This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
These hearty, sweet gluten free zucchini muffins are made with healthy fats and some whole grains, and they're relatively low in sugar. Add chocolate chips, raisins, or chopped nuts, or leave them plain!
Why you'll love this recipe
These muffins are moist, tender, and only lightly sweet but still really flavorful. They're healthier than most, but definitely not “diet” muffins.
They’re made with a combination of an all purpose gluten free flour blend and whole grain oat flour, and of course tons of zucchini (insert zucchini emoji here, why isn’t there one?).
There’s only half a cup of sugar in the whole dozen+ batch of generously-sized muffins. You can use raisins instead of chocolate chips, but I like the bits of chocolate in each bite.
I love spreading a spoonful of nut butter on them in the mornings for a more substantial breakfast, but I've also reached for them after dinner as a sweet-but-not-too-sweet treat.
what's in it
Recipe ingredients
- Zucchini – make sure that you squeeze out as much moisture as you can
- Gluten free flour – I usually use Better Batter, but you use any of my favorite all purpose gluten free flour blends to make these muffins successfully. If your blend doesn't have xanthan gum, be sure to add some or your muffins won't hold together!
- Oat flour – Save money by making your own — just grinding oats in a blender
- Salt – Brings out and balances all the other flavors
- Sugar – There's just enough in this recipe for a touch of sweetness and to make the muffins nice and tender
- Coconut oil – This is a healthier alternative to other types of oil
- Eggs – The eggs bind the muffins together, make them a little cakier, and also give the muffins some lift
- Buttermilk – The acidity adds some gentle tangy depth of flavor; it also helps to create a higher rise
Draining moisture from the grated zucchini
Zucchini is around 95% water! All that water will make your baked goods overly fluffy and relatively flavorless. That's why you have to squeeze as much water out of the zucchini as possible.
A kitchen towel with a flat weave (known as a tea towel) works fine, but a fine mesh bag works even better. I have a nut milk bag that has dedicated its life to draining my zucchini.
Some recipes are formulated to be made with zucchini that hasn't been drained of excess moisture, but zucchini vary a ton in their moisture content from one to the next. That makes it very difficult to control for the amount of moisture in your zucchini versus my zucchini. Or even in two of my very own zucchini.
Never attempt to bake with one of those enormous zucchini that you left for a day too long in the garden during the hottest days of the year. If your zucchini has been left to grow for too long, past a certain point of growth it's just gaining water.
Even if you're baking with appropriately-sized zucchini, there is a fair amount of variation in moisture content. By squeezing the water out of your grated zucchini, we're controlling for that.
A muffin batter that has too much water will expand quickly in the oven. The muffins would look puffy when they're just baked, but they'd sink in the middle as they cooled, and before we know it, you're commenting on this post that the recipe is terrible!
My Pro Tip
Expert tips
Use a box grater for fast results
I find that a box grater is the most convenient way to grate zucchini. It's easy to get a firm grip by holding the handle at the top, and then all you have to do is pass the zucchini back and forth over the grater.
If you have a box grater with multiple grating options, use the smallest to make it easier to mix the zucchini with the other ingredients.
Fill your muffin tin wells for big muffin tops
I’ve switched to making about 12 muffins from making nearly double that with the same amount of muffin batter. I just love a muffin with a true muffin top, so I now fill those muffin cups all the way to the top.
Filling the wells to the top, you may get 12 muffins or you may get more. It will depend on the size of the wells in your muffin tin.
I’m pretty sure I’m the only one in my family who cares about the beauty of the muffins at all. But a muffin top has a slightly crisp texture around the edges that a muffin without a true top simply doesn’t.
Cool your muffins on a wire rack
If you leave your healthy zucchini muffins to cool in the muffin pan, you may find them to have soggy bottoms when it's time enjoy the fruits of your labor.
To prevent this, just remove them from the pan after they've had a chance to cool for a few minutes. I like to put them on a wire rack so that there's plenty of airflow to help dissipate escaping steam.
substitutions
Ingredient substitutions
If you have to accommodate other dietary needs and preferences when making these muffins, here are some of my suggestions for making ingredient substitutions.
Dairy free
These muffins aren't made with butter, so there's no need to replace the fat. But if you can't have dairy, you'll need to replace the buttermilk.
My favorite way to replace buttermilk is half plain yogurt, half milk. If you can have dairy, you can use dairy ingredients. If not, use nondairy plain yogurt and unsweetened plain nondairy milk, like almond milk. Just be sure that your chocolate chips are dairy free.
