These Gluten Free Zucchini Muffins never last a day in my house, they are that good! These healthy zucchini muffins are also dairy free and perfect for the 21 Day Fix…just be sure you hide some before your family eats them all!
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This post was originally published on Aug 29, 2019 and is now being republished with more helpful tips and answers to FAQs. The delicious recipe is the same!
Confession: For years now, I’ve wanted to post a Zucchini Bread and/or Zucchini Muffin, especially at the end of summer.
Zucchini Bread has been one of my favorite baked treats since I was a little girl. My grandma, Helen, would make massive amounts of it, gifting loaves to all of her friends and family and storing a bunch in her freezer. She would always take a loaf out for me if I was visiting, and to this day, her zucchini bread is the best I’ve ever had.
I miss her so much.
But I also wanted to make a FIX approved Zucchini Bread that was gluten and dairy free so my son Max could enjoy it.
And it turns out, making a healthy, gluten and dairy free zucchini bread isn’t the easiest thing.
Love muffins? Be sure to try out these Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins or my reader favorite Apple Muffins!
But I finally think I did it.
I decided to make muffins because my kids are more apt to eat something with green flecks of veggies if it’s in muffin form. And I added in chocolate chips because zucchini and chocolate are a perfect match.
Why I Love This Healthy Zucchini Muffin Recipe:
- These muffins are 21-day fix approved, WW friendly, and dairy and gluten free
- They are kid approved and an easy way to hide a little veggies
- The perfect afternoon snack to hold everyone over until dinnertime or make ahead breakfast for meal prep
- Moist, tender and just the perfect amount of sweetness with no refined sugar
- Mix and match your favorite mix-ins: raisins, nuts, berries- whatever your heart desires!
Ingredients Needed for the Best Gluten Free Chocolate Zucchini Muffins:
- Gluten-free 1-1 baking flour– or you can use all purpose flour or whole wheat flour if you don’t need a gluten free baking recipe. Bob’s Red Mill makes a great 1-1 gluten free flour blend that is my fave to use for this recipe.
- Baking powder and baking soda– to get the best rise, make sure these are both fresh!
- Ground cinnamon– cinnamon isn’t just an ingredient added for a hint of flavoring, it’s also a good thing for helping to control and lower your blood sugar.
- Salt– to bring out the sweetness in your muffins
- Eggs– I haven’t tried these with a flax egg, but it should work. If you try it, let me know how it goes!
- Apple cider vinegar– a little acid helps the baking powder do it’s job.
- Maple syrup– a healthy sweetener instead of granulated sugar. You can also swap honey.
- Almond Milk– I used almond milk but you can use whatever milk you have on hand for these.
- Melted coconut oil– this is the healthier option to use in place of vegetable oil or butter that some other recipes use. I have also used avocado oil with success.
- Vanilla extract– make sure you are using real vanilla and not imitation for the best flavor.
- Freshly grated zucchini– no need to wring out the excess moisture from the
zucchini, check out my tips below if you find your zucchini too watery. You can use a box grater usually used for blocks of cheese or a cheese grater if yours would grate squash well. I find the box ones are the easiest. - Dairy free chocolate chips– while these are optional, I think chocolate and zucchini are made for each other. Feel free to sub with raisins and/or nuts.
Instructions
Making these muffins couldn’t be easier! Simply:
- Preheat your oven to 350°F and prep your muffin tin with liners.
- Mix dry ingredients.
- In a seperate bowl, mix wet ingredients.
- Combine, then fold in zucchini and oats.
- Add your chocolate chips, then divide batter into 12 muffins.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes. Cool and enjoy!
FAQs
Yes! These muffins are made with wholesome ingredients: gluten free flour maple syrup, farm fresh zucchini, healthy fat, and a little smattering of dark chocolate chips. They are healthy enough for breakfast and delicious enough for after school or after dinner healthy snack. Or, if you are my husband, you will just eat them all day.
Because there are chocolate chips in this recipe, you have to count it as a 1/2 treat swap for the 21 Day Fix. It’s not a full swap because of the amount of chocolate chips, so keep that in mind.
My grandma always added raisins and walnuts to her zucchini bread and I highly recommend it! If you did 1/3 cup of raisins and 1/3 cup of chopped walnuts, it wouldn’t be enough to even count as containers!
Omg, yes! That would work perfectly, too! I wouldn’t use almond flour or coconut flour for this recipe because they don’t always sub 1-1 and I haven’t tested them. And if you are not gluten free, you can totally use whole wheat flour for this instead!
I plan to test this ASAP, but I really think it should work! I would let it cook for 35-45 minutes!
