I promised there would be more Muesli Bar Challenge recipes this year but there’s been too much else to write about. But a golden zucchini that got away inspired me. What do you do with a kilo of zucchini? This recipe is in my handwritten book as Wwoofer’s Zuke Bread because the original came to me from a wwoofer years ago. It’s evolved a bit since then, and I’ve turned it into a muffin to make it more suitable for lunch boxes.
For those new to the site, the 2010 Muesli Bar Challenge was a whole school year’s worth of lunch box baking based on fresh food in season. The recipes had to be healthy, robust enough to survive in a school bag till lunch time, easy enough for busy parents to bother making, and reviewed by kids as actually preferable to the junk food marketed as “muesli bars”.
Zucchini are right in season and they make a muffin that stays moist. They have decent amounts of folate, potassium, vitamin A, and phytonutrients, but the main benefit is that they are a good source of fibre. This recipe also features fresh ginger, which is a superfood – a powerful antioxidant with a whole big list of vitamins and minerals. I added macadamias too, just because they are just coming into season and gorgeous at the moment but you can leave them out.
The Recipe
(Makes 9 muffins)
Mix together:
- 1 cup grated zucchini PLUS ½ cup diced zucchini
- ¼ cup sultanas
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon crushed fresh ginger (use a garlic crusher)
- 3 dessertspoons of honey
- 3 dessertspoons macadamia or other mild flavoured oil
- 1 egg
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup wholemeal self raising flour
- (Optional) ¼ cup chopped macadamia nuts
Spoon into the cups of a muffin tray, filling quite full. Bake in a medium-hot oven for around 20 minutes until they start to brown, they bounce back when pressed and a skewer comes out clean.
i loved them!!!!!!i am not a fan of zucchini but i liked this!
I love baked zucchini in all sorts of savoury dishes – they’re surprisingly child-friendly! This looks delish, and I actually had to wrangle a foot-long golden zucchini just a few days ago! (I made pickle :)).
these sound totally delicious
Thanks for this one Linda. I think I could happily sneak these into the little fella’s lunch box.
I made these within hours of the post coming out and looked on with glee as fiercely-non-zucchini-eating partner munched his way through two with much lip-smacking before asking what was in them… Ha!
Now I just need to think of a way of getting a macadamia tree to Argentina.
Thanks for another fab one.
If you add a half cup wholegrain flour and another half cup linseed you can do away with the added oil. Linseed is one of the highest plant sources of omega-3 oils. I grind mine in a small-bladed coffee grinder just before using them in muffins.
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