wait, there's green in my muffin!

The other night I discovered a new food blog, Pinch My Salt. It's filled with lovely photographs and beautiful looking recipes. And when I spotted the recipe for Chocolate Zucchini Muffins, I knew it would be the perfect recipe to start off the long Labour Day weekend. These muffins use applesauce instead of a lot of oil and I definitely liked the sound of a low-fat treat. I had a little bit of applesauce in the fridge, but I quickly made some more out of 2 very large and truthfully, rather unappealing Granny Smith apples. Here's my very simple recipe for applesauce.

applesauce
2 large apples, diced or sliced thinly
1/4 c of water or more
1 t cinnamon

1. Combine all three ingredients into a medium sized pot. Turn heat to medium and cover. Stir occassionally, adding more water if needed. About 20 minutes later, you should have applesauce! You can blend it or mash it with a fork to acheive a fine purreed consistency. Or enjoy it a bit chunky. Makes about 3 cups.

Cornelius is pretty much enamoured with these muffins...the only thing he would have changed to improve them slightly is to add mashed bananas instead of the applesauce. I'd have to agree.

chocolate zucchini muffins
(adapted from Pinch My Salt)
1/4 c sugar
3 T vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 c applesauce or mushed bananas
2 c all-purpose flour
2 T unsweetened cocoa
1 1/4 t baking soda
1 t. ground cinnamon
1/4 t salt
1 1/2 c finely shredded zucchini
1/2 c semisweet chocolate chips
cooking spray

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. In a large bowl, combine the sugar, oil and eggs until pale and creamy. Add in the fruit puree and mix well.

3. In another bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Add this dry mixture to the wet ingredients, stirring until just combined. Add in the zucchini and chocolate chips and mix well.

4. Drop batter into muffins tins sprayed with oil. Fill about 3/4 full. Bake for about 20 minutes or until done. Makes about 18 muffins.