They were moist, not too sweet, and oh-so delicious. Thanks again for a great recipe!
I was just pondering… Could it be possible that my batter took a bit longer to bake because I didn’t add raisins or walnuts? It was gooey/runny in the center until I let it cook for the 15 extra minutes. I imagine that the raisins would absorb some of the moisture as the muffins cook? So, if I’m omitting raisins from baked goods, should I use slightly less liquid?
I’m sorry they turned out soggy, but you may be on to something. I wouldn’t think the raisins would absorb a huge amount of liquid, but it might be enough to throw off the balance. Also, ovens differ in their accuracy, and flours can have different moisture contents, and we could be cooking at different altitudes. All of these could contribute to a recipe needing a little more or less baking time.
We like these so much that today, I tripled the recipe and made a big batch. They freeze well. Thanks for the great recipes!
I was wondering…I’d like to try these without the sugar,more like a snack than something sweet.Omitting the raisins is no problem but omitting the sugar will disturb the balance between wet and dry ingredients,right?I was wondering if you have a suggestion as to how I could adjust the quantities…
I have to ask you. what is white whole wheat flour? and where do you buy it? I live in Israel, and have never seen anything like that. What can I use instead?
thanks
White whole wheat is a variety of wheat that is lighter in color and flavor than regular whole wheat. At first it was only available from a company calledl King Arthur, but it’s become easier to find here in the US. You can used regular whole wheat flour anywhere I use it.
Hi Susan,
Do you think I could omit the sugar altogether? Or maybe I could replace it with an extra tablespoon of agave. Would that work?
Many thanks.
P.S.: I’d like to sprinkle them with green sugar, though. It is just so appropriate!
I’m afraid they’ll be too wet if you do that. Maybe if you add a couple of tablespoons of flour they’ll work, but I can’t guaranty it. Fooling around with baked goods is dangerous! I’d love to know what happens if you try (and I apologize in advance if they flop!)
I finally used the original recipe (sugar included). They were delicious! Too good to risk having them flop. Thanks for the warning!
These were yummy! Thank you for the great recipe!
Hi Susan,
Zucchini season has my fridge packed.
I thought I’d give these a try. Question: Can I use flax eggs in place off the Ener-G?
Also, DH has diabetes and I use splenda in place of sugar. Would it be okay to omit the Agave, and would that be enough for swapping flax eggs for the Ener-G? And how much flax eggs should I use?
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