Carole is with us today with another great post, this one is from her garden. Great idea for using up the last of the season’s surplus.
I have a small garden but I am not a gardener. You see, I am notorious for garden neglect once I complete the initial planting in the spring. Every year I have such great intentions to tend my garden so carefully but it never happens. This neglect manifests itself best in the monster sized zucchini I harvest, instead of the desired small, sweet and deliciously tender ones I wanted. These massive zucchinis aren’t good for much except to use in baking, so I have been producing all kinds of baked zucchini products over the past few weeks.
These Banana Zucchini Muffins are dense, moist and delicious, but they also use the other food I always seem to have in great abundance: over-ripe bananas! Plus, the use of whole wheat flour, agave and applesauce makes a mommy quite happy on the nutritional end.
Banana Zucchini Muffins
(recipe adapted from Savoring the Thyme)
makes 18 muffins
1 C whole wheat flour
1 C white flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 C agave nectar
3/4 C brown sugar
1/4 C melted butter
1/2 C unsweetened applesauce
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 C grated zucchini
1 medium very ripe banana, mashed
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line the muffin tins with paper liners. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the first six ingredients. In a large mixing bowl, combine all the remaining ingredients together until well combined. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and fold to combine. Do not over mix!
2. Fill the muffin liners so they are filled not quite to the top of the liner. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the center of the muffins spring back when lightly touched. To freeze, wait until they cool completely then individually wrap each muffin in plastic wrap tightly.
Linking with these sites today:
Not Your Ordinary Recipes, Simply Sweet Home, Thirty Handmade Days, Living Well Spending Less, The Pin Junkie, Serenity Now Blog, French Country Cottage, The Frugal Girls, While He Was Napping, Romantic Home, The Answer is Chocolate, Simply Designing, Shaken Together Life, Naptime Crafters, Truly Lovely Blog, Chic on a Shoestring Budget, Shabby Nest
These look delish! I’d never think to use Zucchini, but I bet they’re really good.
Thanks, Kayla! We think so too!
Thank you for trying them and properly crediting. 😉
Is there a good sub for agave nectar?
Yes. Just use honey, Kari. It should work perfectly. Let us know how you like it!
Can I use 2 cups white flour? I am all out of wheat.
All white flour should turn out great, Scarlett. Enjoy!
Sherri
Made them as instructed with the ingredients you listed and they turned out great! Even enjoyed by my 2 year old son who is picky. 🙂
Thank you
Scarlett, I am thrilled to hear it! Thank you for commenting and letting us know. People like you are the reason we love blogging!
I am all out of agave and honey, could I use sugar instead?
If you do, you will need some additional liquid or the muffins will be dry. Molasses or corn syrup might be another substitute you could try. Molasses will have a stronger flavor, corn syrup would be lighter. Hope these work until you are able to pick up more honey or agave!
My kids were crazy over these! They turned out so well – and were a great use of the zucchini taking over the fridge. 🙂 I used spelt flour, sucanat for the brown sugar, and left out the agave (still plenty sweet). Also, I used coconut oil instead of butter because it was already melted. Ha! 🙂 Thanks for the great recipe! I was able to freeze half the batch, so that was nice too.
Awesome, Stacy! So glad you liked them. These sound like some really healthy substitutions.
These are delish!!! Even my picky 4 yr old like them!!! Great recipe!!!
So glad these were a hit at your house!
I used sweetened applesauce and left out the agave, great flavour. Unfortunately I forgot the butter in the microwave, so they stuck to the wrappers! Will make again though.
Glad you liked them. Bummer they stuck to the wrappers! So glad you found a new recipe with us!
Mine stuck to the wrapper – do you know why that may have happened? I used a soy free/dairy free butter..could that be why? They were delicious other than the wrapper situation!
You may have needed a little oil spray in your liners since your fat content was so low. Glad they tasted good!
These are really, really good. My four year old loves them, Thank you! Will try with coconut oil next time too;)
That’s great news! Thanks so much for letting us know. Happy four year olds make happy mamas!