Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is when a farmer offers a certain number of “shares” to the public. Interested consumers then purchase a share to receive a box of seasonal produce each week throughout the farming season. The produce is fairly priced, local grown, and in my case, organic.
If you’ve been reading about seasonal vegetables, I’m sure you’ve heard that zucchini is in season. This is great, except that I had no idea what to do with so much zucchini! I’ve been getting at least 2 zucchini pieces from my CSA share every single week! So after some deliberation, I thought I’d turn them into muffins.
My favorite part to eat are the muffin tops, as they are often softer and more chewy than the rest. I do find it strange that people refer to their excess stomachs as muffin tops because well, that’s just gross, no?
Speaking of which, this recipe is a bit more waist-friendly. I used half all-purpose flour and half whole wheat flour, used less butter and used honey with brown sugar for sweetness. Since zucchini is not a sweet vegetable by nature, I needed to make sure there was enough sugar. I thought they came out really good!
Adapted from Simply Recipes
Ingredients:
3 cups of grated fresh zucchini
1.5 cups of whole wheat flour
1.5 cups of all-purpose flour
1 cup of walnuts, chopped
1/2 cup of honey
1/3 cup of brown sugar
1/3 cup of unsalted butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
2 teaspoons of baking soda
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
A pinch of salt
Procedure:
1. Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Grate zucchini into a bowl.
2. In a large bowl combine the sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Stir in the grated zucchini and then the melted butter. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the zucchini mixture and mix in.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Stir these dry ingredients into the zucchini mixture. Stir in walnuts, raisins or cranberries (if using).
4. Coat each muffin cup in your muffin pan with a little butter or vegetable oil spray. Use a spoon to distribute the muffin dough equally among the cups, filling the cups up completely.
5. Bake on the middle rack until muffins are golden brown, and the top of the muffins bounce back when you press on them, about 25 to 30 minutes. Test with a long toothpick (or a chopstick) to make sure the center of the muffins are done.
6. Set on wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Remove muffins from the tin let cool another 20 minutes.
This looks delicious. I’ve really gotta try some of these recipes when I get settled and have a free day!
September 8, 2009
How did you wait 20 minutes for those to cool that’s quite impressive…I would’ve burnt my mouth 5 minutes in haha.
I’ve never heard of people referring to their excess adipose as muffin tops…actually I wish I’d never known. I’ll never look at muffins the same way again