Zucchinipocolypse FTW

Our produce cleaned up at the county fair.

The beans, zucchini, and pattypan squash are from our garden.

So is this.

Zucchini Pineapple Coconut Muffins

Based on the Elena's Pantry recipe for Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins, these are entirely fruit-sweetened.

• 8 oz can of pineapple in its own juice (tidbits or crushed - if you get rings or bigger chunks, you'll want to chop them up. I suppose you could use fresh pineapple plus a few tablespoons of sweetener if you prefer)
• Enough shredded zucchini to make 1 1/2 cups when combined with drained pineapple (a bit more than 1 cup)
• 1/3 cup coconut flour
• 2 eggs
• Scant 1/4 teaspoon salt (I used 1/4 teaspoon, and they ended up a touch on the salty side)
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 1/3 cup shredded coconut + extra to sprinkle on top.

Drain juice from pineapple (get as much out as you can - you want as much liquid as you can get for the next step, and for the remaining pineapple to be as dry as possible). Simmer pineapple juice in a small saucepan for a while to reduce. I didn't measure the end product exactly - probably a tablespoon or two.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Combine pineapple and zucchini. Squeeze out excess liquid.

Combine coconut flour, salt, and baking soda in one bowl. Combine wet ingredients, zucchini, and pineapple in another bowl, then mix in dry ingredients.

Spoon batter into muffin tin (I suggest liners - greasing them didn't work well for me). Sprinkle each muffin with a little shredded coconut.

Bake 18-22 minutes for mini muffins, or 25-30 minutes for larger muffins. Or longer - start there and see how they are.

This recipe makes 6 mediumish muffins, or 12 mini-muffins.


I highly suggest being sure to squeeze out the excess liquid and using liners...

When I make them again, I think I'll reduce the coconut oil to 2 tbsp and cook them a little longer. They were a bit on the greasy side, and the bottoms weren't particularly done.

For the coconut flour, I used the leftover pulp from making coconut milk (as that's basically what coconut flour is - coconut that has been defatted and finely ground. Convenient, right?). Just straight from the blender, with as much of the milk squeezed out as possible - I didn't dry it out first, as the homemade coconut flour recipes recommend - seems like a waste of energy, and easier just to cut back on the wet ingredients a bit if necessary. As such, I have no idea if it behaved anything like commercial coconut flour, as I've never baked with it. But they were acceptable for our purposes.

Comments on the original recipe have suggestions for making them eggless with ground flaxseed and/or applesauce.