August 19, 2020
Heart Healthy Olive Oil Salted Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins
Heart healthy salted chocolate chip zucchini muffins made with olive oil, almond flour, oat flour and pure maple syrup to keep them gluten free & naturally sweetened. These fluffy chocolate chip zucchini muffins are perfectly moist thanks to shredded zucchini and pack plenty of healthy fats from olive oil. Freezer-friendly and an amazing breakfast or healthy snack!
Prep Time
15 mins
Cook Time
25 mins
Total Time
40 mins
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Did you really think I was going to pass up zucchini season without giving you a healthy zucchini muffin recipe? I mean, they do call me the muffin queen.
Truth be told I was debating doing a zucchini cookie instead of this muffin. I actually tested a few different cookie versions, but never fell head over heels in love so I decided to scrap the cookie and make the BEST healthy zucchini muffin recipe. It took me a few recipe tests, but I believe these are truly perfect.
The deets on these healthy zucchini muffins (that are gluten free!)
- SO fluffy, perfectly sweet thanks to a touch of pure maple syrup
- made with almond flour, olive oil and walnuts for healthy fats and omegas
- include fiber from zucchini and oat flour
- speckled with puddles of dark chocolate chips
- sprinkled with sea salt for that sweet and salty we know and love
You’re going to absolutely LOVE these! They’re a great snack that feels a tiny indulgent, especially with a drizzle of your favorite nut butter on top.
Healthy zucchini muffin ingredients
These delicious, healthy zucchini muffins are made with heart healthy olive oil and, of course, a boost of veggies from zucchini. The combination give these muffins the perfect amount of moisture while still keeping that wonderful crumb. Here’s everything you’ll need:
- Zucchini: to add moisture to these healthy chocolate chip zucchini muffins.
- Maple syrup: to naturally sweeten the zucchini muffins. You can also use honey if you’d like.
- Eggs: you’ll just need 2 eggs in this zucchini muffin recipe. I haven’t tested these with flax eggs but let me know if you do!
- Olive oil: for additional moisture and a boost of heart healthy fats.
- Almond milk: feel free to use any dairy free milk you’d like. I like using unsweetened vanilla almond milk.
- Vanilla extract: for a little flavor boost.
- Oat flour: feel free to use gluten free oat flour if you’d like and check out instructions below for how to easily make it at home! I’ve also included a sub in the note section.
- Almond flour: the second flour to keep these chocolate chip zucchini muffins gluten free. Be sure to use a fine, blanched almond flour. It provides additional healthy fats, too!
- Cinnamon: for that cozy flavor.
- Baking soda & salt: to help these muffins bake up properly.
- Walnuts: I love the nutty crunch chopped walnuts add to these muffins but feel free to omit if you’d like.
- Chocolate chips: who doesn’t love bites of chocolate in their muffins? Feel free to use dairy free chocolate chips to keep the muffins completely dairy free.
How to make your own oat flour for muffins
Good news, you can easily make your own oat flour right at home to use in this muffin recipe. Check out my tutorial with all of my best tips & tricks. So easy!
For this gluten free zucchini muffin recipe, you’ll most likely need at least 1 1/2 cups of gluten free rolled or old-fashioned oats to make about 1 cup gluten free oat flour.
Tips for making gluten free zucchini muffins
- Remember to squeeze your shredded zucchini of all of that excess moisture using a paper towel or cheesecloth so that your muffins don’t turn out too moist. Measure the shredded zucchini out first, then squeeze of all excess moisture.
- Make sure you spray the inside of your muffin liners with nonstick cooking spray to prevent muffins from sticking.
- If you want to keep this recipe dairy free, be sure to use dairy free chocolate chips.
- I haven’t tried making these zucchini muffins with flax eggs, but please let me know in the comments if you do.
Freezer-friendly zucchini muffins
These healthy zucchini muffins are freezer-friendly! Wrap muffins individually in freezer-safe bags or store them in a large freezer bag. When you’re ready to enjoy them, reheat for 30-45 seconds in the microwave or simply thaw them at room temperature.
More zucchini recipes you’ll love
Coconut Chocolate Zucchini Smoothie (with sneaky veggies)
Lemon Blueberry Zucchini Cake with Lemon Frosting
Peanut Butter Zucchini Bread Baked Oatmeal
Grain Free Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Zucchini Bread (2 different ways!)
Healthy Double Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
I hope you love these gluten free healthy zucchini muffins! If you make it be sure to leave a comment and a rating so I know how you liked it. I greatly appreciate it – xo!
Heart Healthy Olive Oil Salted Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Serves 10
Heart healthy olive oil salted chocolate chip zucchini muffins made with almond flour, oat flour and pure maple syrup to keep them gluten free and naturally sweetened. These fluffy chocolate chip zucchini muffins are perfectly moist thanks to shredded zucchini and pack plenty of healthy fats from olive oil. Freezer-friendly and an amazing breakfast or healthy snack!
