It’s that time again. Beware. Don’t leave your doors unlocked at night in case the mysterious Zucchini Dumper shows up during the night and leaves gifts of oversized green produce on your kitchen counter. I’ve never quite figured out why people don’t notice these things growing in their garden before they get to baseball-bat size. But it seems that they all think that the best place to unload these behemoths is on their friendly neighborhood innkeeper. So with my fridge full of green goodies it was time to dig out my favorite zucchini recipes. Guests at The White Oak Inn this morning were treated to these spicy citrus muffins, hot out of the oven. This recipe makes about 36 muffins. You can make the batter up ahead of time and store in the refrigerator for up to a week. Just scoop and bake as needed. I wouldn’t recommend freezing this batter because it will go too watery when thawed.
Note: Whenever we slice oranges we throw the “ends” into a ziploc in the freezer. We chop these up very finely in a food processor or grinder to use in recipes that call for orange rind. It is a coarser chop, so doesn’t work in all recipes, but is perfect for muffins.
INGREDIENTS
4 cups of shredded zucchini
5 cups flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
6 eggs
3 cups brown sugar
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
1/3 cup orange juice
1/2 cup of chopped orange ends (see note above) or
1 whole orange cut into 8 pieces and pureed in a blender
2 teaspoons vanilla
Optional – 1 cup of chopped pecans
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray muffin tins with cooking spray, or line with paper liners.
Measure flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt into a large bowl and mix well.
Beat eggs with brown sugar. Add oil, orange juice and vanilla. Mix in chopped orange and shredded zucchini and stir together.
Make a well in the dry ingredients. Pour zucchini mixture over top. If using nuts, add now. Fold gently together just until dry ingredients are all moistened.
Fill muffin tins 3/4 full and bake at 350 degrees for about 18 to 20 minutes.
The White Oak Inn
http://www.whiteoakinn.com/
Yvonne Martin
Bed and Breakfast Foodie
I made half a batch of these a couple of days ago, using an overgrown yellow crook-neck squash instead of zucchini (peeled & seeded) — I was expecting 18 muffins but got 24 plus 3 mini loaves. Very good!
It's a big help being able to prepare the batter ahead of time, & it worked fine for me keeping it overnight. I also love your idea of freezing & grinding "orange ends" & will start doing that with the next crop of oranges — I'm going to try it with lemons too.
So glad I found you! Many thanks, & keep up the good work