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Healthy Zucchini Muffins

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This Healthy Zucchini Muffins recipe is the best!! It’s quick and easy to make, totally comforting and delicious, and it’s made healthier with a few simple ingredients.

These last few weeks have felt like a whirlwind.

Between two trips back home to Wichita to be with family, deadlines and projects galore due for work, and a host of morning coffee dates, impromptu lunches, margarita happy hours, evening grill-outs and late-night front porch talks filling just about every little hour in between…I feel like I have barely blinked…and the summer is already half over.

Poof.

How does that even happen?

Well, I guess the old saying explains it all. Time seems to be flying while having lots of fun, with lots of dear people in my life, and lots of fun memories already being made. All the better, of course, with that heavenly warm summer sunshine covering it all. Definitely a full but good start to my favorite season of the year. So as Tim Riggins would say, “no regrets.”

That said, though, as much as I love the time spent with my people, my little introverted heart has been waving the red flag this weekend, ready for some r&r. So in small and long stretches this week, I’m scheduling some much-needed downtime into the agenda, starting this afternoon on a lazy Sunday. Feet are up, glass of iced tea is in hand, pup is curled up by my side, sunlight is streaming in through the windows, and a nice weekend nap is just 10 minutes away. And my goodness, I can already feel my little heart re-charging. It’s almost as though we were designed to need rest or something. :)  So good.

Anyway, on this note of time zooming by, somehow it’s already zucchini season. And anyone with a garden knows what that means: so much zucchini.  Like, SO MUCH. It happens to be one of my favorite seasonal vegetables, so I’m always happy to saute and add it to just about any dish that I’m having for dinner. But for anyone looking to mix things up and maybe even incorporate it into breakfast, I thought I’d share my recipe today for these healthy zucchini muffins.

I’ve made three batches of them in the past two weeks, and still don’t seem to get tired of them. They’re made with white whole wheat flour, naturally-sweetened, deliciously spiced with cinnamon, easy to freeze, and — even though you won’t taste it — they are chocked full of fresh shredded zucchini. I think you’re going to love them.

Healthy Zucchini Muffins Recipe | 1-Minute Video

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Healthy Zucchini Muffins

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.9 from 48 reviews
  • Prep Time: 14 minutes
  • Cook Time: 16 minutes
  • Total Time: 30 minutes
  • Yield: 12 servings 1x

Description

This healthy zucchini muffins recipe is made with whole wheat flour, it’s naturally sweetened with maple syrup, and it’s a delicious way to use up extra zucchini!


Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 2/3 cups white whole wheat flour (or all-purpose flour)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup maple syrup
  • 1/2 cup plain milk (dairy or non-dairy)
  • 1/4 cup melted coconut oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) grated zucchini (no need to squeeze out excess liquid)
  • 1/3 cups old-fashioned oats
  • turbinado sugar, for sprinkling

Instructions

  1. Prep oven and muffin pan. Heat oven to 350°F. Prepare a 12-cup muffin pan by either greasing it with cooking spray or lining the cups with paper liners.
  2. Mix the dry ingredients. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, ground ginger and salt until combined.
  3. Mix the wet ingredients. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together egg, maple syrup, milk, coconut oil and vanilla extract until combined. Pour this mixture into the dry ingredient mixture and stir with a spoon until just combined. (Do not overmix.) Stir in the zucchini and oats until just combined.
  4. Bake. Portion the batter evenly between the 12 baking cups. Sprinkle the top of each muffin with a pinch of turbinado sugar, if desired.  Bake for 16-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffin comes out clean. Transfer pan to a wire cooling rack for at least 5 minutes to cool.
  5. Serve. Serve warm and enjoy!

Love this Healthier Zucchini Muffins recipe! It's easy to make, made with healthier ingredients (including oatmeal), and so flavorful and delicious! My kind of summer breakfast comfort food. :) | gimmesomeoven.com

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281 comments on “Healthy Zucchini Muffins”

  1. I just made these tonight and they are AMAZING! I was worried about the zucchini making the muffins soggy because of their high water content, so I wrung them out in a paper towel before I added them to the batter (though I’m not sure if it was absolutely necessary). Great recipe, and I will definitely be making again!

