You’d think with it being so hot out the last thing I would want to do is turn on the oven to bake? Apparently not the case for this girl. I seem to be baking up lots of treats lately. I’ve had zucchini bread/muffins on the brain and all the ingredients on hand, so it was a no brainer. I also had a bag of Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips and thought to myself, “Might as well throw these little guys in there too.”

The result: Super delicious gluten-grain-dairy-free, chocolaty muffins.

When creating these delightful treats, make sure that you get as much moisture out of the zucchini as possible. I used cheesecloth, as it works best. You can also put the shredded zucchini in some paper towels and place a heavy cook book on top to press out the liquid.

If you’ve worked with coconut flour before you will know that it absorbs a lot of moisture. The batter for these muffins is very thick and dense.

Grease the muffin tin well with coconut oil. A helpful non-stick trick is to cut strips of parchment paper and place them in the tin after greasing. The muffins pop out so much easier, it’s amazing.

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins
6 Muffins

1/2 cup coconut flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
3 eggs
3 tbsp maple syrup (grade B)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp coconut oil, melted
1 ripe banana, mashed
2 tbsp almond milk
1 medium zucchini, shredded
1/4 Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Grease 6 cups with coconut oil in muffin tin and add strips of parchment paper to each cup. Set aside.

Squeeze as much liquid as possible from the shredded zucchini and set aside.

In a small bowl combine coconut flour, baking soda, sea salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg, set aside.

In a medium bowl beat eggs, maple syrup, vanilla, coconut oil, banana, and almond milk. Fold in the dry ingredients till moistened. Stir in shredded zucchini, then add in the chocolate chips and stir to combine.

Evenly fill 6 muffin cups. Bake for 30 minutes* or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in muffin tin for 10 minutes before removing and finish cooling on a cooling rack.

*Every oven is different. Start with 30 minutes and see if you need to add more time. Mine were done after 37 minutes.

Mmm I wish I had these right now!

Are you still baking in the heat of summer? What are you creating this weekend?

(Recipe inspired from inspiralized.com)