Zucchini Cinnamon Freezer Muffins

My favorite way to preserve zucchini is with these easy to make zucchini cinnamon freezer muffins. You mix up the dough, portion it out, freeze, and then bake right from frozen for warm muffins anytime. Talk about convenient!

After you’ve made these muffins, try one of our other Best Bread Recipes.

zucchini cinnamon freezer muffins

Are you ready to meet your newest favorite recipe for preserving zucchini? I think you will LOVE having this frozen muffin dough ready to be baked whenever you want – it’s super convenient for quick, but warm breakfasts and snacks.

Freezing breads and muffins after they have been baked is nothing new to me and, in fact, is the way I traditionally like to use up garden zucchini.

I found that we actually ate preserved zucchini if I made it into loaves, cookies, cupcakes, cake, and froze them for use throughout the winter rather than grating and freezing the zucchini itself. I just don’t find zucchini as easy to use once it’s been frozen, so grated zucchini just tends to sit in my freezer.

zucchini freezer muffin close

But this recipe for zucchini cinnamon freezer muffins is a revelation! You freeze the muffin dough before it’s cooked and then just cook as many as you need (no thawing needed) when you want fresh-from-the-oven muffins. 

After adapting this recipe to use zucchini, I cooked one muffin right away to see if I liked the muffin itself and I did, but I waited to see how they baked up from frozen before sharing the recipe with you.

All I’ve got to say is…find some zucchini and try this as soon as you can!

They are so good and so easy, and actually, I think these may be the best zucchini muffins I’ve had.

Imagine having warm muffins in 30 minutes without dirtying a bowl or even the muffin pan they cooked in!

Zucchini Cinnamon Freezer Muffins

frozen zucchini muffins in bag

Ingredients

  • whole wheat pastry flour (or half whole wheat/half unbleached all purpose)
  • brown sugar & white sugar
  • baking powder & baking soda
  • salt
  • cinnamon
  • yogurt or sour cream
  • egg
  • zucchini

Directions

After making the simple muffin batter, divide it into lined muffin tins and freeze for 30 minutes, or until firm. (You can, of course, bake some right away if you’d like.)

Then separate the frozen dough cups into baggies based on the number you’d like to cook at one time. For me that is six to fit a six-cup muffin tin.

Label the bags, remove as much air as possible (you can use the straw trick) and throw them back in the freezer. I like to add the directions to each bag so I don’t have to look it up each time – and it also makes it easy to gift a bag of these muffins to friends and family.

frozen zucchini muffins ready to bake

To bake when you want warm muffins:

Plop the frozen muffins in their liners into a muffin tin and bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for about 30 minutes, until lightly browned.

zucchini freezer muffins in pan above

Sometimes I like to sprinkle the tops with cinnamon-sugar before freezing and sometimes with a bit of raw sugar for crunchy sweetness. But they really are just as good plain, too.

You can also add chocolate chips or dried fruit to the batter before freezing, as well as gently mixing in fresh fruit like blueberries or raspberries. It’s fun to experiment!

It’s that simple. Can you believe it?

Oh, where have these muffins been all my zucchini-growing life?

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4.58 from 19 votes

Zucchini Cinnamon Freezer Muffins

Easy muffins you mix up, portion out, freeze, and then bake right from frozen for warm muffins anytime (or eat right away, of course!). A great way to preserve seasonal zucchini!
Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time30 minutes
Freeze Time30 minutes
Total Time1 hour 20 minutes
Yield: 12 -14 muffins
Author: Jami Boys

Ingredients

  • 2 ¼ cup whole wheat pastry flour or half whole wheat and half unbleached
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup white sugar
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
  • 2/3 cup plain yogurt or sour cream
  • 4 tablespoons butter melted
  • 1 egg
  • 2 cups shredded zucchini peeled if you prefer
  • cinnamon-sugar or raw sugar optional for topping

Instructions

  • Place liners in cups of a standard 12-cup muffin tin.*
  • Stir together the flours, sugars, baking powder, soda, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl.
  • In a smaller bowl (a 2-cup measure with pour spout is perfect), mix the yogurt, butter, and egg. Add to the flour mixture, along with the zucchini and stir just until mixed.
  • Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin. Sprinkle with sugar, if desired. Freeze for about 30 minutes until firm and then transfer the individual cups to freezer bags or containers, label and freeze until ready to bake (or bake immediately – see note**).
  • When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees and place as many frozen muffins as you want back into a muffin tin (to keep their shape). Bake for about 30 minutes, or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean. Remove baked muffins from the tin and transfer to a baking rack to cool.***

Notes

*This recipe really makes more than 12- you can get two or three more from one batch and 6 more from a double batch. Just freeze the extra in lined cups or small ramekins if you don’t have more muffin tins.
**You can bake them right away, as well: Bake at 375 for 20 minutes.
***They tend to stick to the paper wrapper after being frozen and baked – you can let them cool fully or use easy-release muffin liners.
Variations (add all to batter before freezing):
  • 1/2 cup of chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup of dried fruit like cranberries or blueberries
  • 3/4 cup of fresh berries – mix in very gently
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Nutrition

Serving: 1muffin | Calories: 199kcal | Carbohydrates: 31g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 30mg | Sodium: 221mg | Potassium: 287mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 15g | Vitamin A: 295IU | Vitamin C: 7mg | Calcium: 70mg | Iron: 1mg
Did you make this recipe?Mention @anoregoncottage or tag #anoregoncottage!
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zucchini cinnamon muffins-bake from frozen

This recipe has been updated – it was originally published in October of 2010.

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Recipe Rating




4.58 from 19 votes (19 ratings without comment)

33 Comments

    1. Not in this case – and not typically with breads, as the extra moisture keeps the dough moist. (Yay – one less thing to do!)

    1. Are you staying away from dairy? If so, try coconut milk: add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice for every cup of full-fat coconut milk to make a sour cream replacement in baked goods.
      If it’s not dairy, you could try buttermilk (milk mixed with vinegar to mimic buttermilk).

  1. These are incredible and do everything you want them to – be delicious, allow you to utilize all of the zucchini that seems to get ripe all at once, be easy-make ahead breakfast treats that are just as good when baked from frozen.

    Only difference for me was the baked from freezer muffins actually came out of their liners better than the few I baked right away.

    For ref I used sour cream and did the mixture of whole wheat – all purpose flours.