September 19, 2010

coconut zucchini chocolate chip vegan gluten free muffins

I made these for a baking contest at work, and everyone who tried them loved them! A few people turned up their noses when they saw that they were vegan, but I decided to let the nay-sayers go without and leave more for me :) This recipe makes a large batch of 30-40 muffins, depending on how you fill the cups. I made 36 muffins and 12 mini muffins, and I definitely could have filled the big muffin cups more.  Onward to the recipe!


Ingredients: 
3 T ground flax meal
9 T warm water
2 c evaporated cane juice
1 T vanilla extract
1 c grape seed oil
3 c TJ's gluten-free pancake mix 
2 t salt
1.5 t baking soda
1.5 t baking powder
3 t cinnamon
1 t ground ginger
1 t ground cardamom
1 t fresh grated nutmeg
1/2 t ground cloves
3 c grated zucchini, drained in a mesh strainer
1 c unsweetened shredded coconut
1 c semi-sweet chocolate chips or nuts (optional)
36 paper muffin cups
3 12-muffin pans


Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.


Mix the flaxseed meal with the warm water and let set for a few minutes. Mix these flax 'eggs' with the sugar, vanilla and grape seed oil in a bowl. I like to use an electric mixer. 


Combine the pancake mix, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and spices in a large bowl. Add the wet ingredients and beat them together with the electric mixer. Scrape down the sides, and beat again until well combined. Add the zucchini, coconut, and nuts and/or chocolate chips and fold together. 


Prepare the muffin pans with the paper liners and fill the cups 2/3 of the way full with the batter. I like to use an ice cream scoop like this one to fill them evenly:



I even have a mini one for making mini muffins! So cute! Put the pans in the oven on 2-3 racks, depending on your oven's size, and be prepared to rotate them. Are you ready for that? Ok, good. Bake them for about 25 minutes, rotating the pans every 8 minutes or so for even baking. When a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, remove the pans from the oven and get ready for anyone within smelling distance to suddenly appear and beg for a taste! Let them cool and they will be much easier to handle. 

They would certainly be delicious frosted, but once a muffin is frosted it is a cupcake, and I for one have trouble convincing myself that cupcakes are an acceptable breakfast food. They are scrumptious on their own. 

Glamour shots!





2 comments:

Brandig84 said...

Youre super creative... unless you're stealing these recipes (I know I know, recipes are made for stealing) you should seriously consider writing a cookbook.

lauren elizabeth said...

@Brandi - For this post I used mix of a few recipes I found online for coconut zucchini bread a while ago, and have de-glutened them and added more or less of several ingredients with each batch. This one's a work in progress, but the version of the recipe I posted was the best batch so far!

Every other post so far has been something I came up with on the spot, inspired by either fits of reckless abandon or by my cupboard's limited ingredients meeting my limitless need for tasty tasty snack things.