I never do! That being said, if your zucchini is really watery, then I found the perfect solution! Just add 1/3 cup of rolled oats to your batter when you add the zucchini and BOOM! No need to spend the extra time using paper towels trying to get the water out.
If you are looking for more gluten free muffin and bread recipes, check these out:
21 Day Fix Blueberry Muffins {Gluten Free, Dairy Free}
21 Day Fix Banana Bread (Gluten-free| Dairy Free) | Confessions of a Fit Foodie
Love this recipe? Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟rating in the recipe card below & a review in the comments section further down the page. We love hearing from you!
Healthy Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups gluten-free 1:1 baking flour, or all purpose flour you can sub whole wheat
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 cup milk almond milk or whatever you prefer
- 1/4 cup melted coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups grated fresh zucchini you do not need to wring out the zucchini
- 1/3 cup dairy free chocolate chips optional
- ***optional if your zucchini is super watery - 1/3 cup old-fashioned oats I have made them with and without and love them both ways, maybe without a little more. With the oats, the muffins rise more, without they are a little more moist but could border on too moist for some. Your call!
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350°F and add prepare a muffin tin with parchment liners.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt until combined. Set aside.
- In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together egg, maple syrup, milk, coconut oil, apple cider vinegar, and vanilla extract until combined. Pour this mixture into the dry ingredient mixture, and stir gently with a spoon until just combined - be careful not to overmix!
- Stir in the zucchini. If you want to add the optional oats, add them in, too.
- Finally add in the chocolate chips.
- Divide batter into 12 muffin and cook for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Transfer pan to a cooling rack and enjoy slightly cooled. Store in a sealed container for a few days, or freeze.
Barb says
Hopefully these turn out well. There was an awful lot of liquid to the amount of flour. Did anyone else have very runny batter? I measured everything very carefully. One and a quarter cup of liquid not including the eggs with only one and a half cups of flour is not a good ratio. I ended up adding probably another cup of flour as well as oatmeal. I used a gluten-free flour and typically those soak up the liquid quicker, but this one did not thicken as many gluten-free flours do typically.
Nancylynn says
So how did they turn out?
LalaB says
Insanely delicious!!! I look forward to zucchini season just to make these. I’m obsessed!!! Thanks so much for creating and sharing this recipe!
Nancylynn says
This made my day, thank you! Zucchini season is the best season!
Emily says
Made these today as mini muffins! Made 48 mini muffins with the recipe provided. Just wanted to share!
My daughter gobbled 3 when she got home from school 🙂
Nancylynn says
This is such helpful info! Thank you for sharing, Emily!
Megan Pickell says
Made these tonight and they are delish! I used 1c whole wheat, 1/2 c AP flour, almond milk, no oats. So good! I’m happy to have a replacement recipe (although sad) for my grandmother’s amazing zucchini bread which has 2 cups of white sugar. These are wonderful and a perfect texture!
Kathy says
Made these this morning and WOW! Delicious, light, fluffy and tender – YUM!
Jen says
My kids will not eat them if they can see the green specs. Will it still work and turn out okay if I peel the skin off the zucchini prior to grating them?
Nancylynn says
Totally!
Shannon says
These are wonderful. I did squeeze my zucchini a little bit because it was quite watery and I added the oats. They were light and fluffy and moist. I had so many zucchini’s from my garden…I just cut out the seeds on the really big ones before grating them. These muffins are a great way to use the zucchini harvest! Even kids who were very picky eaters loved them! They were a huge hit!
Nancylynn says
Shannon, this made my day! Thank you!!
Crystal says
You seriously have the best recipes!! I’ve been following you since I started 21DF and you have the BEST kid friendly recipes that are pretty healthy! Thank you for this! I make them once a month and the kids devour them (my husband as well as me 😆).
Nancylynn says
This made my day! Thank you Crystal!
Lynne Martin Veilleux says
Love these muffins, quite simply, and those in my surroundings do as well😉.
Nancylynn says
Love that they are crowd pleasers – thank you!!
Nikki says
These are so delicious! Zucchini bread/muffins are probably my favorite flavor quick bread. There is no sacrificing flavor despite there being no added refined sugar.
Nancylynn says
Thank you, Nikki! Glad you loved them!
Carrie Dunning says
My kids have been begging for chocolate chip muffins for awhile again, and I love that they love these healthy zucchini muffins as their “chocolate chip muffin” fix. What mom doesn’t get giddy about “sneaking” in some veggies?! These turned out so so yummy! Thanks to the giant Costco pack of zucchini, I have all the ingredients still on hand and I’m so excited to pack some along for our 4th of July weekend out of town! When our garden finally takes off, these will be on constant repeat!