Ingredients
- For the wet ingredients:
- 1 cup shredded zucchini, squeezed of excess moisture with a paper towel
- ⅓ cup pure maple syrup (or sub honey)
- 2 eggs
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 3 tablespoons almond milk (or dairy free milk of choice)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- For the dry ingredients:
- 1 cup oat flour, gluten free if desired
- 1 cup fine blanched almond flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- For the mix-ins:
- ⅓ cup chopped walnuts
- ⅓ cup chocolate chips (dairy free, if desired), plus 2 tablespoons for sprinkling on top of muffins
Instructions
-
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a muffin tin with 10 muffin liners and grease the inside of the muffin liners with nonstick cooking spray to prevent sticking. This is critical to making sure the muffins don’t stick to the liners.
-
Shred and measure out zucchini, then place in a paper towel or cheese cloth and squeeze out all the excess moisture. Add zucchini to a large bowl, along with maple syrup, eggs, olive oil, almond milk and vanilla extract. Mix until well combined.
-
Next add dry ingredients to the bowl with the wet ingredients: oat flour, almond flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Mix until combined. Fold in the walnuts and chocolate chips.
-
Evenly divide batter into prepared liners. Bake for 23-28 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. After 5 minutes, remove muffins and transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. Enjoy!
-
Sprinkle tops with fancy sea salt and drizzle with nut butter, if desired.
Recipe Notes
Subs for olive oil: If you don't want to use olive oil, you can use melted butter, melted ghee, brown butter, melted vegan butter or melted coconut oil. Just make sure it's melted and cooled to room temp before using.
Feel free to make your own oat flour at home, instructions in the blog post. It's so easy!
Subs for flours: I haven't tried using any other flour for the almond flour, but let me know if you do. I would not recommend coconut flour. If you want to sub oat flour, you can feel free to use regular all purpose flour or a gf 1:1 all purpose flour.
Nutrition
Servings: 10 servings
Serving size: 1 muffin
Calories: 278kcal
Fat: 18.3g
Saturated fat: 3.7g
Carbohydrates: 26.6g
Fiber: 3.4g
Sugar: 13.3g
Protein: 5.5g
Recipe by: Monique Volz // Ambitious Kitchen | Photography by: Eat Love Eats
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59 comments
Hi! I have a question- if I don’t have oat flour, should I sub with more almond flour or AP flour? Thank you! I’m super excited to try this recipe 🙂
You can make your own oat flour at home 🙂 instructions in the post. Otherwise I would try all purpose flour!
Could you make this as a loaf?
I haven’t tried it before, but probably. It would likely be done in 35-45 minutes.
made these last night and LOVED them!! so so good!
how would you recommend storing them?
So happy to hear that! They should stay good in an airtight container at room temp for up to 4-5 days, but if it’s humid where you are I’d recommend putting them in the fridge or freezer after a day or two.
I’m new to your website and notice you use almond flour frequently. My daughter is allergic to all tree nuts and peanuts. Is there a rule of thumb I should use about subsituting a different flour for almond flour? I’m wondering if I have to compensate for the fat that is in almond flour and not in other types of flour (add an extra egg, maybe)?
Thanks.
Hi Alicia! Unfortunately I can’t recommend a 1:1 sub for the flours as I’ve only tested the recipes as-is (unless there’s a note within the post or in the Notes section that suggests a substitute). I’d suggest checking out our nut free section here!
Hi! Looks delicious! Could I exclude the maple syrup/honey or use less?? If I do should I change any other part of the recipe (ex: less flour)?
Hi! I have only tested this recipe as is, so I don’t know for sure what removing the maple syrup would do, but I wouldn’t suggest it. You could definitely try using only 1/4 cup! Let us know how it goes. 🙂
These are perfect! I made them exactly as directed and they turned out so flavourful and not too sweet, which was perfect for the mini semi-sweet chocolate chips I used. I am normally skeptical of olive oil in baked goods but the taste doesn’t shine through – just contributes to the overall delicious flavour. I will definitely be making these again.
Absolutely! Baking with olive oil can be tricky but is so delicious 🙂 glad you loved them!
Love this recipe! Baked for 25 mins, added a bit more sweetener and it was perfect
I’m glad they worked out well! Such a great snack or breakfast 🙂
My 4 year old is soo picky and I just made these and she loves them 🙂 thank you!!!
So happy to hear that! 🙂
I made these two times now because they are SO GOOD and the first batch was gone within 24 hours at my house. highly recommend them!
Amazing! So happy to hear that 🙂
This is so good! I’ve been making a lot of zucchini recipes this summer and these are one of my favorites! so good!
Amazing! I’m so glad 🙂
Hi! I made these using flax eggs and they weren’t as fluffy as I’d like them to be.. Will definitely try again with real eggs. As a bonus, the batter was delicious when eaten raw!!
Hi! Thanks for letting me know! They should be much fluffier with real eggs. Glad the batter was tasty!
I liked these! They weren’t too sweet, which I loved because I don’t like eating super sweet foods in the morning. I followed the recipe as is, other than the following: did not add walnuts, did not sprinkle salt on top, and did not use nut butter. I brought these on a few hikes and they were the perfect snack.