  2. Made them with honey instead of maple syrup, they neaded to be a little sweeter.

  3. Have you ever used agavi sweetner? Also, do you have a nutritional count?

    • Hey Jody, we think Agave would be great in these! Unfortunately though, we are unsure of the nutrition facts/amount of calories in this recipe. We currently are not publishing nutrition facts on the site, as the nutrition calculators available are not 100% accurate, and we never want to publish anything that might be misleading. However, a lot of our readers love the My Fitness Pal nutrition calculator, so feel free to try that for an estimate. We hope that helps!

  4. I have made these many times over the past month since zucchini is plentiful right now.  I stuck with the recipe and found it perfect. The last few times, I have slowly decreased the amount of pure maple syrup and am currently at 1/4 of a cup and they are still delicious!  (I will note we eat very little sugar so our taste buds are sensitive to it so others may not feel the same).  I just wanted to put that out there for other low/no sugar families :)

  5. LOVE LOVE LOVE these muffins!! This is my second time making them! I substitute honey for the syrup, do half whole wheat flour and half all-purpose flour, and throw in some ground flax seed. They turn out great everytime! 

  6. the bottoms of my muffins didn’t cook, top halfs were great though, a little bland, but put a little honey and cinnamon with them and they were yummy.

    • Thanks for sharing Jessica – we’re sorry these didn’t cook properly, that’s really strange – we’ve never had that happen!

  7. I made these tonite and they were excellent but needed to be a bit sweeter! so i think i will try them with honey next time…

    • Thanks Michelle, we’re glad you enjoyed them, and you can definitely up the sweetener if you’d like! :)

  8. Can I substitute a different flour for this, almond or oat maybe? 

    • Hey there! We haven’t experimented with different flours in this particular recipe, so we can’t say for sure. However, you could try 1/3 of a cup or 2/3 of a cup of oat flour, and do whole wheat for the rest. We’d experiment with a smaller amount first and see how that goes. Let us know what you end up trying and how everything turns out! :)

  9. Hi, I was wondering if you could do a higher ratio of oats than flour or would this compromise the recipe?

    • Hey Sammi! Hmmmm, that’s a good question. We haven’t tried that, so we honestly can’t say for sure, but we think it’s worth playing around with. Maybe you could start by trying 1 1/3 cups of flour and 2/3 cups of oats?

  10. They tasted pretty bland in my opinon. Better if you drizzle them with honey before eating. My son ate one and kept asking for more honey.

  11. I’m really happy I’ve stumbled upon your blog!  I look forward to digging in but I tried these and your tortilla soup (separate occasions) for a group and both have been fabulous and recipes shared. Thanks a lot!  Yum!! 

  12. My two sons, 1 & 5, as well as my husband loved these muffins. All were gone within a day. They never complained once about not being too sweet. 

  13. These were really good! I didn’t have liquid sweetner, so I used some natural sugar and the juice of a small orange and it worked great! I also added some dried cranberries and they made them even more amazing. Thanks for the recipe. 

  14. I’ve made these muffins three times now with follow alterations and they are amazing!  Not too sweet and have some veggies:)

    I use 1 cup white and 2/3 whole wheat flour, and add a banana to the mix, plus a heaping teaspon of cinnamon.  Have tried a little nutmeg too – love the base with coconut oil and using syrup instead of sugar! My 3 year old likes helping me make these.  Thank you for sharing! 

  15. These are delicious as-is!  Would they work with bananas instead of zucchini if I wanted to try a different flavor?

    • Thanks Melanie! Hmmm, we haven’t tried these with bananas, but we think it’s worth trying, since they have about the same amount of moisture. Maybe try 2 1/2 bananas (mashed). Let us know how they turn out! :)

  16. Great recipe! I managed to make them completely vegan and sugar free by using gluten free vegan flour, substituted the egg for an organic ripe banana mashed, and the maple syrup for minced dates. Also added cardamom for extra flavour. Will definitely save this recipe!