Nancylynn says
Costco for the win! lol! Loooove that your kids love these muffins – mom win for sure!
Belinda says
I just made the gluten-free zucchini muffins for the first time. I added almost 2 cups of zucchini, sugar-free almond milk, raisins and pecans. I baked 8 mini loaves. They are moist and delicious.
Nancylynn says
Good info on the mini loaves, thank you!! Glad you love them! How long did you cook the mini loaves for?
Paige says
Made these for this weeks meal prep & they are AMAZING! So easy to make & gluten & dairy free! Everyone in my house loved them. I will be putting these in my rotation!
Nancylynn says
Thanks, Paige!
Tammy says
Made these this morning. They we’re delish, and oh so pretty. The batter made 12 perfectly. I used walnuts and raisins plus 1 tbsp of chia seeds. Thank you for all the healthy recipes and meal plans.
Nancylynn says
Oooh! Chia seeds- interesting! Thanks for the comment!
Casey says
with having been provided a GF ingredient list, of course i follow it. added some oats for the watery zucchini and mini chocolate chips, and used silicone cupcake liners.
another must try recipe! excited to stash some in the freezer as well !!!!
Nancylynn says
Yes, definitely stash some in the freezer! Thank you for your feedback!
Victoria says
Made it as a loaf today and love how great it tastes. So easy to make. Used buckwheat flour and added walnut pieces instead of chocolate chips.
Nancylynn says
Ohh those are great substitutions! Thank you for sharing!
Megan says
These were surprisingly delicious! I made half size big muffins and 24 mini ones out of this recipe to take to a play date at our church and they were a hit with everyone there. Thank you so much for this healthy recipe that helped me sneak some veggies into my kiddo too!
Nancylynn says
Oooh LOVE that you shared them and everyone enjoyed – what a compliment!
Amber says
I give these 5 stars!! They were easy to make and so good! They were perfect for our busy mornings! Will definitely make again.
Nancylynn says
This is great to hear! I’m all about making busy mornings easier! Thanks, Amber!
Annie says
These turned out really good. I used whole wheat flour so they weren’t quite as fluffy and light as I hoped but the flavors were nice.
Nancylynn says
So glad you liked them!
Carrie Chamberlain says
These are super yummy and easy to make. I added the oats and they were the perfect consistency.
Nancylynn says
So glad you liked them, Carrie! Thanks for the feedback about the oats!
Theresa Lane says
These have been on repeat at our house! The kids keep requesting them and I’m not mad about it! They’re sooo sooo good! I’ve been using 1/2 AP Flour and 1/2 whole wheat. Another family favorite from CFF!
Nancylynn says
Oh good info on the flour, thank you! SOO glad your kids love them!!
Lauren says
Is it possible to use powdered monkfruit instead of the maple syrup?
Nancylynn says
I haven’t worked with powdered monkfruit, so I’m not sure. It probably won’t substitute the same since maple syrup is liquid vs. powdered monkfruit. But let us know if you try it!
Megan says
Love these muffins! Second time making them and they’re perfect!!
Sue says
I made this recipe using oat flour.
And I was so excited how yummy these were! A winner recipe and one I will continue to make for years to come.
Nancylynn says
That is great news! Thank you!!
Nikki says
Delicious!!!
Why no green container count?! 😭😭😭
Nancylynn says
It’s just not enough to count 🙁
April says
Could I use honey instead of maple syrup?
Nancylynn says
Yes!
Shannon says
Do you add the oats whole or ground?
Nancylynn says
Whole!
Elana Allende says
What can I use in place of apple cider vinegar and coconut oil? I want to make these today and do not have these items.
Nancylynn says
You can use avocado oil, olive oil, or butter! And you can omit the apple cider vinegar!
Sharon says
Is there a swap for the maple syrup?
Nancylynn says
You can swap out for honey
Ronna says
Can you use ground oats in place of the options?
Nancylynn says
I use whole, but you can try ground and let us know how it goes!
Michelle Adie says
I am going to make these tomorrow and super excited!! Since there is zucchini in them, why is a green container not counted for this? Just curious. Thank you for sharing such amazing recipes.
Nancylynn says
Because of the chocolate chips they need to be a treat swap! And there is only 1 1/2 cups over 12 muffins- not really enough to count!
Renee Morrison says
These are amazing!!! So glad I made them. Delicious! I’m not a baker either and will definitely be making these again.
MW says
I’m not a baker and I just made these as a loaf and I’m shocked at how well they turned out. They are actually super yummy. That means it’s an excellent recipe because again I’m not a baker.
Nancylynn says
Megan!!! Thank you so much for taking the time to write this comment and review the recipe – you are the best!!