Perfect! I’m glad they worked out well 🙂 such a great snack!
Excellent muffins, you did it again . These are fabulous, great taste and texture. The ingredients were not easy to come by, but eventually found them. Never tried using or eating these types of flours in recipes.
So glad you loved them! Feel free to use the search bar or recipe index to check out more recipes using those flours 🙂
Love these muffins! They are a breakfast staple for me. I make a few batches and freeze them for breakfast. The perfect balanced and healthy muffin and they taste great!
So happy to hear that! One of our favs, too 🙂
These muffins are freaking awesome! I made the recipe as written using 1/3c mini chocolate chips, no nuts and no tin liners, just sprayed the tin. The taste is so good my bf who doesn’t like healthy stuff, loved them. A little sweet but not too much but a little decadent like a cake vs a muffin. The texture is unreal. Super soft, moist and not tough like you normally see with low fat/low sugar baking. These are my new go to healthy muffin recipe!
Perfect! So glad you both enjoyed!
OMG YUM!!! Another great recipe! You can’t just eat one. I substituted the eggs with Paneriso gluten free egg replacer omitted the nuts and nut butter, and you can’t even tell they were part of the recipe. Will definitely make this again. Thanks Ambitious Kitchen!❤️
SO happy to hear you loved them and that those substitutions worked!
Just getting ready to make these for the first time and noticed that under “servings” it says 12, but in step one you say to line a muffin tin with 10 liners. So does this make 10 muffins or 12? Is the nutritional information for 1/10 or 1/12 of the recipe? Thanks!
These are hands down the best muffins I’ve ever made! They were a hearty and easy breakfast snack throughout the week. Plus, typically I feel like my baked goods get stale after a few days but even by the end of the week these were still delicious! I can’t wait to make these again!
Omg, best EVER?! I’m so happy to hear that! 🙂
These muffins are incredible! I love how I can use up that last zucchini I got in the fridge and it’s toddler/husband friendly 🙂 Seriously you have to try this! I used only 1/4 cup honey because the chocolate chips I have are pretty sweet and it was perfect. Thank you Ambitious Kitchen.
Yay!! SO happy that you guys love these muffins, Celia. Glad that the 1/4 cup honey worked well!
These muffins are absolutely delicious! I made them for my 1 year old daughter, and obviously had to do quality control before letting her have one. They are the perfect little delicious muffin with hidden nutrients for picky eaters!
Aw yay!! I’m so happy you love them! 🙂 ❤️
Perfect recipe! I have made them for many people. I love that they pack wholesome goodness, gf, and super tasty. Thank you!
I’m so glad you’re a fan of these, April! Me too 🙂
These are my favourite chocolate chip muffins! I love love love. Also love your oatmeal blueberry muffins! Question: could I use blueberries in this muffin recipe rather than the chips? Unsure with zucchini if it would work well?
Hi, Katie! Yes, I think blueberries will work well in here 🙂 I also have a Healthy Blueberry Zucchini Muffins recipe if you’d prefer!
These muffins are so delicious!! I made them for the first time this past Sunday – they were so good I went back to the store within the week to get another zucchini so I could make them again! My husband is also a huge fan. 10/10 recommend.
These are actually my favorite muffins EVER. They’re not too sweet, SUPER MOIST and so so flavorful. I made 2 weeks in a row!!
These were amazing! Everyone in the house loved them, including my one year old.
Monique, I’m wondering if you know what I did wrong – some of the muffins had a ‘soda’ taste to them. They were still amazing but I’m wondering if have ever had this issue with your baking and have any ideas for what I should do differently next time…? I am such a loyal AK baker!
Hi, Lauren! So glad that you guys loved them. That’s so strange. Only thing I can think of is that maybe you measured the baking soda wrong? Are you sure you did 1 teaspoon, not 1 tablespoon?
This may be a silly question but do you measure the zucchini before or after you squeeze the excess moisture out?
Nevermind! Just read the entire post and found my answer – measure before squeezing.
These turned out SO GREAT! Don’t be like me and read the recipe before asking questions 😅
Hahaha no worries!! Glad you found the answer and loved these 🙂
This is my go-to zucchini muffin recipe! These are delicious, soft, and hold well in the fridge. You can’t even tell they are gluten free. Amazing!!
I’m so happy you love them, Kali! Thank you SO much for the review 🙂
Nice recipe
I will try at home..
I really like this Delicious cookies cake..
While I was mixing in the dry ingredients, it became very dry. I had to add more (I used oat milk). Was not a moist batter I could not easily spoon it into the muffin pan. Any hints in what to do?
Hmm not sure! Did you follow the recipe precisely? It should have looked like the batter in the photo above^ in the blog post.
These were the best gluten free muffins I have ever made! Usually, every time I bake something gluten free it is the wrong texture and consistency. These are outstanding!
Thank you!
I’m SO glad to hear that, Sally! Thank you!