Pumpkin Zucchini Muffins

These Pumpkin Zucchini Muffins are perfect for this time of year. It’s the perfect breakfast treat and autumn comfort food. They’re so good for you since they’re loaded with pumpkin and zucchini, and incredibly moist and delicious, they’ll blow your mind. What a way to start the day!

I will raise my hand and declare that I am a muffin person. Blueberry, carrot, banana, whatever it is, I will devour it with glee. It’s one of my favorite little breakfast treats since it’s so easy to grab and run out the door with. These muffins are totally different from any I’ve ever made packed with super nutritious pumpkin and zucchini but still sweet and delicious!

These muffins may sound complicated – but believe me they ain’t! The most time intensive part is prepping the zucchini but even then all you need to do is grate it up and squeeze the water out, or free therapy as I like to call it. Other than that, these muffins can be on your table in 45 minutes flat, pretty good for a baked treat I must say.

What’s the deal with zucchini?

There’s so many delicious ways to cook with zucchini, I mean besides the famously moist and delicious Chocolate Zucchini Bread, you can also grill them, roast them, saute them, bake them into Lasagna. The world is your oyster when you’ve got a zucchini in hand!

Why’s pumpkin so great?

Pumpkin is a little powerhouse! It’s packed full of fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants. It’s a nutrient dense low calorie squash that deserves more love year round than just around holidays. So let’s get into it!

Ingredients

• Dry ingredients – All purpose flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt.
• Wet ingredients – Pumpkin, grated zucchini, egg, melted unsalted butter, vanilla extract, and milk.
• Pepitas – To be sprinkled over top before baking yum! Also known as pumpkin seeds. Secret here is to toast them in the oven for a few minutes first, it makes all the difference.
• Turbinado Sugar – It’s a raw sugar, golden-brown in color and it often used as a sweetener or topping on baked goods. If you can’t find, regular brown sugar works as well.

Other mix-ins

I kept these nice and basic especially when introducing you guys to such a new and innovative muffin, but you are free to add some fun mix-ins!

• Try dried fruits like raisins, cranberries, and chopped apricot.
• You can also use nuts! I love to use soft varieties like pecans and walnuts. These are also great substitutions for the pepitas used as a topping. Try out sliced almonds on top for a bit more crunch.
• Do you have a bit of a sweet tooth? Try out some chocolate chips. But, if you want to keep these healthier, you can add some diced apples for a bit of a sweet bite.

How to make Pumpkin Zucchini Muffins

1. Prepare oven and muffin pan: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Spray a 6 or 12 muffing baking pan with cooking spray, or line it with muffin liners.
2. Combine dry ingredients: In a large bowl combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
3. Combine wet ingredients: In another bowl whisk the pumpkin, zucchini with the egg, melted butter, milk and vanilla extract.
4. Make batter: Add the pumpkin zucchini mixture to the flour mixture and using a spatula mix everything until the flour is moistened, don’t over mix, and keep in mind the batter will be a bit lumpy. Just mix until you can no longer see white flour in the batter.
5. Spoon into muffin tin: Spoon the muffin batter (I used an ice cream scoop) into the prepared muffin pan. You will completely fill the muffin cups, this way you will get nice muffins with perfect domes. The batter should be enough for 12 small muffins or 6 jumbo muffins. Top each muffin with a few pepitas, then sprinkle with some turbinado sugar or brown sugar.
6. Bake: Turn down the oven to 400 F degrees and place the muffins in the oven. Bake them for about 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden brown and baked inside.

Gluten free option

If you choose to use gluten free flour you’ll need to be sure to use a good binder like xanthan gum. Keep in mind that you want to use 1/4 teaspoon per cup of flour.

How to toast pepitas

1. Preheat your oven to 150 F degrees. Spread parchment paper over a baking sheet.
2. Mix pepitas with a little drizzle of olive oil and stir well before sprinkling some salt over top.
3. Bake the pepitas for 10 – 15 minutes, shaking the pan halfway through.

How to tell when muffins are done baking

Insert a toothpick into the thickest part of one of the muffins in the tin. If the toothpick comes out clean, your muffins are done baking. If there is any batter sticking to the toothpick, bake for 5-10 minutes at a time until the toothpick comes out clean. Use a new toothpick for each test.

The hey is in the batter

Now a lumpy thick batter may look counter intuitive to some of us, but that’s exactly what we’re going for with these muffins! Don’t over mix your batter because you’ll fight with the batter, creating gluten and giving us muffins that are way too dense. We want an ugly, messy batter so the less perfect the better!

Leftovers

Store these pumpkin zucchini muffins in either a plastic bag, plastic wrap, or an airtight container. They will last at room temperature for 3 days or in your fridge for 1 week. These are extra delicious if you reheat them for about 30 seconds in the microwave before digging in!

Freezing

Wrap these muffins individually with either plastic wrap or foil, or you can place them all in a large freezer bag or airtight container. Reheat by putting them in the microwave for 1 minute, or until heated through.

More Drool Worthy Muffins:

• The Perfect Banana Muffins
• Apple Coffee Cake Muffins
• Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Muffins
• Jumbo Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins
• Carrot Cake Muffins
• Bakery Style Blueberry Muffins
• Breakfast Egg Muffins
• Banana Nut Muffins