  17. just made these, they are delicious! thank you!!

  18. Wow. I followed your recipe exactly (always my habit on first bakes!!) and I am so so impressed.  Hubby loved them too.  Waiting for our 11 mos old to wake up – he is the real food connoisseur!  I am sure he will love them too.  I did calculate the nutritional info, based on 14 muffins… 155 cals; 5.2 fat; 23.7 carbs; 3.3 protein (based on a 56 g muffin).  Thanks again for the lovely recipe,a true fan! 

    • That’s awesome Leah — we’re so happy you and your husband enjoyed these (and hopefully your little one will too)! :)

  19. Can I use sugar instead of maple syrup? how many cups?
    thank you!

    • Hi Mariana! Yes, you can use sugar instead. You would need 3/4 cup of sugar. You might need to add a little extra almond milk though, since you will lose a bit of liquid from not having the maple syrup. We hope you enjoy these!

  20. I made these today for my two little sick toddlers.  They were absolutely delicious.  Thanks!!

  21. If I want to make this recipe into a loaf how long should I bake it for?

    • Hi Kristine! Hmmm, as a loaf, this would probably take about 40-50 minutes. We hope you enjoy! :)

  22. Made these today…. Delicious! I didn’t have enough wholewheat flour so I did half oat flour / half wholewheat plus added some shredded coconut to the batter. Yummy! 

    • We’re happy you enjoyed them Toby, and we bet that shredded coconut was a yummy addition! :)

  23. Do you have any nutritional info available?

    • Hi Lynette! We’re sorry but we are unsure of the nutrition facts/amount of calories in this recipe. We currently are not publishing nutrition facts on the site, as the nutrition calculators available are not 100% accurate, and we never want to publish anything that might be misleading. However, a lot of our readers love the My Fitness Pal nutrition calculator, so feel free to try that for an estimate. We hope that helps!

  24. These were delicious! We didn’t have enough maple syrup, so we had to use some honey. Can’t wait to try them with only maple syrup.

  25. These are amazing muffins ! My family loved them and so did I. Definitely a repeat. They were also very easy quick to make. I used half agave/half maple syrup as I ran out of maple. I also used 1% milk.

  26. Can these be made with almond and/or coconut flour?

    • Hi Mari! We haven’t experimented with either of those flours in this, but we think it’s worth a shot! We would use more almond flour than coconut flour though, as it’s so dense and can be drying.

  27. I just made these, and I followed the recipe exactly! They came out pretty delicious, but they’re under sweet. I admit to not using good quality maple syrup which is most likely the culprit, but they also have a soapy taste to them. I looked it up and found out it can be if baking soda is old, but this box was brand new from the store. I measured carefully and stirred really well – thoughts?? Still eating them though, with maybe a drizzle of syrup on top. ;)

    • Hi Sara! We’re glad you enjoyed these though we’re sorry you found them under-sweetened. That’s strange about the baking soda! These definitely shouldn’t have a soapy taste unless the baking soda is old or you used too much (and it sounds like neither one of those things are the issue here)!

  28. Just reading through the comments before I make these. Oh man. Can you make zucchini muffins with bananas instead of zucchini??? Uh – what kind of a question is that – then they would be -err- banana muffins. As for sweetener, many of us know the depth of our addiction to sugars. 1/2 cup should be plenty for a quick bread or a dozen muffins – it’s standard – if you have a sweet tooth add more. If you’re trying to tame your sugar demons, as we all should, increase spice and decrease sweetener. Breads and muffins usually taste sweeter after a day. If they’re not sweet enough today, try them tomorrow. If they’re not sweet enough tomorrow, put on some fresh jam –

  29. When I use melted coconut oil it always solidifies when it hits the cooler liquids.  I know this is what happens when a oil hits cold, but is it supposed to for the recipes sake?