Egg free
There are a lot of eggs in this recipe, so I don't recommend replacing them with an egg replacer. With this many eggs, you really need a different recipe. So sorry!
Oat free
I don't usually buy oat flour, but I bake with it all the time by grinding my own oat flour in a blender.
If you can’t have oats, try quinoa flakes as a substitute for oats in this recipe.
Sugar free
I've never made these zucchini muffins with a sugar alternative, but if you're aiming for a refined sugar free life, you can try Lankato brand monk fruit granulated sugar as a replacement for the white sugar in this recipe.
You can also try coconut sugar, but I would expect that the muffins will taste a little different as coconut sugar tends to taste more like brown sugar, and is quite heavy. I don't recommend liquid sugars like maple syrup or honey for this recipe.
Substituting coconut oil
The virgin coconut oil that’s called for in this recipe is the jarred kind that’s semi solid at cool room temperature. Well, in the middle of the summer in my house, it tends to be kind of a liquid—but you know what I mean.
If you don’t have coconut oil, you can use vegan butter or even unsalted butter in its place. Nearly any fat that is mostly solid at room temperature should work.
FAQs
No, you cannot taste the zucchini in these muffins, and that's one of the most amazing things about this recipe. Zucchini adds a ton of moisture to these muffins (plus healthy vitamins and nutrients!), without any added taste.
No, you do not have to peel your zucchini before grating. You're welcome to, but there's really no need — leaving the skin on the zucchini doesn't affect the taste or texture of the muffins at all.
I don't recommend using almond flour for this muffin recipe. If you'd like to bake muffins with almond flour, try our bakery-style almond flour muffins!
No, it's better to use my gluten free zucchini bread recipe if you'd rather use a loaf pan than muffin tin. The ingredient ratios in that recipe have been perfected for bread.
The stated baking time is about 20 minutes, but baking time can always vary from oven to oven. Your zucchini muffins are ready when they spring back up after a gentle press or when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out with just a few, moist crumbs.
Storage suggestions
These zucchini muffins are so tasty that you might be tempted to eat them all up as soon as they've had time to cool. I'm not saying you can't do that, but if you did want to save some for later, you'd have no problem doing so.
You can store your zucchini muffins at room temperature by leaving them on the counter. They'll last at least a couple days, but it's important that they stay in an airtight container to keep them from drying out. I like using zip-top bags.
Freezing them
These muffins freeze very well in a freezer-safe container for up to three months. Just eliminate as much air as possible from the container before freezing the muffins in a single layer, and defrost frozen zucchini muffins on the counter overnight before serving. They can be refreshed in the toaster oven before serving.
Gluten Free Zucchini Muffins Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 ¼ cups (310 g) grated fresh zucchini
- 1 ½ cups (210 g) all purpose gluten free flour blend, (I used Better Batter; click thru for details)
- ¾ teaspoon xanthan gum, omit if your blend already contains it
- ⅔ cup (80 g) certified gluten free oat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (112 g) virgin coconut oil, melted and cooled
- 4 (200 g (weighed out of shell)) eggs, at room temperature, beaten
- ½ cup (4 fluid ounces) buttermilk, at room temperature
- 1 cup (100 g) raisins, chopped nuts, chocolate chips or other small dried fruit
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease a standard 12-cup muffin tin and set it aside.
Drain the zucchini.
- Place the grated zucchini in the center of a large clean tea towel (a kitchen towel with a flat weave) or in a fine mesh bag.
- Gather the towel or bag around the zucchini, and twist tightly to squeeze out as much liquid as possible. It should reduce in weight by nearly half.
- Set the zucchini aside.
Make the muffin batter.
- In a large bowl, place the all purpose flour, xanthan gum, oat flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar, and whisk to combine well.
- Add the grated zucchini and mix to combine, breaking up any clumps.
- Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the coconut oil, eggs, and buttermilk, and mix to combine. The batter will be thick but not stiff.
- Add the chocolate chips, raisins or chopped nuts, and mix until they are evenly distributed throughout the batter.
- Fill the prepared wells of the muffin tins about completely full of batter. With wet fingers, smooth the tops of the batter in the wells.
Bake the muffins.
- Place the muffin tin in the center of the preheated oven. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the tops of the muffins spring back when pressed gently and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean, or with a few moist crumbs attached.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- If you have any leftover batter, repeat with whatever remains.
How to store leftover muffins.
- These muffins freeze very well in a freezer-safe container. Just eliminate as much air as possible from the container before freezing the muffins in a single layer.
