Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

I had a lot of zucchini lying around and I was debating between making a bread or muffins.  Since muffins are a staple in my house, it was an easy decision.  And since everything has to have chocolate (my little one's request), we decided to bake chocolate zucchini muffins.  An early wake-up call meant going downstairs, dressing up in our matching aprons and having a fun morning.

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1-1/3 cup sugar

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2/3 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups grated zucchini

1-1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.  Line muffin tins with liners or spray them.

2. In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.  Set aside.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, applesauce, oil, milk and vanilla extract.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.  Fold in the zucchini and chocolate chips.

4. Divide the batter amongst each cavity; each should be pretty full.  Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Cool 5-10 minutes in pan and then move to a cooling rack until completely cool.

Makes 24 muffins.

These taste especially good while warm as the chips are still gooey, but they still taste delicious when cooled.  They have a nice texture and are really quite moist.  You can't even tell that there's zucchini in them.  We will definitely be making them again - and sharing with our friends!