    • Hi Kristen! As long as the melted coconut oil has had a chance to cool some, so it’s not really hot when you add it, it should be fine.

  30. Mine didn’t totally rise for some reason, but they were still a yummy mixture. :)

    • We’re sorry to hear they didn’t rise, Sara! Could your baking soda or baking powder be old maybe? We’re happy you still enjoyed them!

  31. These are so great I made them two days in a row! I didn’t haven’t white whole flour or coconut oil, so I did 1 cup all purpose, 2/3 cup whole wheat flour and substituted butter for the oil. I think they have the perfect amount of sweetness. I’ll definitely be checking out your other recipes!

  32. Delicious as is!  (Used unsweetened almond milk). I will definitely make this recipe again.

  33. Any chance you’ve made these as mini muffins and can share the baking time? I could guess, but I thought maybe you’d know how this particular recipe translates. These sound great to send in school lunches. Thanks!

    • Hi Christine! We haven’t tried making these into mini muffins, but we think they should only need to bake for around 8 minutes. We’d suggest setting your timer for that long and if they need longer, you can add increments of 2 minutes (they shouldn’t need more than 10 minutes though). We hope you enjoy!

  34. I just made these muffins this evening, and they were perfect!  I added a handful of dark chocolate chips for a sweet treat. ;) Thanks for sharing the recipe! 

    • We’re happy to hear you enjoyed them, Elizabeth — thanks for giving them a try! :)

  35. Hi! I have just made these – I have added cocoa powder and dark chocolate chips and they have turned out amazing! Soo delicious! Thank you for the recipe! :)

    • Thanks for sharing with us, Jana — we’re so glad you enjoyed them, and we like your additions of the cocoa powder and dark chocolate chips!

  36. These are pretty good, certainly a nice variation from the zucchini recipes we’re tired of eating. I used whole wheat flour, increased zucchini to 2 cups. I didn’t have coconut oil so I used 1/4 c of melted butter. With these variations, the dough was too dry for muffins so I added a few tablespoons of vegetable oil. I also added 1 c. of walnuts. Good stuff!

  37. These were delicious! I’ll admit I was a bit concerned regarding the sweet elements but I’m from Sweden and I’m very used to savory muffins so I thought, eh, let’s go with it! They were perfect! They had a hint of sweetness. I once ate one with some homemade plumjam, definetly a good option if you want a sweeter snack but great as they are! Cheers!

    • Thanks for giving the recipe a try, Sofie! We’re so glad you enjoyed these and we bet they really were terrific with that homemade plum jam! :)

  38. I have tried so many different “healthy zucchini muffin” recipes this season and this one is by far the best!!! I was worried they would be too moist but they turned out just perfect. Had them in the oven for 22 mins and it was just right. They are just sweet enough without being too overpowering. Will definitely be using this recipe again!

  39. Loved these! Did not find them bland or soggy at all. I think if you are used to eating very sugary foods, then maybe trying something sweeter, but for me it was perfect: just sweet enough, but not to the point where I felt that I was eating cake.

  40. Seemed very blah. No taste

  41. I read in one of the comments that someone ask what to use instead of coconut oil and you suggested olive oil, 2 questions about that:
    -Would the olive oil affect the flavor of the muffins?
    -How much olive oil? 
    Since a lot of people commenting say that the maple syrup doesn’t add a lot of sweetness to it, can I do 1/2 maple syrup 1/2 honey for extra sweetness? Or would that make them too sweet? Thank you!

    • Yes, using olive oil would affect the flavor of the muffins slightly. You’re welcome to use canola or vegetable or grapeseed oil (or some other more neutral-tasting oil) if you’d like. And yep, just sub in the same exact amount.

      As for the sweetness, you’re welcome to sub in some honey or even brown sugar if you’d like them even sweeter. (Or sprinkle some turbinado sugar on top!)

      Hope you enjoy them!

  42. Hi, I’ve already commented on loving these, but yesterday I made them with shredded pumpkin instead of zucchini, and they turned out great! Again used cocoa powder with chocolate chips. Just letting you know in case someone would be wondering if this would work out.
    Thank you again!