- defrost on the counter overnight before serving. They can be refreshed in the toaster oven before serving.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Is the zucchini measurement for after we squeezed the water out or before with water?
Hi, Christine, the weight is before it’s wrung out, since the wringing directions are in the recipe itself.
These turned out amazing and fluffy, akin to muffins “before we were gluten free.” First time I have made these, and I followed the recipe using your Mock Cup4cup flour. I did shred my zucchini, weigh it out, and freeze it ahead of time, though, and was not sure if that would work. Worked great! I marked each bag to be used for the muffin recipe. It worked perfectly fine, and helped me to prep and save a bunch of zucchini which might have gone bad otherwise.
Yes, Neva, I’m so glad you were able to shred, measure, and freeze zucchini. Save the zucchini!
This recipe for Zucchini muffins s delicious. I usually bake with less sugar than a recipe calls for but these only have 1/2 cup so I let t be. I added all three additions not a cup each just kind of looked at the batter and put in walnuts raisins and chocolate chips. They are so good buttery tasting and not too sweet. I made a double recipe and fronte them. I just take one out when I want a muffin and microwave for 30 seconds. I love that the recipe uses quite a bit of zucchini because I have plenty.
Thank you for this recipe and many others I have used over the years. Keep up the good work.
This recipe was perfect! Just sweet enough to be delicious but not overly sugary.
I think my zucchini was super watery. I weighed it after squeezing in a tea towel and it was much less than half its original weight. So I took a bit more grated zucchini and squeezed it until I had ~160 grams of squeezed-out zucchini. Thanks for the detailed weight descriptions that helped me work with what I had! Also, I was pleasantly surprised by how quick it was to grind my own oat flour in my Nutribullet.
So glad you enjoyed it! Wringing the excess moisture out of the zucchini is really the only way to standardize the recipe. I’m so glad you appreciated that!
Hi Nicole!
I’m willing to try this recepy for my children lunch box tomorrow… Both have lots of intolerances which makes a big challenge to cook /bake… They can’t have nuts, milk, gluten or regular sugar (crazy that sugar makes them sick, most children get energy from it)… Could I make below replacements:
1. Cup 4 cup blend (from your own blend as I bought all flours and have them in my pantry, I can’t find pectin to make better batter)
2. Coconut sugar or erythritol (or mix of these) to replace sugar..
3. Coconutmilk (from carton) + 1tbs lemon juice (to replace buttermilk). I could use also a coconut+rice drink they tolerate also really good…
Do you think allá these swaps would work?
Thank you so much for your support…
Hi, Nathaly, you can definitely use my mock Cup4Cup flour in this or any other recipe that calls for an all purpose gluten free flour. The oat flour is different. I don’t recommend using coconut sugar, as it is heavier and granier than granulated sugar. And please see the Ingredients and substitutions section for the other subs. I’m afraid that’s all the info I have!
Since my recent celiac diagnosis, I haven’t had that much success with GF baking, but I made these muffins today and they are amazing! So moist and flavorful. Followed your recipe using butter and milk/ yogurt substitutions you recommended. Thank you for the great recipe.
I’m so glad you were successful, Nan! Hopefully that gave you the confidence you need to keep baking. :)
Great recipe!
I made Them with gluten free flour from your site
I hadn’t baked in so long, but the zucchini is stacking up and we’re still eating it raw. I needed a little treat! The sugar was plenty. Next time I might add vanilla and I did put in a teaspoon of cinnamon with the dried cranberries
Zucchini will not be ignored, Valerie! I’m glad you found this use for it. Your plans for adding some cinnamon and dried cranberries sound great.
Made this with my three year old and turned out great! I used 1/4C quinoa flour and 1/4C oat flour, added dark chocolate chips and pecans, and it was lovely! Great fluffy texture, not overly sweet, rose beautifully, and had a nice color!
Thanks for a wonderful recipe!
Those are risky substitutions, Elaine. I’m glad they worked out for you. For others’ benefit, those are not all purpose gluten free flours and generally won’t work in recipes that aren’t designed for them.
Baked these today with a freshly picked zucchini. I used quinoa flour because I did not have oat flour. I used mini chocolate chips in them. This is a wonderful tasty,moist treat!!. We’ll be making frequently. Thank you, Nicole!
Interesting swap, Mary. Glad it worked!!
I made these muffins the other day and added 1/2 cup chocolate chips and the 3/4 cup of craisins. I sprinkled vanilla sugar on top the batter. They are delicious!
Ooooh that sounds really delicious, Judy!!