Avocado Zucchini Chocolate Muffins

These Avocado Zucchini Chocolate Muffins are filled with healthy fats like olive oil and hemp hearts, and are protein-rich to keep you satisfied all morning!

Ingredients avocado chocolate muffins

While these avocado chocolate muffins are rich and chocolatey, they contain lots of healthy ingredients so you’ll never feel bad eating one for breakfast or as a snack.

To make healthy chocolate muffins, you will need:

• Flour (white, wheat or spelt will work)
• Cocoa powder
• Baking powder and baking soda
• Avocado
• Olive oil
• Egg
• Honey
• Almond milk
• Dark chocolate chips (at least 70% cocoa content, high quality organic chocolate)
• Vanilla
• Zucchini
• Pumpkin seeds
• Hemp hearts

How to make zucchini chocolate muffins

It will take you about 40 minutes to make a batch of these muffins, and then you'll have healthy grab and go breakfasts all week long! Here's how to make them:

1. Mix the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl (flour, baking powder, baking soda and cocoa powder)
2. Mash the avocado. The best way to do this is to use a fork.
3. Add the wet ingredients to the avocado (egg, olive oil, honey, melted chocolate, almond milk and vanilla)
4. Gradually fold the flour into the wet ingredients.
5. Grate the zucchini. You can use a food processor or box grater to do this. Each batch of muffins requires just one zucchini. However, grated zucchini freezes well so if you plan to make this recipe often, you can grate several zucchini at one time and freeze for later.
6. Add the zucchini, pumpkin seeds and hemp hearts and combine well.
7. Fill the muffin trays. I like to use cupcake liners to make these easy to transport, but you can just spray the tins if you prefer.
8. Bake for 22-25 minutes at 375F.

Ingredient substitutions

While baking can be tricky because you have to follow the recipe closely, you can make some substitutions in these zucchini chocolate muffins.

Some of these substitutions even make the muffins healthier. Use wheat flour or spelt flour instead of white flour. You can start with swapping out 50% of the white flour for a healthier option and work up to using it solely in your baked goods.

You can use any kind of nut you prefer (walnuts, almonds, pecans) instead of the pumpkin seeds. You could also use them in place of the hemp hearts, but they won’t blend as well into the batter. You can also leave the nuts and seeds out entirely.

You could also use any other kind of milk you prefer to use. If you need to make this nut free, you can use coconut or dairy milk.

Can you make them egg free?

Eggs are an essential ingredient in baking. They bind the ingredients together and add to the texture and richness. Eggs also help in the leavening process so the muffins are fluffy instead of dense and flat.

If you need to make these muffins egg-free, try using a flax egg replacement instead of omitting it all together. However, I have not personally tried this myself so I would not advise using a flax egg if you are not familiar with it or have not done it before with other baked goods.

Why use avocado?

Believe it or not, avocados make a great substitute for butter! They have a mild flavor and a creamy texture that works great in baked recipes like these zucchini chocolate muffins. Using avocado instead of butter also makes them much healthier. It cuts the fat by about 40% and increases the nutritional value.

Avocados contain lots of antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids. They are also a great source of fiber and folic acid. Plus, you’ll end up with a soft chewy muffin.

Adding more protein

You can add even more protein to these muffins. Try some of these ingredients to up the protein content for a super healthy and delicious breakfast muffin:

• Chia seeds
• Use extra hemp hearts
• Nuts
• Replace a little bit of the flour with protein powder
• Use whole wheat flour. It has more protein than white flour.

Storing healthy chocolate muffins

Because of the avocado and zucchini in these healthy chocolate muffins, you need to keep them refrigerated after they have cooled. Store them in an airtight container in the fridge for up to seven days.

Avocado chocolate muffins make a quick breakfast or indulgently healthy snack. If your whole family loves them, it’s easy to double this recipe.

Freezing avocado chocolate muffins

Muffins freeze well so making a large batch of these delicious avocado chocolate muffins makes sense.

Sit the muffins on a tray in the freezer for about an hour then transfer to a bag. This will keep them from sticking together. Using cupcake liners will also help to prevent them from sticking to each other in the freezer. You could also wrap each muffin individually to make single servings.

They will last in the freezer for two to three months.

You can put a muffin from the freezer right into your lunch bag in the morning. It will be thawed by the time you are ready to eat lunch. You could also leave them in the refrigerator or at room temperature to thaw the whole batch.

More meal prep breakfast ideas

• Meal prep yogurt parfaits
• Best ever baked oatmeal
• Meal prep green smoothies

Meal prep tools for this recipe

• Grab some glass meal prep bowls if you plan on turning these into your weekly breakfasts
• Freeze this recipe in glass microwave-safe bowls up to 3 months