    Jana

  43. These are good but they could be a bit sweeter. I used honey instead of Maple syrup. I will drizzle some honey on top of each before we eat them.

    • We appreciate your feedback, Kathy — thanks for giving these a try, and definitely feel free to add more sweetener next time if you like. :)

  44. Thank you for the recipe. My only substitution was that I didn’t have the correct flour however I read that sifting WW Flour could also work. I sifted WW flour a few times and the muffins turned out soft and a little moise. I like to bake using maple syrup or honey to sweeten and this was perfect as I don’t like much sweetness. Would love to find similar type recipes on your site!

  45. Excellent!  I am not a fan of the maple flavor so I subbed a quarter cup of applesauce and a quarter cup of sugar/brown sugar mix.  In addition, I added a quarter cup of cooked quinoa for increased nutritional value.  

    I am just hoping I don’t eat them all before I deliver them to my in-laws!

  46. These are SOOOO good! I doubled the batch and used whole
    Milk instead of almond milk. I used white sugar instead of maple syrup, because I was going for the cheap factor. 3/4 c was suggested for each batch (which I doubled for mine) and it was spot on perfect for sweetness. I also used white flour because I forgot to pull out the whole wheat. So less healthy, :). But the coconut oil makes these so decadent. I don’t fuss too much about heathy and more prefer delicious. Thanks for the recipe! 

  47. I made these yesterday for my son and I! I used whole wheat flour, and about 1/3 cup cane sugar because I didn’t have enough syrup. They had just a touch of sweetness, and I love getting in a little extra veggies for him. I’ll definitely make these again!

    • Thanks for sharing with us, Kate — we’re so glad you and your kiddo enjoyed these!

  48. Wow! I spend quite a while converting from cups to grams to ml and so on ?finally i converted maple syrup into stevia, then it went very fast and easy. My feedback for anyone keen to try with stevia, I’d say don’t use any more than1tsp max. Still tastes very nice with butter once cooled down. I will defo try again aiming to make it savoury by leaving the sweetener out entirely and increasing salt. Will let you knowhow they turn out ? thanks for recipe! 

  49. WHAT a great recipe. I’m NOT baker mainly because I have a hard time following recipies, but we bought a fancy stove so I started taking advantage of it. This was my first ‘bake’ and now I’m addicted! Thank you! 
    Loved the muffins, they came out perfect although I live in the Emirates so it was hard to find maple syrup I swapped it with date syrup…. delicious!

    Question- can I substitute the zuchinni for bananas and strawberries? Very curious. Let me know. Thanks again!

    • Thank you for your sweet comment, Camila — we’re so happy you enjoyed these and that you were able to make them with the date syrup! :) We haven’t tried strawberries and bananas in place of the zucchini, so it’s hard to say if that would work or not. However, we think it’s worth a shot — let us know if you try it!

  50. LOVE love LOVE these muffins! I’ve made them several times in the past (according to the recipe) & always thought they were perfectly sweet & super light & fluffy, but still moist, if that’s possible? 

    When I was searching to find the recipe to make them again this week, I stumbled upon another of your recipes (zucchini & carrot muffins) & as I had carrots to use up in my fridge, wanted to give it a try, BUT I love THIS recipe so much (& it is much healthier) that I decided to sort of ‘combine’ the two recipes to incorporate the carrots & added spices.

    Basically, I used this recipe as a base & then used 1 cup zucchini & 1 cup carrots (instead of 1-1.2c zucchini), used a little extra flour (1-3/4c instead of 1-2/3) & a little extra oats (1/2 c. instead of 1/3 c.)  & then added 1/4 tsp of both nutmeg & ground ginger, but left the rest of the recipe ‘as is’. They turned out great! I might add extra cinnamon, nutmeg & ginger next time as I realized the other recipe for was for 6 muffins & this one is for 12, but thought they turned out really good! :) Thanks for sharing!