Zucchini Pumpkin Muffins

Zucchini Pumpkin Muffins are flavorful, moist, and slightly sweet. They're the perfect little treat on a late summer or early fall morning. These muffins are packed with shredded zucchini and pumpkin puree, and they're finished off with a dash of cinnamon.

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• Why you'll love pumpkin zucchini muffins
• Ingredients
• How to make Zucchini Pumpkin Muffins
• Recipe variations
• Expert tips
• Storage, Freezing, and reheating
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Ingredients

• Zucchini: You'll need a small to medium-sized zucchini for this recipe. One, single zucchini will actually produce quite a bit of shredded zucchini, so you'll likely need a smaller zucchini than you think! The zucchini is going to add some delicious moisture to the muffin batter.
• Pumpkin puree: Another moisture-adding ingredient is pumpkin puree. I use canned pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie mix!
• All-purpose flour: Regular, white, all-purpose flour does the job.
• Sugar: I use a combination of light brown sugar and cane sugar for sweetness.
• Buttermilk: Buttermilk is fermented milk that has a slight tang/tart flavor and is thicker than regular milk. When mixed with baking soda, buttermilk produces a gas that helps make the muffins rise.
• Butter: You'll need one stick of melted butter, either salted or unsalted.
• Additional ingredients: You'll also need baking soda, salt, eggs, vanilla extract, and cinnamon.

How to make Zucchini Pumpkin Muffins

Step 1: Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line your muffin tin with muffin liners. Shred the zucchini and squeeze some of the moisture out using paper towels. Melt the stick of butter in the microwave.

Step 2: Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and ground cinnamon in a medium-sized mixing bowl.

Step 3: Combine the brown sugar, cane sugar, melted butter, pumpkin puree, eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl. Whisk together until the ingredients are smooth and fully combined.

Step 4: Add the shredded zucchini to your bowl of liquid ingredients. Mix to combine.

Step 5: Slowly pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. I like to pour the dry ingredients in a little at a time, mix, and then add more. Mix the dry ingredients in until they are fully incorporated into the wet ingredients and no streaks of flour remain. Your batter will be thick and moist.

Step 6: Using a large spoon, scoop the batter into your muffin cups. You can fill the muffin cups to within a few centimeters from the top of the liners. This recipe makes about 18 muffins or 1 ½ dozen.

Step 7: Bake the muffins for 23 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. When finished remove the muffin tin from the oven and carefully transfer the muffins to a cooling rack. Let cool for about 15 minutes before eating. Enjoy!

Expert tips

• When grating your zucchini, just use a box grater. It only takes about a minute to shred the zucchini, so don't bother digging out your food processor!
• Don't skip the step where you squeeze the moisture out of the zucchini! Zucchini holds a ton of moisture which will mess up the recipe if you don't squeeze some of it out. You don't need to go crazy. Just a quick squeeze through a few paper towels will do the trick.
• Muffin liners are a must! They make cleanup so much easier and allow you to easily pop your muffins out of the tin and make another batch immediately.
• Have you ever tried to remove a muffin liner when the muffin is fresh out of the oven? If you have, then you know that the muffin will stick to the liner. If you want your muffin liner to easily peel off, all you have to do is wait for your pumpkin zucchini muffins to cool down fully.

Storage, Freezing, and reheating

• How to store: The easiest way to store leftover muffins is right on your counter in a sealed, zip-top, plastic bag, or air-tight container. You can store them this way for 2-3 days. If your house is extra warm or humid, then you might want to store them in the refrigerator. You can also store leftover muffins in a plastic muffin storage container.
• How to freeze: These muffins freeze easily in a plastic zip-top freezer bag. Wait for the muffins to fully cool, remove the muffin liners and then transfer them to a freezer bag.
• How to reheat: When you want to thaw a muffin to enjoy with your breakfast, simply wrap the frozen muffin in a paper towel and then pop it in the microwave for 30 seconds.

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