This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
Zucchini Muffins With Coconut Oil – lightened up, moist and sweet zucchini muffins, made with coconut oil instead of vegetable oil.
I enjoy baking with zucchini and everyone around me seems to like it! This time I decided to make these simple zucchini muffins with coconut oil. I use coconut oil here and there, but I’ve noticed that it makes baked goods very soft and moist.
Zucchini breads / muffins are usually moist and if you have a good recipe they bake perfect.
When I first tasted a piece of zucchini cake I was surprised of the fluffy texture and not being able to taste the zucchini, that’s amazing. I never peel my zucchini, when baking, but if you shred them very fine they are almost invisible. Also for my original zucchini bread recipe, which you can see here, I don’t drain the water out of the zucchini, but nor the muffins I did drain it. Muffins are smaller and take less time to bake, that’s why I like my batter to be thicker that regular zucchini bread/cake batter.
You can definitely use olive or canola oil for this recipe, or even butter like Natasha of Natasha’s Kitchen did here. I just like the extra flavor and softness that the coconut oil brought to these muffins. They stay soft for 3-4 days and I recommend that you keep them in an air tight container at room temperature.
The idea for this recipe came from Natasha’s Kitchen, who is one of my favorite food bloggers and her blog is one of the first blogs, I started to follow. She has great recipes and also a lot of Ukrainian/Russian recipes that are worth checking out. In her recipe for zucchini muffins, Natasha uses 1/2 cup of butter, which I substituted with 1/3 cup of melted coconut oil. She also used 1/2 tsp flax seed oil for extra omega 3, which I thought was a great idea, and she also uses dried cranberries (raisins), which I decided to skip, since I wasn’t sure if my family is going to like the cranberries.
This zucchini muffins recipe is worth a try, if you are new to baking with zucchini.
Zucchini Muffins With Coconut Oil
Ingredients
- 2 cups grated zucchini, (2 medium zucchini)
- 1/3 cup mended coconut oil
- 2 eggs lightly beaten
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 and 1/2 cup flour, (used unbleached flour, but you can use any)
- 1 and 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp flax seed oil, (totally optional, for extra omega 3)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a muffin pan with oil or line with cupcake liners.
- In a bowl cream together sugar and coconut oil. Add eggs and drained zucchini and mix well,
- In a separate bowl combine dry ingredients: 1 and 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 and 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp cinnamon and add to zucchini mixture.
- Stir in 1 tsp vanilla extract and 1/2 tsp flax seed oil. Mix until well combined.
- Pour mixture into cupcake cups, using an ice cream scoop. Fill cups almost to the top. Bake for 25 minutes, until toothpick inserted to the center comes our clean.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Great post Lyubomira :), we just got some coconut oil so will be making this shortly. Thanks for the idea.
Thank you for the original recipe Natasha 🙂 I hope you like them with coconut oil 🙂
These look great. Wondering if I can replaced the sugar with maple syrup? Do you recommend the same quantity (3/4 cup)? Thx!
Hi Liz, baking with maple syrup is tricky, so I do not recommend it because I have not tested it on this recipe. Of course you can try it. I would think it is the same amount, but baking time needs to be increased a little. Sorry I can not provide a clear answer, but I have not trued it 🙂
These are a family favorite. Love the use of coconut oil!