Apple Zucchini Muffins

Cinnamon apple zucchini muffins or bread is a great mix with fresh fruit and vegetables inside. A sweet baked good for breakfast or dessert. If you loved our moist zucchini bread this is a great way to make it quicker in a muffin tin.

It’s time for the best muffin recipe recipe y’all!! If you too love grab and go breakfasts then get ready. You can combine fruit and veggies in one bite and your kids won’t even notice! A healthier bite you can enjoy all year long.

Yes you have most likely made a batch of my easy moist zucchini bread before, but you NEED to go a step further. You can make this into a loaf most certainly but we are a grab and go kinda’ family so these are perfect for busy mornings.

If you are a busy mom like me you too love muffin tin recipes right? I mean this is a given, sweet and served in the morning but it’s a great size for all sorts of other dishes too. Take a peek at the other ideas in that post too and you too will be hooked!

Ingredient Notes

You will start with a large bowl to add your dry All purpose flour into but make sure you measure flour properly or it will become dense.

Baking powder and salt should be whisked in with this together.

You want whole Milk, or 2% at least to keep it moist. if you need to use a dairy free alternative I would recommend plain or vanilla cashew milk as it is the creamiest and thickest type.

Sugar, I usually use white and haven’t tested this with raw turbinado sugar as of yet. A sugar free alternative like Splenda would likely be fine as long as it was at a 1:1 ratio.

You want some salted melted butter or dairy free alternative. If you use the latter you would want to add a pinch of salt since that is quite bland.

A large Egg is best added at room temperature and whisked first before adding into your bowl with the wet ingredients.

Cored, peeled (or not), diced apples should be folded into the batter at the end. If you want them to stay firmer choose

Shredded cup of zucchini should be gently pressed in between a few paper towels to remove excess moisture before folding it into the mixture so it doesn’t break apart. I use this method for any and all zucchini dessert recipes. You could add 1/2 cup of crushed nuts inside if you wanted

How Long to Bake This into a Loaf

Whether you make a loaf, regular size or mini muffins this batter will work for all of them. I guess the other part of these smaller versions is you get that nice outer crisp on each one, and they bake faster too. 😉 Baked in a loaf pan it would take 50-60 minutes to get done in the middle, that is another great option.

Now you could in fact leave the fruit out. You could even swap those out for shredded carrots instead, or even raisins. Both provide added moisture, flavor, sweetness and texture too.

Do you squeeze water out of zucchini to bake bread?

I wouldn’t say squeeze is the right term, that is a bit much. Instead what I do is lay 4 paper towels down. Place your cheese grater on top and shred. Once you have enough roll those up and use your hand to gently press down.

You can see how I do it in the photo above here. See how much water is absorbed? You don’t want that in your batter. It will make your end result more dense with the excess liquid.

Always add fruit, vegetables, nuts, and/or chocolate chips into baked goods at the end. Gently fold in just so they’re incorporated. This is really important when using delicate items like in our zucchini blueberry muffins.

How can I make zucchini muffins light and fluffy?

One of the biggest tips is to make sure your eggs, butter and milk are at room temperature before adding them. That means you should think ahead and take out about an hour before baking.

Also the tips I shared above help. Measure your flour correctly (no scooping) and remove excess liquid from your add ins. Follow these baking hacks and you’ll see the difference.

Tips

You could leave out the veggies and increase the amount of apples instead. I like the combination of both for texture and flavor purposes. Use our recipe below for the batter or use our easy muffin recipe and just add diced fruit.

You can either spray the insides with non stick spray or use liners. If making apple zucchini bread spray your loaf pan or lay a piece of parchment paper across the width of it. You can add a crumble or crumb topping for muffins on some, none or all of them at the end. Beyond that you could add a small bit of frosting before enjoying them as well.

They are super easy muffin tin treats that we love during the summertime for sure. When our vegetable garden is booming with this green veggie we need all the ideas we can get!

How do I know when muffins are done?

Some swear by the toothpick method. I think that they can get a big over done and dry if you don’t use your own feelers. By that I mean I want them just baked so I gently touch the middle at the top. The minute they spring back I yank them out and also remove them from the pan itself. That will take anywhere from 18 – 20 minutes depending on how full you filled them and your altitude.

Other vegetable muffins you’ll love

Looking for more goodies to eat in the morning? We have lots of ideas but will share similar ones to this below here: Our zucchini pumpkin muffins and zucchini carrot muffins are the bomb in the Fall and all year long.

Banana zucchini muffins are great if you have overripe fruit on hand and don’t want to throw them out. Combine two again with this apple carrot muffin recipe here. Want to make some pumpkin apple bread or make this into a loaf? Follow the timing in this recipe.