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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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?
Need more zucchini recipes?
- Zucchini Feta Fritters with Lime
- Whole Wheat Dark Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes
- Glazed Zucchini Lemon Bread Recipe (Whole Grain, Dairy Free)
- Garlic Cheese Zucchini Bread Recipe (100% Whole Wheat)
Zucchini Cinnamon Freezer Muffins
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
- 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
This recipe has been updated - it was originally published in October of 2010.
Mindy Cullen says
Can all purpose flour be used instead of the wheat flour
Jami says
Yes!
Mary says
What can I substitute for the sour cream or yogurt? Never have those things at my house.
Jami says
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).
Becky says
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.
Jami says
Totally agree, Becky!