Zucchini Muffins...

I used to have a habit of routinely baking different batches of muffins, keeping the freezer well supplied for portion-controlled on-the-go snacking. Muffins tend to freeze quite well and thaw in a hurry and if you want to refresh them to an almost just-baked state, a quick stint in a toaster oven does the trick. Jeff made a passing comment last week that it had been some time since he's been able to pull any from the freezer, which got me in gear to get a pan in the oven.

I would normally gravitate to chocolate or one with a groovy, butter-laced steusel on top, but we've had our fair share of those heavier treats over the holidays. With that in mind, we tried these Zucchini Muffins since we still had some shredded zucchini bagged in the freezer from ones we were gifted early last fall.

Flavoring these muffins is a solid dose of cinnamon, which was more intense for us as I used my favorite Vietnamese cinnamon. I know I mention that fairly often, but I've tried different varieties in the past (Ceylon and Korintje) and I've never been as satisfied as the full bouquet the Vietnamese has to offer. The main sweetness in these muffins come from granulated sugar (coming in at just over a half tablespoon per muffin), but a couple tablespoons of golden honey are added, which I found brings a delicate bonus kiss of sweetness.

Since they take don't take long to bake, I was able to get the batter in the muffin tin, baked and ready to snack on in less than half an hour. If you wanted to make these for a breakfast treat, you could even speed up the process by combining the dry and wet ingredients separately the night before (storing the wet in the refrigerator). Then, when you get up in the morning, just combine the two together with a few short strokes of a wooden spoon and it's ready to go (and you're less likely to forget an ingredient being groggy!) .

For a little extra oomph, before the muffins were baked, we sprinkled each batter-filled well with a speckled concoction of sugar and a heavy pinch of cinnamon. These bake until the centers rise up to form a beautiful crown - you can either lightly press on their tops to see if they spring back for doneness or stick a toothpick inside to make sure the batter has cooked through. We quite liked how the strands of zucchini remained fairly visible, but their essence seemed to dissolve into the muffin, leaving you with a moist inside that doesn't make them taste like the garden.

If you like more texture inside your muffins, a handful of crunchy toasted nuts (I would use walnuts or pecans here) or chewy golden raisins would make excellent mix-ins. You may not have the lighter pastry flour called for (which we usually find in bulk bins at our markets) - you could use white whole-wheat flour (which still may be hard to find) or certainly regular whole-wheat flour, but the muffins may end up with a slightly denser crumb.

Recipes
Zucchini Muffins